This is the interactive section of the website in which you can match your learner's reading profile to one of eleven research-based profiles we developed from the ARCS (the Adult Reading Components Study).

What You Will Need to Make a Match:

You must have five scores for your learner in order to make a match:

• Word Recognition--as a Grade Equivalent (GE)
• Spelling--as a GE
• Word Meaning--as a GE
• Silent Reading Comprehension--as a GE
• Oral Reading Rate--as Words per Minute (wpm)

We chose these components because they are major determinates of reading ability and because tests for them are usually available. Here are some tips on how to get these scores for your learners if you don't already have them:

• Word Recognition: Does your program use a word recognition test, such as the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT), for placement? If so, please use that GE score. If not, you can check with your local K-12 schools; many will have graded word lists that you can use. Or, click here to see two references to the San Diego Quick Assessment List, which you can also use.
  
  
• Spelling: If your program uses the TABE, you can give its Spelling assessment. If not, you can check with your local K-12 schools for lists from their spelling programs. If you cannot find graded spelling lists, you can test your learner on a few words from the word recognition list you used. There are very few learners who spell at or above their word recognition level so start with words at their word recognition GE, or one or two GE levels below. Proceed up or down the word recognition list untill they can correctly spell at least three words on a list. The GE you decide to enter will be an approximation of the learner's spelling mastery.
  
  
• Word Meaning: We have developed a word meaning test and put it on this website for you to download and use. Click here to learn more about this word meaning test.
  
  
• Silent Reading Comprehension: Your program should already have a silent reading comprehension test score for each learner.
  
  
• Oral Reading Rate: Click here to see how to calculate your learner's Oral Reading Rate.

Which Tests Did We Use to Create the Research-based Profiles?

Please note that the eleven research-based profiles we developed were based on scores from the Diagnostic Assessments of Reading (DAR), which is constructed around graded passages or word lists for each required component.

Above, we have given you some tips on how to get test scores for your learners, but you can use any tests that give you the required scores in GEs. Keep in mind, however, that the more your tests are like the tests we used, the better the match will be. Here are brief descriptions of the DAR subtests, so you can see if the tests you use are similar.

• The Silent Reading Comprehension subtest is a multiple choice test with a generous time limit.
  
  
• The Word Meaning subtest is an oral test of expressive vocabulary. Examiners read a word aloud, and the learner tells what that word means. The learner is not required to read in order to give meanings.
  
  
• The Word Recognition subtest requires learners to read aloud from graded lists of ten words each.
  
  
• For the Spelling subtest, learners write a word dictated by the examiner.
  
  
• To determine Oral Reading Rate, learners are timed as they re-read aloud a graded passage.

Make a Match!