Education Law

How to read

No, not learning to read the A, B, C?s, but how to read reading scores. Reading scores are an assessment of at what level a child is reading and comprehending material. It sounds simple, but using both numbers and letters, sometimes it can be hard to truly understand what progress your child is making or to identify if they need to improve.

Thanks to the Washington Post, BoardBuzz can offer some tips for understanding your child?s reading scores. In Montgomery County, Maryland, parents were proud of the effort of working towards universal grade-level literacy in kindergarten through second grade, but weren?t sure what the reading scores meant.

Here is what the Post has to say:

Reading levels are assessed on a scale that begins at 2, progresses to 16, then switches over to letters and goes from J to P?

It's a hybrid of two diagnostic reading scales. The numbers come from the New Zealand program Reading Recovery, which focuses on struggling first-graders. The letters come from the work of scholars Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, who deal with struggling readers across a broader age and ability range.

Most teachers expect students to read at Level Three or Level Four on the Reading Recovery scale in kindergarten and hope they reach Level M by the end of second grade.

Still confused? Scholastic offers some general information on their site saying:

Grade level scores on formal tests mean that the student has performed as well as a student at that grade level. For example, a third grader gets a test score of 6.2 grade level. This score means that the third grader is performing like a sixth grader in the second month of school. It does not mean that the student is reading at a sixth grade level. However, a grade level score on an informal test like the Qualitative Reading Inventory -3 (citation?) does mean that a third grader is reading sixth grade material effectively.

BoardBuzz is pleased with the efforts to educate parents on different ways their children?s reading skills are evaluated. Any more suggestions? Leave us a comment.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).