The comparability of various assessments of literacy achievement and growth adopted for use by the Houston Independent School District (HISD) was the focus of this study. Renaissance 360 is the universal screener used by campuses throughout the district. In contrast, Benchmark Running Records (BRR) are campus-specific, and each campus is able to…

"Success for All" ("SFA"®) is a whole-school reform model (that is, a model that integrates curriculum, school culture, family, and community supports) for students in prekindergarten through grade 8. "SFA"® includes a literacy program, quarterly assessments of student learning, a social-emotional development program,…

In this article, we present results of a survey designed to understand teachers' (n = 77) and students' (n = 875) perceptions of purported negative consequences of using one-minute oral reading fluency (ORF) measures such as the "Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills" (DIBELS) ORF assessment and the "aimsweb Reading…

On all three tests, learning disabled children scored lower than control children. Also, the effect of removing dialect miscues as errors caused an overall increase in reading scores on all three tests. (Author/SB)

Describes a new system for scoring informal reading inventories that helps eliminate problems inherent in other scoring systems. (DD)

Reading test questions were classified as literal or inferential. The kind of question was controlled to determine the influence of test format on comprehension. Analysis of variance indicated no direct effects attributable to test format or kinds of comprehension. Contentions of deficits in automaticity and attentional focus in poor readers were…

Discusses the basic precepts of the Reading Miscue Inventory as an evaluation of oral reading. (TO)

The Holistic Reading Assessment, a procedure developed and piloted by elementary teachers in the Upper Arlington (Ohio) School District, is conducted in the classroom during a 10-minute individual reading conference. The procedure allows teachers to gather information about students' reading interests, use of strategies, comprehension, and…

Considers oral reading fluency as an indicator of overall reading competence. Summarizes several studies substantiating that oral reading fluency may reflect overall reading competence. Provides an historical analysis of the extent to which oral reading fluency has been incorporated into measurement approaches during the past century. Concludes…

Stability coefficients on the Gray Oral Reading Tests were calculated for 68 elementary grade children classified as learning disabled. (Author)

This study of 335 students in grades 2-6 found that correlations between oral reading fluency and 2 reading achievement tests declined as grade level increased. Coefficients between performance on maze tasks and achievement tests did not show a similar decline from lower to upper grade levels. (Author/JDD)

Concludes that teachers should use less difficult reading material when administering oral reading tests for a true picture of a child's syntactic and contextual strategies. (MKM)

Reports an investigation of 31 elementary school students' strategies in answering reading questions from the Stanford Achievement Tests. Results demonstrated that students do employ specific strategies and suggested that test results can be improved by teaching students to attend to all distractors, refer to the reading passage, answer all…

This paper provides information on black English to be used by teachers as they score errors and miscues on the oral part of informal reading inventories. The information is presented in order for teachers to understand items spoken in black English that are equivalents to standard English and that when spoken would indicate understanding of the…

This study assessed the effects of curriculum on technical features (criterion validity and developmental growth rates) within curriculum-based measurement in reading with 91 elementary level handicapped and nonhandicapped students. Correlations between oral reading samples and reading comprehension as well as developmental growth rates were…