Reaching an Understanding

Innovations in How We View Reading Assessment

By (author) John Sabatini, Elizabeth Albro, Tenaha O'Reilly

Publication date:

24 August 2012

Length of book:

212 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

Dimensions:

234x161mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781475801002

Reaching an Understanding: Innovations in How We View Reading Assessment builds upon the editors previous book Measuring Up: Advances in How We Assess Reading Ability by representing some early attempts to apply theory to help guide the development of new assessments and measurement models. Reaching an Understanding is divided into two sections: “assessment, learning, and instruction: connecting text, task, and reader/ learner” and “how to build for the future”. These sections identify ways to assess students reading comprehension through multiple text sources, purpose readings, and assessment while a student is reading in order to determine deficits. In light of federal legislation towards common core standards and assessments, as well as significant national investments in reading and literacy education, it is a critical and opportune time to bring together the research and measurement community to address fundamental issues of measuring reading comprehension, in theory and in practice.

Reading comprehension research exploded in the 1980s based on advances in cognitive psychology. The field seems on the verge of another set of major advances. The stress on ‘close reading’ in the Common Core Standards forces a careful examination of what we mean by reading for understanding and new ways of looking at comprehension. This volume provides many fine ideas for new ways of understanding comprehension, measuring understanding and beginning to understand how to screen students for reading disabilities in a fashion that takes comprehension into account.