Welcome to my FREE literacy assessments page! Literacy assessments in elementary school are essential for several reasons: Free Literacy Assessments

Literacy Assessments

First, assessments help identify students who may be struggling with reading and writing at an early stage. Early detection enables timely intervention, which is crucial for preventing long-term complications.

Second, teachers can use the results from literacy assessments to tailor their instruction to meet the needs of individual students. By understanding each student’s strengths and weaknesses, educators can provide targeted support and tailor their teaching methods accordingly.

Third, literacy assessments allow teachers to monitor students’ progress over time. This ongoing evaluation helps ensure that students are making adequate progress in their reading and writing skills, allowing for adjustments in instruction as needed.

Fourth, assessments help schools and districts ensure that they are meeting educational standards, and they provide a way to measure whether students are achieving the literacy benchmarks set by the curriculum and state or national standards.

Fifth, literacy assessments provide valuable information to parents, guardians, and other stakeholders about a child’s reading and writing development. This transparency helps build a collaborative approach to supporting the child’s education.

Finally, on a broader scale, the data from literacy assessments can inform educational policies and resource allocation, ensuring that schools have the necessary tools and support to foster literacy development.

A Great Assessment Resource This is a database of assessments! Choose what you want to assess and at what level. There’s also a handy test comparison chart!

I attempted to categorize the assessments, but many of them overlap.

Free Literacy Assessments

Phonological/Phonemic Awareness

Reading Readiness and Phonics

Sight Words

Determine Reading Level

Rate

Spelling

Comprehension

free literacy assessments

Phonological/Phonemic Awareness

PAST

The PAST Test

Heggerty

Explore their extensive, free collection of phonemic awareness and progress monitoring assessments. You just need to fill out their form for instant access.

QPAS

QPAS—Quick Phonological Awareness Screening

Core Phonics Survey

Core Phonics Survey—This is a good pairing with UFLI decodables. The results tell you which UFLI lesson to start with. Generally, if a student scores below 80% on a section, it is a sign that they need instruction in that area. The goal is for students to eventually score 100% on all skills through the 1-syllable long vowel section (Skill #13) by mid-to-end of 2nd grade and ideally through multisyllabic decoding (Skill #16) by the end of 3rd grade or early 4th.

Here’s a simplified guideline:

Grade	Expected Mastery on CORE
K	Skills 1–7
Grade 1	Skills 1–12
Grade 2	Skills 1–14 (ideally 15–16)
Grade 3+	All 16 skills

FreiteCracy Assessments

Reading Readiness and Phonics

Concepts of Print

Guides addressing each problem area.

Heggerty Letter Names and Sounds

Letter Identification/Letter Sound Assessment

DIBELS 8

DIBELS 8: There are benchmark tests as well as progress monitoring for grades K-8.

DIBELS 8 Benchmarks.

The Maze is a 3-minute comprehension test; the other tests are all 1 minute.

How to calculate MAZE score:

Here is an easier-to-read benchmark chart: DIBELS 8th Edition Goals.

Pennington Consonant and Vowel Sounds Phonics Assessment

Consonant Sounds Assessment—Starts on page 4. Students identify the nonsense word.

Vowel Sounds Phonics Assessment—Starts on page 4. Students identify the nonsense word.

Sight Words

Botel

This test helps to determine a student’s ability to recognize individual sight words. The words are presented in groups of 20, arranged in order of difficulty ranging from pre-primer through grade 4. The student is given a maximum of 5 seconds to read each word. The student’s score is determined by the highest list that can be read with 70% accuracy. This test is stopped when the student scores below 70% on two successive levels.

Determine Reading Level

San Diego Quick Assessment

This assessment determines the reading level. A student’s reading level is determined by the last list on which the student reads 8 or more words correctly.

Running Records

Record each student’s reading rate, fluency, accuracy, and comprehension using running records.
The link above provides the expected reading level and reading rate for each grade level.

Morrison McCall

This test gives an approximate reading level based on spelling. It is in the public domain, published in 1923.

Morrison McCall – several versions

Pennington Pets – Grades 4 and Up

Pets—The passage is uniquely designed with a “pyramid” structure, consisting of seven paragraphs, each increasing in complexity from a first-grade to a seventh-grade reading level. This gradual increase allows students to build confidence as they progress through the passage. It determines the independent reading level.

Rate

Dibels 8

DIBELS 8—Oral reading fluency tests for grades 1 through 8.

Free Reading Test

Reading Soft Speed Reading Test

Speed Reading Test

Scholar Within—Reading Rate by Grade

Reading Rate by Grade

Spelling

Informal Spelling Inventory

Primary Spelling Inventory

Pennington Heart Word Test – This test starts on page 4. Students find the words spelled correctly.

ree Literacy Assessments

Comprehension

DIBELS MAZE

DIBELS 8 MAZE

3-minute test
For grades 2 through 8

How to calculate the MAZE score:

Here are the benchmarks: DIBELS 8th Edition Goals

Pioneer Valley

Pioneer Valley Reading Level Assessment

Perfect for remote teaching! Simply create a free account.
The student starts by reading sight words on the screen. Then, based on the number of incorrect responses, they are put at a reading level.
The student reads the recommended book, and as they read aloud, you take a running record, counting incorrect words.
Enter the number of incorrect words into the program. The program may place the child at the next reading level to be assessed or one level down. Repeat.
There are comprehension questions to ask for your information only. These are not entered into the program.
Ultimately, the reading level is specified.