Pg 131-161 Informal Assessment

Informal Assessments described in this chapter “used primarily to determine whether students have mastered certain skills or performing at specified levels on various types of reading tasks” (p. 132).
This information provides valuable information for instructional decisions regarding the effectiveness of instruction or intervention.

Assessment Continuum
Informal (teacher created) to Formal (norm referenced)

Reliability & Validity
Reliability refers to the consistency of the test scores, and is measured from 0 to 1. The higher the reliability rating, the better the quality of the test.
Inter rater reliability refers to the scores assigned to an assessment by multiple scorers (such as TAKS Writing Prompt).
Validity refers to the “extent to which the test assesses what it was designed to assess (p. 134).
Content validity refers to the extent to which a test assesses the content that is being tested. For example a district would list the TEKS assessed on a benchmark to identify targeted skills.
Construct validity refers to the tests ability to assess a particular skill, and is measured with a correlation coefficient.
Treatment validity refers to the extent to which a test provides treatment or instructional information. Does the assessment monitor progress or demonstrate growth after instruction?

Criterion Referenced Assessment
These tests measure specific skills within a domain and are often used to determine PLOP (present levels of performance) and IEP goals and objectives. The initial assessment provides a baseline, and progress can be monitored with additional administrations.

Brigance Inventories
Brigance Diagnostic Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills-Revised

Progress Monitoring
Special Education and RTI require that student progress and response to treatment be documented through Curriculum Based Measures (CBMs) or other criterion referenced materials.
Slope is an important feature of progress monitoring. Student performance scores are plotted on a graph and compared with the class mean or other predetermined levels of performance, such as wcpm at the end of 1st grade.

AIMSweb: Provides a system of assessment and progress monitoring.

DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills): assess reading skills of students in grades k-6 and is aligned with the NRP targeted domains
Some experts have questioned the reliability and validity of DIBELS.
Some have also criticized DIBELS because assessments are timed which may lead to an overemphasis on rate and fluency.

Computer Based Assessment of Reading
Total Reader: can be used throughout school years; aligned to lexile scores;
STAR Reading: measures vocabulary and comprehension
DORA (Diagnostic Online Reading Assessment): grade level equivalent scores; measures graphophonics, high frequency words, word recognition, phonics, phonemic awareness, spelling, semantics, and reading comprehension
Lexiles: a measure that is used to describe reading ability; scores range from 200-1,700; helps match ability level with appropriate level text; many basal and trade books use lexile scores;