Can informal reading inventories and curriculum-based measurements assess reading comprehension?
Recent Research Results What are the purposes for assessing reading comprehension? Kameenui et al. (2006) identified four decision-making purposes of early reading assessment: screening, diagnosis, progress monitoring, and outcome evaluation. Carlisle and Rice (2004) identified four similar purposes for assessing reading comprehension in school settings: • state and district evaluation of programs and curricula; • identification of children at risk for reading problems; • diagnoses of children’s reading problems; and • measurement of student progress during instruction or intervention. The first purpose includes testing for accountability, and it has been the main focus historically. Reading comprehension has been assessed as an indicator of both literacy skill and academic achievement, so it has been used to measure the effectiveness of teachers, curricula, instruction, and new programs. Standardized tests with scaled scores are also used as summative measures to sort students by abil
