Measurement - Early Language Literacy Initiative

How are we going to measure reading levels throughout?

"Through sound assessment we discover the pupils' learning needs: then we assess to a wide range of materials, resources and ideas to meet those needs as far as we can. When teachers share their materials, resources and ideas each of them has a wider repertoire to choose from."
Ruth Sutton, 2000

Early literacy instruction should be based on the systematic observation of learners which is the assessment direction of the Early Literacy Initiative in Edmonton Catholic Schools. This systematic observation has four characteristics in common with good measurement instruments:

1. a standard task
2. a standard way of administering the task
3. ways of knowing when we can rely on our observations and make valid comparisons
4. a task that is a real world task as a guarantee that the observations will relate to what the child is likely to do in the real world (for this establishes the validity of the observation).

Therefore the Early Literacy Initiative proposes establishing a band of reading standards, benchmarks, at each grade level from K - 3. Students will be pre-assessed to determine their strengths and weaknesses in relations to each year's standards. The post-assessments will demonstrate growth over time.

On the next three years, through a strong professional development program and support, teachers and administrators will be fully aware of these standards which will help target their instruction. The establishment of a broad repertoire of assessment tools for the classroom teacher is also a focus with the development of Continuous Portfolios which will contain the assessment data on each child which will move on with the student to the next grade level so that the teacher will have a clear understanding of child as a learner.

The Guided Reading Levels below are proposed for this standards band since they clearly articulate targets for teachers, administrators and parents.

This is in conjunction with a move across North America to use these levels since they are very understandable. The bands are as follows:

"Benchmarks.Once set, put on the shelf, concentrate on the child."