Reading Assessment

Book excerpt: Editor Diane Stephens and colleagues explore how artful pre-K-5 teachers come to know their students through assessment and use that knowledge to customize reading instruction. Through case studies of individual students and lively portraits of elementary classrooms, editor Diane Stephens and colleagues explore how artful preK-5 teachers come to know their students through assessment and use that knowledge to customize reading instruction. Throughout the book, the educators profiled--classroom teachers, reading specialists, and literacy coaches--work together to take personal and professional responsibility for knowing their students and ensuring that every child becomes a successful reader. The teachers detail the assessment tools they use, how they make sense of the data they collect, and how they use that information to inform instruction. Like the other books in the Literacy Assessment strand of NCTE's Principles in Practice imprint, Reading Assessment is based on the IRA-NCTE Standards for the Assessment of Reading and Writing, Revised Edition, which outlines the elements of high-quality literacy assessment. These educators show us how putting those standards in action creates the conditions under which readers thrive.