Despite their best efforts and persistent interventions, educators know that many older students still struggle to read and understand grade-level texts. A recent study suggests that many older students may be struggling with decoding, a crucial foundational literacy skill where readers identify and understand unknown words by breaking them down and sounding them out. The study by AERDF and ETS identified a “decoding threshold,” revealing that students in grades 3-12 who struggle with decoding also make slower progress in crucial reading skills like vocabulary, sentence processing, and comprehension.
This study calls us to reconsider how we approach both reading instruction and assessment for older students. Upper elementary and middle school teachers need foundational literacy assessments and resources that address more advanced decoding skills than what is typically covered in early elementary grades. However, because foundational literacy instruction and assessment typically ends by third grade, these educators are left without training or resources to identify the students who are struggling with these foundational skills. Additionally, many available comprehensive reading assessments for older readers require trained clinicians and are time-intensive, which further limits their use in schools with constrained resources.
Reading Reimagined, a program of AERDF, brought together partners from Stanford University Graduate School of Education and the Achievement Network (ANet) to test an assessment tool in schools that can help educators identify older students struggling to read. Their partnership has pioneered the implementation of an effective and efficient assessment tool that accurately measures reading skills in older students. We are excited to introduce the Stanford University Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR)!
Stanford’s ROAR tool is:
- Free: the assessment is available at no cost.
- Accessible: ROAR is a self-administered assessment that can be completed online by students within 15 minutes, without requiring extensive training or resources from teachers.
- Effective and research-backed: ROAR is one of two validated reading assessments for students across grades K-12. Research demonstrates its strong correlation with scores from traditional standardized reading tests, like the Woodcock-Johnson Letter Word Identification test, at a fraction of the time.
- Quick and efficient at scale: ROAR offers a fast and reliable way to assess students’ foundational literacy skills on a large scale, helping educators track reading ability and progress across grade levels.
Experience ROAR for yourself! Test out the individual assessments within the tool, and see how ROAR can benefit the learners in your life.
All students can be confident, successful readers with the proper support. The ROAR assessment can help identify the reading challenges older students face so educators and district leaders can plan for the support that most effectively aligns with their students’ needs. Reading Reimagined and its partners are taking a crucial first step to providing educators with resources that help learners on their journey to becoming proficient readers.
