Reading Assessments

Kansas Reading Assessment:

KSDE General Assessment Homepage - the source for materials and updates related to all Kansas State Assessments.

KSDE Reading Assessment Homepage - the source for materials and resources related only to the Kansas Reading Assessments, including test specifications and flip charts.

"One-pager" - Reading and Writing Standards charts - K-5,  6-HS

Sample stems for assessed Kansas reading indicators

Test preparation strategies from Kristi:

• Teach the GENRE of Reading Assessment. Reading to take a standardized test is different from other types of reading. The purpose is to "Figure Out the Answers" to test makers’ questions. This requires additional reading strategies.
• Teach terminology and test language. Use the same language in the classroom that students will encounter on the test.
• Teach the reader, not the reading. Discuss HOW students arrived at their answers. Focus more on strategies, and less on answers.
• Teach students to look for evidence rom the text, to support their answers. “Use the text, not your life experience, to choose the answer.”
• Use (but don’t overuse) test practice materials to familiarize students with test format.

Attachments, links, and resources are listed below for screening, diagnostic, and progress monitoring assessments.

Web Links:

• AIMSWeb Progress Monitoring and RTI - A K-8 progress monitoring system based on direct, frequent and continuous student assessment. The results are reported to students, parents, teachers and administrators via a web-based data management and reporting system to determine response to intervention.
• Assessment Database from SEDL - A comprehensive database of criterion and norm-referenced reading assessments, including summary charts, feature comparisions, prices, and links to publishers.
• DIBELS - A screening tool that assesses the essential elements of reading K-6.
  • Grouping Students Worksheet
  • Analyzing a K-6 Student Booklet Worksheet (adapted from Susan Hall's book, "We've Dibel'd Now What")
• D.R.A. 2 - A diagnostic assessment tool for primary grades.
• Gray Diagnostic Reading Test 2 (GDRT 2)- has four core subtests: Letter/Word Identification, Phonetic Analysis, Reading Vocabulary, and Meaningful Reading. The three supplemental subtests--Listening Vocabulary, Rapid Naming, and Phonological Awareness--measure skills that play an important role in the diagnosis or teaching of developmental readers or children with dyslexia.
• Running Records - Gives you accuracy, error, and self-correction rate as well as the type of errors the child is making.
• Reading Assessment Resources:
  • These three forms can be used to document student progress in reading. The running record form was adapted from Eve Stegman's Reading Acceleration Program and the miscue and self-correction ratio was adapted from the Rigby Benchmark Tests and the fluency rating is from Pat Cunningham. The Group Observation and Class Observation forms can be used to observe students during guided reading groups. -Lindell Redington
• N.W.E.A. M.A.P. (Measures of Academic Progress) Assessments - are state-aligned computerized adaptive tests that accurately reflect the instructional level of each student and measure growth over time (reading, math, and language usage).
• S.T.E.E.P (iSTEEP)- System to Enhance Educational Performance - a comprehensive range of benchmark assessments, progress monitoring assessments, as well as a powerful web-based system for interpreting the data and making decisions. (K-12 assessments for reading, early literacy, reading comprehension, and math.

Phonological Awareness:

• P.A.S.T. - A phonological awareness assessment found in the book, Sounds in Action.

Phonics:

• Quick Phonics Screener - A screener for grades K-6 to determine skill gaps in phonics.

Fluency:

• Gray Oral Reading Test 4 - -(GORT-4) provides an efficient and objective measure of growth in oral reading and an aid in the diagnosis of oral reading difficulties. Five scores give information on a student's oral reading skills in terms of rate, accuracy, fluency, comprehension, and overall reading ability.
• Reading A - Z Fluency Passages - Leveled passages for fluency rate.

Vocabulary:

Comprehension:

• Gray Oral Reading Test 4 -(GORT-4) provides an efficient and objective measure of growth in oral reading and an aid in the diagnosis of oral reading difficulties. Five scores give information on a student's oral reading skills in terms of rate, accuracy, fluency, comprehension, and overall reading ability.
• Gray Silent Reading Test - (GSRT) was developed to be used independently or as an adjunct to the Gray Oral Reading Test-4th Ed. (GORT 4). The GSRT helps you quickly and efficiently measure an individual's silent reading comprehension ability.
• Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI)- An assessment for comprehension based on sentence structure and vocabulary for all levels.
• Informal Reading Inventories (Jerry Johns, Rigby, Flynt Cooter) -
• S.T.A.R. Test - A cloze reading assessment. It will give a grade equivalent level, instructional reading level, and zone of proximal development.

Reporting Tools: