Hi,
Good points about using the TABE to assess reading. I'd like to suggest a
couple of resources to supplement the scant information we get from the
TABE. The first is the Assessment Strategies and Reading Profiles site at
http://www.nifl.gov/readingprofiles/

The second are the Quick Reading Assessments (and they really are quick) at
the Ohio Literacy Alliance site. http://www.ohioliteracyalliance.org/

The adult passages range from grade one to grade 8 reading level. The high
school passages go from grade 9 to 12 reading level.  

Hope these are helpful.

Dianna

-----Original Message-----
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of Bruce C
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 12:01 PM
To: The Assessment Discussion List
Subject: [Assessment 1062] Re: TABE Training

Hello Assessment List:

Here's the bind we have been in forever:

The standardized tests like the TABE tell us little about what is really go
on, but they are required, easy to administer, and give us a "score."  Other
assessments--formal and informal--give lots of information about what is
really going on but they take too much time and are not considered "valid
and reliable" scores. 

I would discourage people from using the TABE to analyze students' reading
abilities. The TABE is not even a great indicator of reading level or
progress, and I think any analysis of students' skill sets based on the TABE
is really shaky--no matter what the publishers who make tons of money on the
TABE say.

It takes a lot more time to do one-on-one assessments where you ask students
to read something--silently and/or aloud--note their errors and ask them
questions about it. But that is definitely worth analyzing. 

Also,  I think the TABE is a particularly bad standardized test.  

A few comments:
--If students scores high on the TABE, they are pretty much guaranteed to be
good readers (and a good test
takers)
--If students scores low on the TABE:
they might be poor readers,
they might have been tripped up by this bad test:
maybe they needed more time to read well maybe they got nervous, maybe they
read and understood every bit of the TABE but picked the wrong answers or
maybe something else was wrong--they were tired, distracted by something in
their personal lives, hungry, or sick. 

from Bruce Carmel
Turning Point
Brooklyn NY



 
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