Frequently Asked Questions 
What is an Accountability or High Stakes Assessment?
Posted Tuesday, July 01, 2008 by Anne-Evan Williams
Filed under: Reading Terminology, Assessment FAQs,
These look to tell school administrators whether something is working or not. Is the school improving year after year? Is the a CD-ROM that they bought working? These assessments hold a person or program accountable for success. (0) Comments • Permalink
What is RtI?
Posted Tuesday, July 01, 2008 by Anne-Evan Williams
Filed under: Assessment FAQs, General FAQs, Reading Comprehension Test FAQs,
RtI is the model of intervention that a school district follows when responding to students who are below grade level in their core reading and math abilities. (0) Comments • Permalink
Why might DORA spelling scores not reflect classroom spelling test achievement?
Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007 by Anne-Evan Williams
Filed under: Assessment FAQs, Spelling FAQs,
Spelling is the most challenging sub-test on DORA as the answers are completely student generated as opposed to multiple-choice. If students are performing well on classroom spelling tests, consider the difference in the task. (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
I have an advanced preschooler and a struggling kindergartener. How can I help them both read?
Posted Friday, August 31, 2007 by Anne-Evan Williams
Filed under: Early Reading FAQs,
It sounds like you have two children with different approaches to reading. Whether or not you'd call it, 'formal,' it sounds like you've already exposed your son to reading fundamentals. (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
My kindergartener can read Charlotte’s Web. Will DORA tell me her true reading level?
Posted Friday, August 24, 2007 by Anne-Evan Williams
Filed under: Assessment FAQs, Early Reading FAQs,
It's astounding that your daughter seems so advanced in reading for her age. If you know your daughter can comfortably read Charlotte's Web orally (i.e., generally misses less than 5-10 words on a page - varies depending on difficulty of the page), then you know that your daughter is able to decode a book with a reading level approximately between grades 4 to 6 (give or take a grade level depending on who you talk to). However, reading ability, whether it's measured by 'grade level' or some scaled score on standardized tests, is complicated... (2) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Is it “normal” for a 2nd grader to spell words with many missing letters?
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2007 by Anne-Evan Williams
Filed under: Spelling FAQs,
It depends on what type of letters is missing. By second grade, children should have good control of the sounds they hear in words and how they are represented by a letter or letter patterns. If the child's spelling attempts of words are "phonetically" correctly (i.e., all the letters appropriately match a specific sound) the child may still be learning the conventions of irregular words or words that she doesn't encounter often. These conventions are still working its way to her long-term memory. It's natural for second graders to still be learning these conventions. However, if the child is missing letters to many sounds that are in words, she may need intervention in accelerating her attention to the discrete sounds in words (or phonemes). (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink