How Are Students Assessed in Reading?
Ongoing assessment in reading, as in other areas of the curriculum, is the key to good instruction in a balanced literacy curriculum. Through ongoing observation and assessment of students, teachers gain valuable insights to determine the strengths and needs of each child. Portfolios provide another rich source for noting and documenting progress. Typically, CKSD teachers use the following types of assessments.
Informal Observations- By observing students' interactions with text, reading their written work, and talking with them about their reading processes, teachers construct an overall picture of each child.
Anecdotal Notes - Anecdotal notes provide helpful information for assessing reading progress.
Checklists - Many teachers use checklists of strategies, skills, and cues to gather assessment data.
Running Records- Running records assess students' reading skills and strategies. They give teachers the quantity and type of information needed to code,score, and analyze reading behaviors. This authentic assessment tool provides teachers with an opportunity to listen to every child read selected texts and gather data on each child's reading strengths and needs regarding phonics, comprehension, and fluency.
DIBELS
DIBELS ® (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) is a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of literacy skills. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures that can be used to regularly detect risk and monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills in kindergarten through eighth grade.
DIBELS was developed to measure recognized and empirically validated skills related to general reading outcomes. Each subtest has been thoroughly researched and demonstrated to be a reliable and valid indicator of early literacy development. When implemented as recommended, DIBELS results can be used to evaluate individual student development as well as provide grade-level feedback toward validated instructional objectives.
Lexia
Lexia® Core5® Reading is an adaptive blended learning program that accelerates the development of literacy skills for students of all abilities, helping them make that critical shift from learning to read to reading to learn.
ECRI (K-2)
Enhanced Core Reading Instruction (ECRI) is a multi-tiered reading intervention for kindergarten, first and second grade designed to meet the learning needs of students at-risk in reading. The Enhancing Core Reading Instruction model increases the level of explicitness of core reading instruction by redesigning the core reading program to focus on critical reading content, to be clear and systematic, and to provide deliberate and frequent practice opportunities (Baker, Fien, Baker, 2010; Carnine, Silbert, Kame’enui, 1997; Kame’enui, Carnine, Dixon, Simmons, & Coyne, 2002). Further, through an additional daily, 30-minute, small group intervention, at-risk readers are pre-taught critical content that appears in the next day’s core reading lesson, and are provided with more practice opportunities to learn critical reading skills and concepts. In small group lessons, at-risk readers are provided highly interactive and engaging learning opportunities.
SRI
SRI assesses a student's reading comprehension. After a student completes the test, the program will determine a reading level and provide a Lexile score, a grade performance score, percentile rank, stanine and a normal curve equivalent score. Any of these scores will help you assess your student's reading comprehension.
PASS (SEL)
Effective learning starts with the social and emotional well-being of students. PASS helps identify fragile learners who are held back by factors such as a lack of confidence, motivation, or connection to school. By uncovering how students feel about themselves and school, educators can give them the support they need to thrive.