Literacy Assessment Research Paper

Types of Literacy Assessments

Most schools systems have a Literacy Assessment that is given at the beginning of the year. The types of Literacy Assessments include: Map Testing; Star Reading; and PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening). However, “Universal literacy screenings such as DIBELS Next and AIMSweb are often characterized as fluency assessments because they measure both accuracy and efficiency in completing tasks,” (Munger, n.d.). While these assessments assist core-content teachers in determining where a student stands in the fluency of reading, teachers in other non-core content areas, such as Business Education might not be privy to test score results.

Issues become a problem with the authenticity of literacy is excessively

These tests which assess skills such as auditory discrimination, letter identification, letter-sound association, following directions and copying letters result in a readiness program designed to master these skills,” (Harlin & Lipa,1990). The pros of formal assessments- its provides data for certain subjects but mostly core content area. School administrators are able to take the data that is given and compare it to previous data from years past, or compare to other schools in the county, other counties within the state, or on a national level. While the pros have benefits, there are cons to formal assessments. Cons can possibly include failure in technology- computers can shut down or fail to operate properly during testing, internet fails to transmit data, or student is not computer literate. Other cons can include student performance, whereas the student is not a good test taker and struck with anxiety or nervousness. A student’s non-performance or poor performance on a formal assessment can be a disadvantage in when it comes to the data. Especially if the content on the test has not been covered during the course of the school year. Most students complain at the end of the test that certain information they did not know because the concepts or content information was never introduced in the class.

Content area such as business education, culinary arts do not have formal assessments at the end of each school term. However, CTAE (Career, Technology, and Agricultural Education) have a pathway assessment at the completion of the pathway. While the CTAE is not literacy geared, however there is a lot of literacy-involved reading in the