Changes in Reading Assessment

Significant changes are being made in the way reading and writing are assessed. Tests given to large numbers of students, even state and national reading measures, are moving away from the exclusive use of multiple-choice items to items that require students to actively construct and examine the meaning of reading selections.

Classroom assessment procedures, those used by classroom teachers on an ongoing basis, are also changing. Less emphasis is being placed on formal test measures, and more emphasis is being placed on teacher observations, samples of student instructional products, and student self-evaluation. Meaningful collections of such observations, work samples, and reflections are assembled into portfolios, which document student achievement and progress in literacy.

New Concept of Reading

Reading assessment is undergoing substantial changes in order to reflect changes that have taken place in the way reading is being defined and in the ways in which it is being taught. Numerous writers and researchers have noted that there is a substantial disparity between the way we now think about and teach reading and traditional tests of reading (Cambourne & Turbill, 1990; Johnston, 1984; Valencia & Pearson, 1987; Winograd, Paris, & Bridge, 1991). Increasingly, reading is conceptualized as a dynamic, interactive, constructive process requiring thought and elaboration on the part of the reader. Traditional tests that asked students to read short, artificially constructed passages and choose from multiple-choice responses, or that attempted to measure specific isolated skills, are seriously misaligned with recent theories of reading and recent curriculum developments (Haney & Madaus, 1989; Wolf, Bixley, Glenn, & Gardner, 1991).

Two terms that are currently being widely used to describe newer forms of assessment are performance-based assessment and authentic assessment. The two terms are closely related.

Performance Measures

In a performance-based measure, the student is asked to perform a task that is of interest to the evaluator rather than some proxy (Meyers, 1992; Shepherd, 1991). Thus, if we want to assess students' writing we ask them to write and do not ask them multiple-choice questions about punctuation and capitalization conventions. If we want to assess students' ability to read an expository article in order to gain new information, we ask the students to read a real piece of expository text and then ask them to tell or write about what they learned.

Authentic Tests

An authentic test asks students to perform desirable, valued tasks in a realistic, natural context. An authentic assessment task is one that could be worthwhile for a student to do as an instructional activity (Meyers, 1992; Wiggins, 1992). For example, if we are interested in students' full range of writing abilities, we should give them opportunities to produce drafts of their writing and also allow time for revision. If we are interested in students' ability to read an expository selection, we should allow them as much time as they need.

It is hard to imagine an authentic task that is not performance-based, but it is possible to think of performance-based measures, such as artificially time-restricted measures, that are not authentic.

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The Influence of Performance-Based and Authentic Assessment

Many states are developing or have developed new forms of assessment that make their required testing of reading more performance-based and authentic (Mitchell, 1992; O'Neil, 1992). Even tests that are administered to very large numbers of students, like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), are moving in the direction of becoming more authentic and performance-based.

Some of the characteristics of new reading tests include:

Building the reading assessment within a framework that views reading as a dynamic, interactive, constructive process; therefore, isolated skills are not measured.

Using longer passages that were not written for the test but that were originally written for students to read for information and enjoyment.

Assessing students' ability to read a variety of text types for a variety of purposes, such as reading expository, narrative, and procedural texts for enjoyment, for literary appreciation, for information, and so forth.

Asking students to respond to open-ended questions that allow for a variety of interpretations and a range of acceptable responses rather than asking students to choose the correct answer from four choices (NAEP Reading Consensus Project, 1992).

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Match Between Assessment and Instruction

The newer forms of assessment are designed to bring about alignment and congruence between enlightened concepts of what reading is and how it should be taught and the assessment of reading (Lamme & Hysmith, 1991; Mitchell, 1992; Wiggins, 1992). If assessment continues to advance, teachers should no longer feel compelled to "teach to tests" since tests will be in harmony with good teaching practices. In the past, there was clear evidence that teachers frequently narrowed their curriculum to improve test scores (Herman & Golan, 1991; NAEP Reading Consensus Project, 1992; Shepherd, 1991; Smith & Rottenberg, 1991).

Students who are engaged in programs of instruction using quality literature as a basis for reading, comparing, reflecting, and writing will clearly have an advantage on new forms of reading assessment. Emphasis is no longer on choosing a single answer from a multiple-choice format. Emphasis is on reading. There is good evidence that students who engage in extensive reading and writing achieve better in literacy (Anderson, Wilson, & Fielding, 1988).

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Classroom Assessment

The primary effect that new ideas in reading assessment are having is that classroom teachers rather than tests are being viewed as the most important instruments in assessment. The assessment information that teachers gather is seen as having the potential for being by far the most valuable and valued form of assessment (Lamme & Hysmith, 1991). A recently developed position statement by a joint committee of the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English directly states: "The teacher is the most important assessment instrument."

The concepts of performance-based and authentic assessment clearly imply that the observations that teachers make and the products that result from classroom instructional events are the most valuable and valid measures of reading (Hansen, 1992; Shavelson, 1992; Wiggins, 1992). As authentic approaches to assessment are increasingly implemented, the distinction between instruction and assessment should diminish.

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Effect on Instruction and Classroom Management

By thinking of assessment as part of instruction, teachers obtain immediate instructional suggestions and make any adjustments that are necessary. Teacher observation is a legitimate, necessary, valuable source of assessment information. By asking children to read aloud or to retell a portion of a selection they are reading, the teacher receives immediate information about the level of challenge that the selection presents to various students (Bembridge, 1992; Morrow, 1985).

Classroom organization and management suggestions flow from ongoing assessment data. Children who need added support, for example, may be encouraged to work in cooperative groups. Students who are having difficulty gain the support they need, and very able students gain deeper understanding of the materials they are reading as they explain the materials to others (Johnson & Johnson, 1992).

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