Module 2: Assessment and Diagnosis in Reading

Assessment and diagnosis in reading involve evaluating a student's reading

abilities to identify their specific strengths and weaknesses, particularly for those
struggling with foundational skills like phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and
comprehension. While screeners provide a broad overview, diagnostic assessments
offer in-depth, individualized information through formal tests or informal methods,
which are crucial for developing tailored instruction and effective intervention plans to
guide student progress.
Purpose of Diagnostic Reading Assessment

1. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses: Pinpoint specific areas where a

student excels or struggles, revealing particular skill gaps.

2. Inform Instruction: Provide teachers with the detailed information needed

to design individualized learning plans and supplemental instruction.

3. Guide Interventions: Determine the specific type of intervention or

remediation required to address a student's reading difficulties.

4. Track Progress: Monitor a student's growth over time, allowing for

adjustments to instructional strategies as needed.

5. Identify Special Needs: Reveal underlying learning challenges or

disabilities that require specialized support.

Diagnosis is an identification of weakness and strength from an observation

of symptoms. It is an inference from performance. A diagnostician must possess
both theoretical knowledge and practical experience, and must know what question
to ask, tests and procedures to use to get the needed facts and how to interpret the
findings.

Principles of Diagnosis:

1. Diagnosis begins with each pupil’s unique instructional needs:

- What can he/she do?
- What are his/her difficulties?
- What are the causes of these difficulties?
- What can be done to remedy such difficulties?
2. Diagnosis is a continuous process.
3. Diagnosis should be directed toward formulating methods of remediation. It is a
blueprint for instruction.
4. Diagnosis is not concerned with symptomatology, but diagnosis looks towards the
causes of symptoms.
5. The causes of pupil inadequacy are usually multiple rather than single or unitary.
6. Decisions based on diagnosis should flow from a pattern of test scores and a
variety of other data.
7. The analysis of reading difficulties is primarily an educational-analysis task.
 Diagnosis in reading

Diagnosis is the process of interpreting assessment data to determine the

specific level and reason for a reading difficulty. A thorough diagnosis goes beyond
simply identifying that a problem exists; it pinpoints the underlying issue to inform
targeted instruction.

Common reading difficulties that require diagnosis

Diagnosis can help clarify the root cause of a student's struggles, which can fall into
one or more categories.
 Dyslexia (Word Recognition Deficit): This is a neurobiological learning disability that
affects a person's ability to accurately and fluently recognize words, decode, and
spell.
Examples of dyslexia include confusing letters like 'b' and 'd', mixing up the order of letters in
words (e.g., reading "now" as "won"), difficulty sounding out new words, slow and laborious
reading and writing, poor spelling, and trouble rhyming. Dyslexia is a lifelong language-
based learning disability affecting reading, not a problem with vision, that can be helped
with specialized instruction and support.

Examples of difficulties related to reading and writing:

 Letter and word confusion: Mixing up letters that look similar, like 'b' and 'd' or 'p'
and 'q'.
 Word order reversal: Reading "now" as "won" or "left" as "felt".
 Difficulty sounding out words: Having trouble connecting letters with their sounds
or sounding out unfamiliar words.
 Slow and effortful reading: Reading slower than peers and needing to re-read
paragraphs to understand them.
 Inconsistent spelling: Difficulty spelling common words and spelling them
inconsistently.
 Trouble rhyming: A difficulty with phonological awareness, the ability to recognize
and manipulate sounds within words.

 Specific Reading Comprehension Deficit (Hyperlexia): In this profile, a student has

strong word reading skills but significant difficulty understanding what they have read.
Examples of hyperlexia include a two-year-old reading a newspaper, a fascination
with letters and numbers, and reading license plates from a car. Other examples are
being able to recite dialogue from a movie verbatim, loving books, and writing letters
in the air with their fingers. These advanced reading skills often come with difficulty
understanding verbal communication, along with other signs of developmental
disorders like autism.
 Mixed Reading Difficulties: Some students struggle with both word reading and
language comprehension, requiring intervention in multiple areas.
 Fluency-related issues: A student may be able to decode but reads slowly, which
impacts their comprehension. A diagnosis can determine if the underlying cause is
decoding-related or something else.
 The relationship between assessment and diagnosis
In practice, assessment and diagnosis form a cycle of continuous improvement in
reading instruction.
 Assessment provides the raw data, such as a student's score on a fluency test or a
teacher's running record observations.
 Diagnosis interprets that data to create a meaningful, actionable explanation for the
student's performance.
 Without a diagnosis, a teacher may use a generic intervention that does not address
the specific issue.
 The results of diagnostic assessments can confirm a teacher's initial suspicions and
provide concrete evidence for more intensive support.

Types of reading assessments:

Educators use various assessment types for different purposes throughout the
school year.
 Screening: Administered to all students at the beginning of the school year to identify
those at risk for reading difficulties. A student who scores below the benchmark on a
screener may need further, more intensive assessment.
 Diagnostic: Provides in-depth information about a student's specific strengths and
weaknesses in reading. These tests are not given to all students but are used to
investigate why a student may be struggling.
 Formative/Progress Monitoring: Ongoing, frequent assessments used to monitor
student progress toward a learning goal. The results help teachers adjust their
instruction in real-time.
 Summative/Outcome: Administered at the end of an instructional period to measure
a student's overall achievement against a set standard. These are often high-stakes
tests used for grading or program evaluation.

Types of Assessments and Tools

Diagnostic assessments can be formal or informal:
1. Formal Assessments:
Standardized tests that provide a detailed profile of a student's reading
abilities.
2. Informal Assessments:
 Running Records: A teacher-guided assessment that observes a student's
reading behaviors as they read a text.
 Phonological Awareness Surveys: Measures of phonemic awareness
skills.
 Sight Word Lists: Assessments using words such as Fry or Dolch words to
gauge word recognition.
  Student Work Samples: Analyzing student writing samples to understand
literacy behaviors.
 Checklists and Surveys: Tools for gathering information from students and
families about literacy habits.

What is a diagnostic reading test?

 Purpose: To pinpoint a student's precise reading skills and areas of difficulty.

 Depth of Analysis: Provides a comprehensive understanding of a student's
reading proficiency rather than just a general reading level.
 Application: Helps teachers plan effective reading interventions and
strategies for students who are struggling.

Diagnostic tests in reading are specialized assessments used by educators

and reading specialists to pinpoint a student's specific strengths and weaknesses in
foundational reading skills. Unlike general screening tests, which only identify
students who may be at risk, diagnostic tests provide in-depth, actionable
information to help tailor instruction and intervention.

Examples of diagnostic reading tests

Formal assessments:
 Diagnostic Assessment of Reading (DAR): A standardized, one-on-one
assessment that evaluates nine components of reading, including
phonological awareness, word recognition, and reading comprehension.
 Woodcock-Johnson Test of Achievement (WJ-IV): A comprehensive, norm-
referenced test with subtests that measure various aspects of reading, such
as word recognition and decoding.
 Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT): Measures both reading fluency and
comprehension. Students read passages aloud, and a teacher or specialist
analyzes their rate, accuracy, and understanding.
 Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP): A diagnostic test
specifically designed to assess phonological processing skills.

Informal assessments:

o Informal Reading Inventories (IRIs): A teacher-led assessment where a student

reads graded passages aloud. The teacher notes reading behaviors, miscues,
and comprehension.
o Running Records: A teacher records a student's oral reading of a specific text,
noting accuracy, fluency, and reading strategies.
o Phonics Surveys: These inventories evaluate a student's knowledge of specific
sound-spelling patterns, starting with simple concepts and moving to more
complex ones.

What skills do diagnostic reading tests measure?

Diagnostic reading tests break down the complex skill of reading into several
measurable components.
 Phonemic awareness: The ability to recognize and manipulate individual
sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Assessments in this area may involve
segmenting words into sounds or blending sounds to form words.
 Phonics and decoding: The ability to apply letter-sound relationships to read
printed words. Tests may ask students to read lists of words, including
nonsense words, to see how they apply their phonics knowledge.
 Fluency: The ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with appropriate
expression. This is often measured by a student reading a passage aloud
while being timed.
 Vocabulary: A student's knowledge of word meanings, which is critical for
reading comprehension. Tests can evaluate a student's receptive
(understanding spoken words) or expressive (using words) vocabulary.
 Reading Comprehension: The ability to understand and interpret text.
Assessments can include retelling a story, answering questions (literal and
inferential), or completing graphic organizers.