Literacy Assessments

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

Literacy Assessments

1. **Early Identification of Struggles**: These assessments help identify students who may be struggling with reading and writing at an early stage. This early detection allows for timely intervention, which is crucial for preventing long-term difficulties.

2. **Tailored Instruction**: 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 differentiate their teaching methods.

3. **Monitoring Progress**: Literacy assessments allow teachers to monitor students’ progress over time. This ongoing evaluation helps ensure that students are making adequate gains in their reading and writing skills and allows for adjustments in instruction if needed.

4. **Accountability and Standards**: 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.

5. **Informing Parents and Stakeholders**: 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.

6. **Guiding Educational Policy**: 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 tried to categorize the assessments, but many overlap.

Free Literacy Assessments

Phonological/Phonemic Awareness

Reading Readiness and Phonics

Specific By Grade

Sight Words

Determine Level

Rate 

Spelling

Comprehension

Phonological/Phonemic Awareness 

PAST

• PAST Phonological Awareness Skills Test – here are questions/answers.
• Passing a Level/PAST website
  “A level is considered passed if either all items or all items except one are correct (e.g., 4 out of 5, or 2 out of 3 for the syllable levels). . . Levels with 3 out of 5 or fewer are not considered passed and represent a level that should receive instructional attention” (p. 98).
• PAST Screener

DIRECTIONS VIDEO and PAST- Directions

Heggerty

Heggerty Kindergarten and Grade 1 Phonological Awareness Assessments

• K PA Heggerty — BOY
• K PA Heggerty — MOY
• K PA Heggerty — EOY
• Gr. 1 Baseline
• Gr. 1 MOY
• Gr. 1 EOY
• Grade 2 and Above

Check out even more Heggerty PA assessments! There are primary assessments suitable for grade 2 and above. You can get them in Spanish, too! You just have to provide a name and email address to get instant downloads. 

Hearing and Recording Sounds

Hearing and Recording Sounds

• Assesses the child’s ability to hear individual phonemes and record them as letters.

Packet – includes:

Pre and Post-Testing Packet

• Augustine Literacy Project Phoneme Evaluation ~ create sound cards in the order of the teacher form. It assesses letter names, sounds, and student recording of the sound heard.
• Auditory Deletion Analysis ~ student repeats a word without one of its parts. Scoring places a child in a grade category.
• Yopp Singer ~ 17 correct and up ~ phonemically aware, Between 7-16 correct ~ emerging, 6 and less correct ~ intervention needed
• IOTA ~ students read words and get a grade equivalency score.
• Sight word list

QPAS

QPAS

• A 2013 screener.

CUBED 3

Cubed 3

• The Cubed 3 has the above Dynamic Decoding Measures as well as Narrative Language measures which include reading and listening. 
• Enter your email for a free download.

Free Literacy Assessments

Reading Readiness 

Concepts of Print

Concepts of Print

• Guides addressing each problem area.

Heggerty Letter Names and Sounds

Letter Identification / Letter Sound Assessment

Letter Knowledge Survey

Letter Knowledge Survey

• The benchmarks are based on K, 1, and beyond 1, as well as and beginning, middle, and end of the school year.
• Students score as low, emerging, or on track for their grade level and time of year.
• Assesses letter names and sounds.
• How to read the charts below: “Beginning of Year Kindergarten,” “Middle of Year Kindergarten,” “End of Year Kindergarten,” etc. BOY = Beginning of Year, MOY = Middle of Year, EOY = End of Year 

Fundations Interventions

Fundations Interventions

• By administering this test, you can determine if the child is ready to begin grades K, 1, or 2!

Quick Phonics Screener

Quick Phonics Screener

Core Phonics Survey

Core Phonics Survey   OR  CORE-Phonics-Survey-2008 – This version is to progress monitor all year.

• The chart below tells what tests should be administered.
• The goal is for mastery at each grade level.

Take your Core Phonics results, and teach from UFLI!

Specific By Grade 

Houghton Mifflin

Houghton Mifflin Grades 1-6 

• Section 1 is Phonemic Awareness and Phonics and Decoding.

• Section 2 is about comprehension, decoding, and fluency.

Wonders Fluency

Wonders Fluency

These are fluency assessments by grade. It includes:

• Letter naming fluency
• Phoneme segmentation fluency
• Sight word fluency
• Oral reading fluency with comprehension questions

Diagnostic Decoding Survey

Diagnostic Decoding Survey

• Grades 2 and up with beginning, middle, and end-of-year tests.
• Grades 2 and 3 are scored separately, and grades 4 and beyond are scored the same.
• There is a beginning and an advanced assessment.

Kindergarten Foundational Skills

Kindergarten Foundational Skills

• Tests for beginning, middle, and end of kindergarten.
• Benchmark scores are low, emerging, or on track.
• Assesses functional vocabulary, phonological/phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, decoding, and high-frequency words.

1st Grade Foundational Skills

First Grade Foundational Skills

• Assesses word and sentence reading at the beginning, middle, and end of grade 1.
• You can distribute to grade 2 and beyond as well.
• Score based on if the child is automatic, correct with effort, or incorrect.
• This scoring chart shows # correct to be considered proficient.

DIBELS 8

DIBELS 8 is free. If the link does not work, Google it! There are benchmark tests plus progress monitoring for K-8. It includes the following for each grade level. In the tables below, the numbers represent the goal for June, but benchmarks for fall and winter are also available! Scroll through my Expectations By Grade Level pages: Kindergarten,  1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade for the DIBELS 8 benchmarks by grade, or find them here: 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 a different benchmark chart:  DIBELS8thEditionGoals

DIBELS 8 assesses:

Sight Words 

Botel

Botel Word List

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.

Sight Word Assessments

Sight Word Assessments

Syllable Assessments

Syllable Student Form

Syllable Teacher Form

• This test gives real and nonsense words for each phonetic pattern, plus soft c and g, -dge/-tch, multisyllabic words, word endings, and phonetically irregular words.
• The scoring sheet breaks down the score for real versus nonsense words. It can be evident if a child has memorized common words but has not mastered a phonetic pattern.
• Progress Monitoring can also be recorded.
• Students’ results determine where you begin your phonics instruction.

Free Literacy Assessments

Determine Reading Level 

San Diego Quick Assessment

San Diego Quick Assessment

• This assessment determines reading level. Students’ reading level is determined by the last list in which student reads 8 or more words correctly.

Running Records

Running Records

• Record students’ rate, fluency, accuracy, and comprehension via running records. 
• The above link will tell you the expected reading level and the reading rate at each grade level.

Morrison McCall

Morrison-McCall

• This assessment gives a student’s approximate reading level based on spelling.
• Morrison McCall PDF

Miller Word Identification

Miller Word Identification

• This test determines if the student reads phonetically or holistically. Here is a video about it:

Free Literacy Assessments

Rate

Free Reading Test

Free Reading Test

Reading Soft Speed Reading Test

Speed Reading Test

Scholar Within – Reading Rate by Grade

Reading Rate by Grade

Primary 6 Minute Solution

Primary 6 Minute Solution

The Six Minute Solution

The Six-Minute Solution

Spelling 

Word-Knowledge-Inventory-3

Word-Study_Inventory_for_Transitional_Readers_updated_2017

Informal Spelling Inventory

Primary Spelling Inventory 

and Primary Spelling Inventory for Upper Elementary through High School

How to score it:

Free Literacy Assessments

Comprehension

DIBELS MAZE

DIBELS 8 MAZE

• 3 minute test
• For grades 2 and up.

How to calculate MAZE score:

Here are the benchmarks:  DIBELS8thEditionGoals

DRA 2 Progress Monitoring

DRA2 Progress Monitoring.

• Short, concise, pictureless stories starting at Level 4 – Level 50 (Fountas and Pinnell C ~ “early emergent” ~ through Fountas and Pinnell T, U, V ~ “proficient”).
• Assesses oral reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and word reading.
• See grade-level expectations on my grade-level pages. Go to the home page and see this menu: 

Jennings

Jennings

• Start by giving word lists to determine what reading level.
• There are oral and silent passages.
• Score rate, fluency, accuracy, and comprehension for independent, instructional, and frustration levels.

Burns and Roe

Burns and Roe

• This is only part of the book; it is Form C. Teacher forms are at the end of the pdf.
• You can start with word lists to determine grade level, but the student version of Word List is not included in this pdf. 
• You will get a score for rate, fluency, accuracy, and comprehension at the independent, instructional, and frustration levels.

Core Maze

Core Maze Comprehension Test

• It can be done independently.
• It is for grades 2-10, but I am unsure why grades 9 and 10 do not appear on the performance chart below.
• The chart below is based on correct answers at three points in the year. Students can place at benchmark level, needing strategic intervention or intensive intervention.

McLeod

McLeod Assessment

• It can be done independently to determine reading grade level.
• There’s a test appropriate for grades 2-5 and 6-8.
• Students are given passages with missing words. They must fill in the blanks.

Pioneer Valley

Pioneer Valley Reading Level Assessment

• Perfect for remote teaching!
• 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 put the child at the next reading level to be assessed or down a level. Repeat.
• There are comprehension questions to ask for your information only. These are not entered into the program.
• In the end, the reading level is given.

Cubed 3

Cubed 3

Enter your email address to get:

• Manual
• NLM Listening Assessments (Benchmark and Progress Monitoring Booklets for PreK-3rd Grade)
• NLM Reading Assessments (Benchmark Booklets for 1st-8th Grade, and Progress Monitoring Booklets for 1st-3rd Grade*)
• DDM Assessments (Benchmark and Progress Monitoring Booklets)
• Student Stimulus Materials

Free Literacy Assessments

Here are great FREE comprehension tests from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System:

MCAS 2022 Grade 3 and Up

MCAS 2021 Grade 3 and Up

MCAS 2019 Grade 3 and up

MCAS 2016 Grade 3 and up

MCAS 2007 Grades 3 and up

MCAS 2006 Grades 3 and up

MCAS 2005 Grade 3 p. 6-35 /Grade 4 p. 38-68

MCAS 2004 Grade 3 p. 7-30 / Grade 4 p. 33-63

MCAS 2003 Grade 3 p. 8-28 / Grade 4 p. 32-57

MCAS 2002 Grade 4 p. 53-78

Click here for computer-based tests!

The following state assessments are compiled by K5 Learning:

Grade 2

California Standards Test – Grade 2 Language Arts

Tennessee Grade 2 Assessment –  Language Arts Item Sampler

Grade 3

Florida ELA Reading – Grade 3 Practice Test Questions

Louisiana English Language Arts Practice Test Grade 3

Texas Grade 3 Reading Assessment

Grade 4

Florida ELA Reading – Grade 4 Practice Test Questions

Louisiana English Language Arts Practice Test Grade 4

Texas Grade 4 Reading Assessment

Texas Grade 4 Writing Assessment

Grade 5

Florida ELA Reading – Grade 5 Practice Test Questions

Louisiana English Language Arts Practice Test Grade 5

Texas Grade 5 Reading Assessment

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Edited on 08/22/2024