The purpose of this article was to offer guidance to educators in evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, and most effective uses of commercial reading assessment suites. We provide three resources to help educators who are responsible for making instructional decisions in reading using formal screening, benchmark, interim, and progress-monitoring…

This teaching tip describes an intervention used in a third-grade classroom implemented to help students pass an end-of-grade reading comprehension test. Low scores on a practice end-of-grade comprehension test prompted a re-examination of classroom reading instruction and a plan for intervention. This teaching tip describes the phases implemented…

A group of elementary school reading teachers used their time in a Professional Learning Community to develop a systematic intervention to address the needs of struggling readers in grades 3 to 5. Working as a team, they identified a collection of books that was culturally diverse, high interest, appealing to boys and girls, aligned with…

Struggling readers need to be taught at their instruction level. But often, separating them from their classmates reinforces their feelings of inadequacy. This article will explain the importance of developing a sense of agency in struggling learners and outline some strategies teachers can incorporate to help make this happen within the classroom.

Literacy leaders in the classroom are often in a position to observe student characteristics and needs that accountability measures cannot detect. When students with obvious needs can still pass state tests, they can often be dubbed "proficient readers". It will take a particularly insightful teacher, with a clear view of what reading…