Tests as a Reading Tool

Children who could barely read in the first grade at a Sacramento-area school now perform enthusiastically in the second grade. Their scores have doubled, an exceptional gain in a short time at what had been a low-performing school. They are succeeding because their teachers test frequently, closely track their progress and use the data to tailor classroom lessons and provide extra help. These teaching methods, pioneered at McKee Elementary School in the Elk Grove Unified School District, could help to turn around California’s dismal reading scores.

Unlike the majority of California third-graders, most of McKee’s students are expected to be reading at grade level by the end of the third grade or by age 9, an achievement known to be a key academic predictor. Their early reading success, described Sunday by Times education writer Richard Colvin, is expected to help shape the state’s new summer teacher-training reading institutes, which have become part of state government’s determined attempt to raise reading performance.

Teachers who attend summer reading boot camps will learn how to give frequent tests and quizzes that determine how well a child is reading. The goal is to find how to assess children early and regularly on their comprehension of letter sounds and their understanding of the material. The teachers also will be taught how to analyze the results and use the data to keep track of student progress and determine the next step required in the classroom.

The summer reading institute participants, new and inexperienced teachers, are expected to learn how to intervene early to correct reading difficulties before they become lifelong handicaps. At McKee, struggling readers receive extra help in small groups during the regular school day and after school four days a week. That intensive intervention, prescribed as a result of regular testing, helps most children make the grade.

Diagnostic testing is an important tool in teaching reading. Many states, led by Texas and North Carolina, are seeking to improve reading skills by regular assessments and result-oriented testing.

In California, Cal State professors are pioneering the use of inexpensive diagnostic tests in reading and math for ninth- and 10th-graders at several high schools in Orange, Ventura, San Diego and Alameda counties. The results are given to both pupils and parents, who need to know their children’s progress, or lack of it. The high school faculty then works with Cal State professors to strengthen instruction.

Tests aren’t cure-alls for what ails California public schools, but they are valuable in measuring how children are reading in the primary grades and in finding how to fix problems before it is too late.