Reading Assessments
Before the theory of emergent literacy, which I will get into in the next assignment, the focus was on reading readiness. This is when pre-reading tests were the assessment of choice. They were given towards the end of kindergarten and they determined if the children were “ready to read”. This was usually the student’s introduction to standardized testing. Some examples of these tests are the Metropolitan Readiness Tests, the Early School Assessment, and the Stanford Early School Achievement Test. Basically, they examined certain characteristics in a child’s psyche to determine how prepared they are to begin the reading process. Study’s now show that these tests did not predict a student’s abilities with any degree of accuracy.
A reading survey test measures a student’s general reading achievement to date. It is a standardized, norm-referenced test, used to assess the student’s present achievement status. An example of a survey test is the Gates MacGinities Reading Test. It is the only single-subject-matter (it’s only meant to test for a students reading abilities) available that has continually been updated. This type of test differs from a Reading Achievement test in that, as I said earlier, it deals with a single subject matter. Conversely, an achievement test is usually part of a battery of tests that include other curricula areas besides reading.
A reading achievement test measures a student’s achievements in reading much in the same way a survey test does with the exception that an achievement test is just one part of a group of tests that the student must take. Some examples of this type of test are the Metropolitan Achievement test and the Stanford Achievement Test Series. The reason for this format of testing is so you can assess a student’s knowledge of important background concepts such as oral letter concepts, letters and letter sounds, and listening and comprehension. All of these go hand in hand with the...