Research-backed reading assessment helps identify students struggling with basic reading skills
ETS, the world’s largest non-profit educational testing and assessment organization, and Capti™, today announced the release of the ReadReady™ assessment. ReadReady assessment was developed to help identify areas where readers are struggling and provide teachers with detailed information to target the specific areas for intervention. Capti – a literacy platform for assessing, accommodating, and accelerating reading in remote or hybrid learning models – is the official distributor of the ReadReady assessment.
By the time students reach upper elementary school, they are expected to have mastered basic reading skills. By fourth grade, students should be “reading to learn,” not learning to read. But this is not the reality for many students who continue to struggle with basic reading skills well beyond the elementary grades. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” about two thirds of students from public schools across the nation read below the proficient level in 2019. The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ®) argues that those woes could be reduced if more teachers knew how to improve the reading abilities of students.
The ReadReady assessment is a web-administered diagnostic reading exam for students in grades 3–12, composed of six subtests: Word Recognition & Decoding; Vocabulary; Morphology; Sentence Processing; Reading Efficiency; and Reading Comprehension. These subtests, which can be administered together or separately, look at specific components of reading that can affect a student’s success. These component reading skills are often not measured by other assessments that focus only on reading comprehension.
“Our ReadReady assessment is well-positioned to help today’s teachers identify and monitor their students’ progress over time in order to make strides toward improving reading skills and evaluate the effectiveness of a reading program,” said David Williamson, Vice President of New Product Development at ETS. “For teachers, particularly amid summer and COVID learning loss, it is more important now than ever that they have the valid, reliable and research-backed tools at their disposal to make an appropriate evaluation of their students’ proficiency levels whether they are delivering instruction remotely or in person this fall.”
The ReadReady assessment has been built based on research from the RISE/SARA research project conducted by ETS research scientists, which has been shown to predict state reading scores and performance on other standardized measures of reading comprehension. This research has also been used to identify students who are likely below proficient on a state test.
“We are delighted to be working with ETS in a joint effort of improving reading and literacy,” said Dr. Yevgen Borodin, CEO of Capti. “With the introduction of ReadReady just in time for back to school, Capti is now the ‘AAA for reading’ that helps teachers Assess, Accommodate, and Accelerate reading in remote and hybrid settings. We are thrilled by the opportunity to make a difference for millions of students nationwide and help them overcome the COVID-19 slide in reading.”
To learn more about the ReadReady assessment, visit Capti’s ReadReady™ website or email readready@ets.org.
About ETS
At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, and by conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® tests and The Praxis Series® assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org.
About Capti
Capti, created by Charmtech Labs LLC, is used as a literacy tool and the assistive technology of choice in school districts, colleges, and universities in the U.S. and abroad. Capti is ideal for students with and without disabilities who are learning in a online and hybrid settings. For its innovations in accessibility and education, Capti has been recognized with a number of awards, including those from the U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, and Federal Communications Commission. For more information, visit www.captivoice.com.
The American Consortium for Equity in Education, publisher of the "Equity & Access" journal, celebrates and connects the educators, associations, community partners and industry leaders who are working to solve problems and create a more equitable environment for historically underserved pre K-12 students throughout the United States.
