[NIFL-ASSESSMENT:178] Low-level literacy assessments

From: David J. Rosen (DJRosen@theworld.com)
Date: Fri Aug 09 2002 - 19:14:27 EDT


Return-Path: <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov>
Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g79NERX06299; Fri, 9 Aug 2002 19:14:27 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 19:14:27 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <3D544C63.3010703@theworld.com>
Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov
Reply-To: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov
Originator: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov
Sender: nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov
Precedence: bulk
From: "David J. Rosen" <DJRosen@theworld.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-assessment@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-ASSESSMENT:178] Low-level literacy assessments
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Status: O
Content-Length: 1518
Lines: 34

NIFL-Assessment Colleagues,

Nancy Hansen wrote (on the NLA list, and cross-posted on NIFL-Assessment):


> As *I* have made abundantly clear in the past, one of the issues that *I*
> have is "proper assessments ... for low literacy adults".  I am encouraged
> to read that terminology is right *in* there.  It's a critical issue as far
> as I'm concerned.  I feel required testing with inaccurate tools is an
> insurmountable roadblock to offering to *all* citizens the right to read.
> Our adults deserve something better that will, on a more *real* level,
> assess "their skills and knowledge.


I have been looking at the Canadian _Adult Diagnostic Reading Inventory_ 
(Pat M. Campbell, and Flo M. Brokop, authors, Grass Roots Press, 
Edmonton, Alberta)  The ADRI is "based on the social constructivist 
theory in which reading is viewed as the active construction of meaning 
from cures in the text and from the reader's background knowledge, 
within a social context."  It can be used for placement or diagnosis, 
and contains a graded word lest and reading passages from levels 1 -9. 
The authors claim that it is designed so that pre- and post-testing 
passages are parallel in difficulty.

I wonder if anyone on this list has used this assessment with low level 
literacy adults, and if you have found it: useful for diagnosis and/or 
placement, a positive experience for learners, and easy and relatively 
quick to administer (the authors say it takes 30-60 minutes.)

David J. Rosen
DJRosen@theworld.com



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jan 17 2003 - 14:46:25 EST