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Statewide Assessments

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Southwest Region PreK-3 Statewide Reading Assessments

Many states are implementing legislation requiring early assessment of reading in grades preK-3. These laws typically require "ongoing" assessment to be given to each child individually. A few states (LA) require that districts use a specific assessment or set of assessments, but most states do not stipulate a specific assessment that must be given, but instead require that each district select an assessment (or assessments) that tests the child's knowledge in certain areas (e.g. phonics decoding, phoneme awareness, or reading comprehension). In some states (AR, TX), a list of specific assessments is "recommended" (but not required), and in other states, while there is no explicit list of assessments that the state recommends or endorses, teachers are provided with state-funded training in administration of certain assessments. Teachers are not required to use those assessments in their classrooms, but the state implicitly endorses those specific assessments by ensuring teacher training in the administration and interpretation of those assessments. Finally, some states do not make any recommendations (NM, OK) (implied or specific) about specific reading assessments, allowing the districts to decide what assessments they think are most appropriate for their population.

States that mandate a specific assessment

Louisiana is the only state in the Southwest region that requires that a specific assessment be used with every child in the state. In Louisiana, the reading level of every student is assessed using the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) by Joetta Beaver; 1st grade students are assessed at the end of the year, and 2nd and 3rd grade students are assessed at both the beginning and end of the year. Students that perform below grade level on the DRA are given the Yopp-Sin ger Test of Phoneme Segmentation, and the state stipulates that those students performing poorly on the Yopp-Singer should be sent for further assessment, whatever the district has determined to be the next assessment level. These assessments must be given individually, and they must be given by the teachers (as opposed to non-certified personnel or testing specialists).

Louisiana is also developing an inventory of basic skills to be used throughout the state - this inventory will serve to profile the reading abilities of children, and it will act as a level 1 screen for dyslexia. Louisiana plans to field-test this inventory next year. Once available, this inventory will not be mandatory - teachers can choose to give this inventory in addition to the DRA (and instead of the Yopp-Singer). In the 3rd grade, every student in Louisiana is given the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and in the 4th grade every student is tested with the state standard benchmark assessment (LEAP). All assessment data are reported to the Louisiana Department of Education within 30 days of the beginning of the school year, and the Department of Education reports the summary statistics to the legislature in December of each year.

States that recommend specific assessments

The two states in the Southwest region that make recommendations about early reading assessment tools (implied or specific) are Arkansas and Texas. Arkansas provides state-funded staff development that trains teachers in the administration and interpretation of two early reading assessment tools - the Observation Survey (by Marie Clay) and the Developmental Reading Assessment (by Joetta Beaver). Teachers are taught how to use these assessments in accordance with the state requirements on early reading assessment, but are told that they can choose to use any other assessment they deem appropriate. In Texas, the law stipulates that school districts must diagnose student reading comprehension development, and the Texas Education Agency recommends that ongoing assessment be given to each child individually (by teachers or by district-trained personnel). Like Arkansas, districts in Texas can choose to use any assessment they deem appropriate for the ongoing assessment of reading in the grades preK-3, but the Texas Education Agency has published a list of 10 recommended assessments:

Texas Education Agency's List of 10 Recommended Assessments

1. The Auditory Analysis Tests by Jerome Rosner and Dorothea Simon
   
2. The Decoding Skills Tests by Ellis Richardson and Barbara DiBenedetto
   
3. The Degrees of Reading Power from Touchstone Applied Science Associations, Inc.
   
4. The Observation Survey by Marie Clay
   
5. The Qualitative Reading Inventory by Lauren Leslie and JoAnne Caldwell
   
6. The Roswell-Chall Diagnostic Reading Test of Word Analysis Skills by Florence Roswell and Jeanne Chall
   
7. The Slosson Oral Reading Test by Richard Slosson and Charles Nicholson by Steve Moreno
   
8. The Test of Phonological Awareness by Joseph Torgesen and Brian Bryant
   
9. The Texas Primary Reading Inventory by the Texas Education Agency
   
10. The Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation by Hallie Yopp

This list is expected to be revised next year to include more Spanish assessments (including a Spanish version of the Texas Primary Reading Inventory which is currently under development).

States that make no recommendation on specific assessments

In New Mexico and Oklahoma, there are no recommendations made about specific early reading assessments. In New Mexico, legislation states that it is the responsibility of each district to test reading in grades 1 and 2, and to report that data to the state annually. New Mexico does not make any recommendations about what assessments would be preferable, although representatives at the state level would like to provide a list of recommended assessments to assist districts in making decisions about early reading assessment in the future.

In Oklahoma, the Reading Sufficiency Act stipulates that every child in grades preK-3 shall be assessed in the "five essential elements of reading instruction." These elements are phoneme awareness, phonics, spelling, reading fluency, and comprehension. Any assessment deemed appropriate by the districts can be used, and the state explicitly does not make any recommendations about which specific assessments districts could choose to assess these essential elements of reading instruction. The Oklahoma Reading Sufficiency Act further states that children who are found at the end of the school year to be reading below grade level shall be "provided a reading assessment plan which shall include a program of instruction in reading designed to enable the student to acquire the appropriate grade level reading skills."