Schoolwide Reading Assessment System

Our Reading Task Force meetings have really evolved. I feel like the team has found a groove and when we are talking about "Reading @ 339," we are all talking about the same thing. Our visions have clearly aligned. Our work on the RTF has been amazing and a dream for me, personally. Although exciting and uplifting, I also have a nagging feeling that the RTF is still missing a big chunk of our Mission. The bump we keep tripping on seems to be our approach to Assessing Students' Reading Levels. We need to grab this thing by the horns so that we can really improve our chances of success. The "horns" of this beast are the Assessment Process, which we haven't developed completely or been able to sustain quite yet.

Schools that effectively increase student reading levels all gather comprehensive data. Without this data, our work becomes irrelevant and impossible to manage. Having said this, I think it is vital to our mission that we create a system which allows us to DRA all students 2 or 3 times a year. I think it is difficult to effectively increase anyone's reading growth if we are not actually tracking it.

Here are some suggestions:

I. We can give students an "appointment" time to meet in the cafeteria after school. There, a large group of teachers who feel comfortable or have been trained, can administer the DRA to students systematically. Within two or three weeks, we could have every students' reading level recorded.
II. We can create a similar schedule to DRA student's during AIS periods. Teacher of all content areas with an AIS period can be trained to administer the DRA. Perhaps 2-3 teachers per team would only need a week to complete the otherwise daunting task.
III. We can train teachers (all or a volunteering committee) how to DRA students using the latest and easiest version of Fountas and Pinnell's Reading Assessment.
- The new Fountas and Pinnell test that has been released is better than the older one we have in the building because
i. it's more accurate because it has more checkpoints (i.e. a benchmark book for every letter level unlike the older DRA)
ii. it's shorter
iii. the books are better
iv. it's easier to administer

I strongly believe the work we are doing in the RTF is invaluable and will change 339 drastically. With all teachers, regardless of content areas, thinking about how important reading is to our students' success, we will be successful. One of the next steps that the RTF must consider seriously is systematizing our assessment process and using all our resources to make it efficient and sustainable.