Reading assessments
A Special Education Assessment: Speed up Learning!
On the first day of October, I attended a meeting before school with the Special Education team to discuss the academic capabilities and needs of a boy who is in my class for the second year, now as a fifth grader. I had been informed that this boy had scored “Unsatisfactory” on all sections of the CSAP (Colorado Student Achievement Program) tests that he took last spring, and that the Special Education staff believed he needed special help.
The boys’ mother was in attendance, but the boy was not. There was a psychologist present along with a second… Continue reading
More about the DRAs
This morning Katy, the literacy consultant at the school, showed me how to administer the DRA reading assessment. It begins with the student reading a page or two of a small book while the administrator of the test reads the same test on a printed sheet and makes a “running record” of all the mistakes the child makes while reading aloud. It is also timed, of course. How fast can the child read?
I am not sure what the skill is that the test purports to measure. Having read many books aloud to students, I know that… Continue reading
Another Reading Assessment?
Monday I received the third directive to do the “DRA” assessment with all of my students who are not proficient on either the Spring CSAP tests or last week’s Benchmark Reading test. “Proficient” is the word that Denver Public Schools have decided upon for what we used to call “reading at grade level.” (Personally I think the word proficient is an unfortunate choice, suggesting mastery skills where they doubtfully exist). The directive was adamant that I cannot pass this job of the DRA assessments off to an assistant. I must do them myself. I have… Continue reading
