What silent reading tests alone can’t tell you: two case studies in adult reading differences

Before joining NCSALL last fall as a researcher, I worked as a reading teacher in adult basic education (ABE) for 11 years at the Community Learning Center in Cambridge, MA. When I began in 1985, our center relied primarily on "quick-and-dirty " silent reading tests to place students in class. Over the years, however, my colleagues and I began to realize that sensitive, multi-component reading assessment would provide more useful diagnostic and teaching information than silent reading comprehension tests alone. In addition to silent reading, we began doing word analysis (phonics), word recognition, spelling, oral reading, and oral vocabulary assessments with all learners who scored below grade equivalent (GE) 8 on our old test and with any learner reporting a history of serious childhood reading problems. As we began to use multi-component testing, we noticed that most of our adult basic education (ABE) readers presented very mixed, uneven patterns of strengths and needs across the various components of reading. Some of their reading skills were fairly well-developed, but often many important skills were not. We also began to notice recurrin