Reading comprehension is one of the most valuable academic skills taught in school. Selecting the appropriate assessment instrument to ensure early identification and intervention is important as there is an amalgam of cognitive abilities and academic skills involved in reading comprehension. The GORT-5 is the most recent edition of a test that…

Background: This study investigated the psychometric properties of the recently developed Qiyas for L1 Arabic language test using a Rasch measurement framework. Methods: Responses from 271 examinees were analyzed in this study. The test is hypothesized to involve one dominant factor that assesses four skills: reading comprehension, rhetorical…

This demonstration introduces and presents an innovative online cognitive diagnostic assessment, developed to identify the types of cognitive processes that readers use during comprehension; specifically, processes that distinguish between subtypes of struggling comprehenders. Cognitive diagnostic assessments are designed to provide valuable…

This article describes and reviews the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level General Paper (GP) examination. As a written test that is administered to preuniversity students, the GP examination is internationally recognised and accepted by universities and employers as proof of English competence. In this article, the…

A structure for describing different approaches to testing is generated by identifying five dimensions along which tests differ: test uses, item generation, item revision, assessment of precision, and validation. These dimensions are used to profile tests of reading comprehension. Only norm-referenced achievement tests had an inference system…

Reviews four uses for norm-referenced tests of reading comprehension. Concludes that three of the uses are actually misuses and that the only appropriate use is for predicting future student performance. (FL)

The Nelson Denny Reading Test (NDRT) is probably the most widely used test of reading comprehension at the college level in the nation. However, reviews of the test, as well as recent reports of its failure to adequately measure gain or lack of gain of college students enrolled in reading improvement courses, do not support the popularity it has…

The paper reviews the ways in which the cloze testing procedure measures the reading comprehension skills of students in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. The construction and scoring of the test and the interpretation of the scores are discussed and the reliability and validity of the cloze procedure for testing reading skills…

Indicates that the format and use of the informal reading inventory need to be modified in order to address recent research findings of schema theory, text analysis, and metacognition. (FL)

Subjecting the comprehension passages of the Gates-McGinitie Reading Test to readability analysis using a multiformula computer program revealed that the instrument can best be used for making comparisons between groups using the same test forms and levels in the same sequence. (FL)

Having implemented a testing procedure using the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests to identify recruits with reading deficiencies, the United States Navy conducted a study comparing the performance of recruits on three different reading tests. A total of 716 recruits completed the comprehension portion of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, the Tests…

Current issues in the literature on the testing of linguistic and communicative proficiency are reviewed and discussed in relation to reading comprehension testing. Several theoretical issues in language testing are discussed, including testing purposes and test validity. Areas of concern regarding methods of testing reading comprehension are then…

The Secondary Level Proficiency (SLEP) test, offered by the SLEP School Services Program at the Educational Testing Service, measures English language listening comprehension and reading comprehension skills. It was developed for use with nonnative-English speaking students in grades 7 through 12. The SLEP is administered and scored locally, and…

Addressed to all concerned with reading assessment, including teachers, administrators, testmakers, and policymakers, this book describes some of the major problems involved in reading assessment and provides guidelines for the improved use of reading tests. The first chapter, on reading measurement in perspective, discusses the historical context…

Focuses on the role of tests in assessing the reading comprehension of students of English as a Second Language. The article suggests that if tests are to be useful in placing students and developing instruction, they need to provide information about the reading processes of immediate interest. (83 references) (CK)