Assessment

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3785/is_200401/ai_n11826117

Early Literacy Screening in Kindergarten: Widespread Implementation in Virginia

Invernizzi, Marcia

Early success in reading is predicated on a child’s ability to accurately and effectively master core literacy constructs (e.g., phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, concept of word, and grapheme-phoneme correspondence) and to exercise these understandings in a comfortable sociocultural context. In recent years, educators, legislators, and policymakers have shown great interest in creating an effective and instructionally useful diagnostic screening tool for identifying children at risk for early reading difficulties. In response to this charge, the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening-Kindergarten (PALS-K) was developed. Through Fall 2003, more than 430,000 kindergarten students in Virginia had been screened using PALS-K. The purposes of this paper are to (a) describe the PALS-K instrument, (b) examine its effectiveness in screening for poor beginning literacy skills, and (c) discuss the educational and policy implications of the results of statewide literacy screening efforts.

Identification and Assessment To Prevent Reading Failure in Young Children
By Joseph K. Torgesen

Children who get off to a poor start in reading rarely catch up, yet few
school districts have any systematic means for early identification of
those at risk of reading difficulty. Here’s how to change that.

Article from the American Educator, Spring/Summer 1998. Adobe acrobat
format (pdf).  Please click here to find and download the article.

http://www.ablongman.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0205443273,00.html

The QRI-4 has long led the field in offering students and teachers alike a reliable and easy-to-use informal assessment instrument. This Fourth Edition continues to emphasize authentic assessment of children’s reading abilities, from the most emergent readers to advanced readers.

http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/leslie_awl/chapter0/custom4/deluxe-content.html

Changes in reading-assessment techniques continue to emerge. New research
continues to be published. These factors have led to the third edition of
the Qualitative Reading Inventory. The QRI�3 continues the emphasis on
authentic assessment of children’s reading abilities, from the most emergent
readers to advanced readers. New to this edition are the inclusion of high
school passages, additional passages at the pre-primer through third grade
levels, and additional upper middle school passages.

http://ldonline.learningstore.org/products/LD1033.html

DIBELS Implementation Video
Catch Them Early, Watch Them Grow!
Using DIBELS in Your School

Is your school interested in implementing DIBELS? This video shows you how!
Watch and learn how to administer DIBELS, record the results, and identify
those students in need of intervention.

http://dibels.uoregon.edu/

The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of
standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy
development. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures
used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading
skills.  Materials for DIBELS can be downloaded here.

http://www.ncrel.org/litweb/start/

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires screening reading
assessments, diagnostic reading assessments, and classroom-based
instructional reading assessments to be administered in Grades K-3 (Title I,
Part B, Subpart 1, Section 1202).

The NCLB legislation (Title I, Part B, Subpart 1, Section 1208, Number 7)
provides definitions of these assessments as follows…