Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind in 2001, high-stakes testing has become a mandatory practice across all 50 states. High-stakes testing is currently being used as a way to hold teachers and schools accountable for student success. In order to enforce these policies, the federal government has created sanctions that have serious…

International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) have had an increasing influence on the discourse surrounding education systems around the world. However, the results of these studies tend to have less impact on pedagogy in the classroom than would be expected. For example, a recent review of 114 published peer-reviewed articles on the IEA's…

Universal screening in elementary schools often includes administering curriculum-based measurement in reading (CBM-R); but in first grade, nonsense word fluency (NWF) and, to a lesser extent, word identification fluency (WIF) are used because of concerns that CBM-R is too difficult for emerging readers. This study used Kane's argument-based…

Within the context of standards-based educational systems, states are using large scale reading assessments to help ensure that all children have the opportunity to learn essential knowledge and skills. The challenge for developers of accessible reading assessments is to develop assessments that measure only those student characteristics that are…

Findings revealed that 63 learning disabled students scored significantly lower than 30 regular education students (both groups 6-15 years old) on all reading measures. Existing differences in the reading ability level between the two groups did not solely account for the obtained difference in reading achievement. (Author/CL)

Offers a procedure that will allow classroom teachers to use standardized reading achievement test scores in order to make appropriate decisions about placing students in instructional programs. (FL)

This National Reading Conference Policy Brief provides information related to high stakes reading tests and reading assessment. High stakes reading tests are those with highly consequential outcomes for students, teachers, and schools. These outcomes may include student promotion or retention, student placement in reading groups, school funding…

Summarizes educators' and researchers' concerns regarding the use and misuse of standardized reading tests. Suggests a different model for reading assessment. (RS)

Representing a comprehensive description of the use of informal reading inventories (IRIs), this book is designed to provide teachers and reading specialists with practical strategies for forming diagnostic impressions that are useful for planning reading instruction. Respectively, chapters discuss (1) the purpose and nature of IRIs; (2)…

Reviews the strengths and weaknesses of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT) and compares the use and misuse of the test as revealed through published surveys. Finds problems in the use of the NDRT to diagnose the specific reading needs and deficiencies of low-achieving students and to measure individual growth. (CBC)

Concludes that the test has a well-designed reading booklet and a carefully constructed manual, but that it has a narrow applicability. (FL)

To investigate the potential effects of the "Fourth Grade Reading Guarantee," an Ohio policy that mandates that students will not be promoted to grade 5 unless they reach a given score on the Ohio Proficiency Test (OPT) in reading at grade 4, a series of studies was performed in the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 school years. The extent of…

The state-by-state comparisons of results on the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) present the literacy community with some good news and a bit of a puzzle: scores have improved, but the results cannot provide answers as to why one grade or state is doing better or worse than in the past. State-by-state results show that…

The implications that cognitive approaches to the study of reading can have for the assessment of reading achievement are discussed. Research in word decoding, semantic access, sentence processing, and discourse analysis is summarized with emphasis on processing efficiency required in one area affecting performance in another area. (Author/CM)

A study was designed to provide recommendations regarding the use of the achievement levels set in 1992 for reporting National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading results in 1994 and in future NAEP reading assessments. Two procedures were used: the Item Difficulty Categorization (IDC) procedure involved an evaluation of the…