ABSTRACT

This book, along with its companion volume Assessing Reading 2: Changing Practice in Classrooms, was originally conceived as the major outcome from an international seminar on reading assessment held in England. It focuses particularly on theoretical and methodological issues, though with a clear series of links to practices in assessment, especially state and national approaches to classroom-based assessment in the USA, the UK and in Australia, at both primary and secondary levels.
Chapters offer new perspectives on the theories that underlie the development and interpretation of reading assessments, national assessments and classroom-based assessment, challenging readers to think in different ways.

part I

Theories and Assumptions Underpinning Reading Assessment

part II|143 pages

What are the New Approaches, and what are they Attempting to Achieve?

chapter 4|21 pages

Australian Perspectives on the Assessment of Reading

Can a national approach to literacy assessment be daring and progressive?

chapter 7|12 pages

New Emphasis on Old Principles

The need for clarity of purpose and of assessment method in national testing and for national monitoring

chapter 9|16 pages

Taking a Closer Look

A Scottish perspective on reading assessment

chapter 10|14 pages

Using Direct Evidence to Assess Student Progress

How the Primary Language Record supports teaching and learning

chapter 12|22 pages

Consequential Validity of an Early Literacy Portfolio

The ‘backwash’ of reform