Assessment in schools related to literacy: reading

This article explores reading assessments which occur in the classroom under the control of the class teacher. It considers group and individual norm-referenced tests, their advantages and disadvantages, and then discusses different kinds of computer-based test. Thereafter, it explores an authentic assessment of real reading, through systematic observation, group discussions, affective and motivational inventories, phonic and pre-reading sub-skills checklists, informal reading inventories and reading miscue inventories, retellings, fluency, portfolios, computer-aided assessment of real books, and peer and self-assessments. It concludes with the assertion that a formative assessment of reading in the classroom is more important than external high-stakes or psychometric testing.