Decoding, comprehension, etc...

September 15, 2011 7:48 AM

Can I have volunteers evaluating the reading level of a bunch of ESL students? If so, how?

I am planning a fall festival for a group of ESL students. I wouldl ike to sneak in a reading screening in order to start tracking their progress along the year. I have at my disposal several volunteers from a prestigious college, but I don't know what kind of test I should use.

We had the help of a reading specialist before, but we don't have her now. She would give us assessments on the students' decoding grade equivalent, and their comprehension level. I would get results like "Mohamed is 5 years behind in reading. He's currently in 10th grade, but his decoding level is 5th grade, and his comprehension is 4th grade". We found several students were severly behind, so we wanted to start tracking their levels to make a case for a regular reading specialist.

Could you point me to any resources I mind find useful?
Is it possible to train volunteers in a few hours to do this?

posted by Tarumba to Education (9 answers total)

Response by poster: *severely
posted by Tarumba at 7:50 AM on September 15, 2011

Best answer: There are lots of different assessments of reading ability, but there are some complicating factors in giving them. Much of the time they are meant to be administered by folks with specific training in how to give them in a standardized way, and how to interpret the results once they have been administered. To order them, you may need to show that you have specialized expertise (e.g., show that you are licensed/trained as a psychologist, special educator, reading specialist, etc.). The other thing to be cautious about is that they are normed for administration in English. Given that your students are ESL, you will need to be cautious about interpreting the results.

Since you mention you have a group of college volunteers at your disposal, I'd suggest contacting the college itself to see if they have faculty or potentially graduate students who could help with this process. They can give you advice about what to administer and could potentially provide supervision in doing so. Students may also need to practice administering some of these measures as part of their program and would be happy for the chance to do so. Psychology departments or education departments would be your best bet in this regard.
posted by goggie at 8:27 AM on September 15, 2011

Best answer: When you say "sneak in a reading screening," do you mean to say that you'll be attempting to perform this screening without the students knowing that they're being tested? It's basically universally agreed, at least in the United States, that it's deeply unethical to perform educational or psychological testing on people without their informed consent. Getting informed consent (that is, explaining the testing to test takers in a way that allows them to decide whether they'd like to participate or not) is one of the things that specialists and licensed professionals are trained to do.
posted by decathecting at 8:32 AM on September 15, 2011

Response by poster: I meant in between the fun and games, we'll invite them over for a reading screening. Sneak in as in time, not lie to them.

Also, it's not a test as in pass or fail. It's a screening assessment to see where they are standing. The reading specialist did it that way a couple of months ago. She had them watching Nemo while calling them in turns for screening.
posted by Tarumba at 8:41 AM on September 15, 2011

Best answer: -TEXAS RPTE: this is an ESL-specific examination complete with scoring analysis to determine approximate level of proficiency
- CORE PHONICS SURVEY: available in Spanish AND English; give both to see native-language and 2nd language knowledge
-CRITCHLOW VERBAL LANGUAGE: also in Spanish and English; tests knowledge of vocabulary in both languages
-GATES-MACGINITIE READING COMPREHENSION: fantastic test to determine English-language reading level. I would recommend doing the Level 2 or Level 3 test on middle schoolers

SOme of these are very quick! Gates is very long.
posted by jander03 at 9:09 AM on September 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm a sped teacher, and I'm not so sure you can use untrained volunteers to test students. First, they're not trained in how to administer tests correctly (generally, you have to take specific courses to learn how to give tests), but there's also a legal problem with confidentiality. At every district where I've worked, people who work with kids have to sign confidentiality agreements to not discuss the students or their scores.

I don't think this is a good idea. And it may be illegal.
posted by kinetic at 12:15 PM on September 15, 2011

Best answer: There are some decoding and comprehension placement tests with instructions at this site.

Scroll down. They're not specifically EL, but I've used them with ELs in the past.
posted by guster4lovers at 8:09 PM on September 15, 2011

Response by poster: Thank you for all the awesome advice. The reading specialist contacted us and offered to volunteer, so she will do the testing!
if any of you comes back, could you please explain to me why it could be illegal to use the ones recommended above? I would like to know for future reference.
posted by Tarumba at 3:56 AM on September 16, 2011

Best answer: The legality of what you propose may depend on your profession and your relationship to these students. IANAL, but broadly speaking, assuming you're in the United States, the government takes very seriously the rights of young people and their families to keep educational data private, and has specific requirements that bind people who collect and store such information. The government also takes very seriously the licensing of various skilled professions, including education and psychology, and has specific requirements about what kinds of services non-licensed people can perform in the course of their employment. So, if you're a social worker who is running programs at a school, you may be in a very different situation than if you're a foreign exchange host parent planning a party in your backyard.

Depending on the details of your situation, you could fall under any number of laws pertaining to these and other aspects of what you propose to do. If you need legal advice, you need to consult a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction who is an expert in these issues.
posted by decathecting at 5:55 AM on September 16, 2011