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“This practical and comprehensive guide is an essential resource for every literacy educator. The volume not only offers an array of high-utility assessment tools, but also situates their use in evidence-based understandings about literacy development. The authors offer concrete guidance for interpreting assessment results and responding with instruction. The fourth edition includes many of the features that made earlier editions so powerful, and is made even better by its enhanced focus on the intermediate grades. This is an exceptional text for preservice literacy education and for practicing teachers who are looking to extend their skills in using assessment to support students’ literacy development.”

—Gina N. Cervetti, PhD, Literacy, Language, and Culture Program, School of Education, University of Michigan


“Assessment is critical for guiding and improving reading instruction. The fourth edition of this highly readable text carries on a remarkable legacy of making assessment doable, meaningful, and authentic for teachers and scholars. Stahl, Flanigan, and McKenna comprehensively cover what should be assessed in reading, including the all-important affective domain. New to this edition are a greater focus on Latin and Greek word roots, as well as new guidance and support for assessing student retellings. The authors have truly moved the goalposts when it comes to best assessment practices in reading.”

—Timothy Rasinski, PhD, Professor of Literacy Education and Rebecca Tolle and Burton W. Gorman Chair in Educational Leadership, Kent State University


“The fourth edition addresses the 'whats,' 'whys,' and 'how-tos' of assessing students’ reading skills. It provides a comprehensive framework and set of tools for teachers and interventionists to identify students' needs and provide targeted instruction. The revisions and updates are clearly explicated in the introduction and first chapter. New content on assessments for middle school fills in the gaps from the third edition. This is the best reading assessment text available.”

—Lori M. Strong, PhD, Department of Literacy and Special Education, College of Saint Rose

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Reading Assessment

2. General Concepts of Assessment

3. Informal Reading Inventories and Other Measures of Oral Reading

4. Emergent Literacy

5. Word Recognition and Spelling

6. Fluency

7. Vocabulary

8. Comprehension

9. Strategic Knowledge

10. Affective Factors

11. Assessing Readers in Grades 4–8: Guiding Concepts

12. Preparing a Diagnostic Reading Report

Appendix. Case Studies

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About the Authors

Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl, EdD, is a literacy consultant and author who focuses on translating literacy research into practice. Formerly, she was Clinical Professor of Literacy at New York University (NYU), where she taught graduate courses and served as Director of both the Literacy Program and the NYU Literacy Clinic. Before entering academia, Dr. Stahl taught in public elementary and middle school classrooms for over 25 years. She is the coauthor or coeditor of several books, and her articles have appeared in the leading journals of research and practice. Dr. Stahl specializes in reading acquisition, comprehension instruction, reading intervention, and literacy assessment. Currently, she partners with educators as a consultant to support their efforts to improve reading achievement, especially for students with reading difficulties.

• All titles by Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl

Kevin Flanigan, PhD, is Professor in the Literacy Department at West Chester University of Pennsylvania (WCU). He works in the WCU Reading Center along with master’s students to assess and teach children who struggle to read and write. A former middle-grades classroom teacher and reading specialist/coach, Dr. Flanigan researches and writes about developmental word knowledge and struggling readers. He is coauthor of several books, including Assessment for Reading Instruction, Fourth Edition, and Developing Word Recognition.

• All titles by Kevin Flanigan

Michael C. McKenna, PhD, was Thomas G. Jewell Professor of Reading in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia until his death in 2016. He authored, coauthored, or edited more than 20 books and over 100 articles, chapters, and technical reports on a range of literacy topics. Dr. McKenna also served as Series Editor, with Sharon Walpole, of The Essential Library of PreK–2 Literacy. His research was sponsored by the National Reading Research Center and the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. He was a corecipient of the Edward B. Fry Book Award from the Literacy Research Association and the Award for Outstanding Academic Books from the American Library Association, and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame.

• All titles by Michael C. McKenna

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Audience

K–8 classroom teachers and reading specialists; upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in education.

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Course Use

Serves as a text in such courses as Reading Assessment, Reading Diagnosis and Instruction, Assessment of Reading Problems, and Reading Difficulties.

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Previous editions published by Guilford:

Third Edition, © 2015
ISBN: 9781462521043

Second Edition, © 2009
ISBN: 9781606230350

First Edition, © 2003
ISBN: 9781572308671

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New to this edition:

• Expanded coverage of the middle grades (4–8), including a new chapter and case study, and explicit attention to this grade range throughout; new coauthor Kevin Flanigan adds expertise in this area.
• New and expanded topics: computer-based testing methods, assessing academic language, and how to use reading inventories more accurately.
• Additional reproducible tools: informal reading inventory summary form, comprehension retelling forms for narrative and informational text, computer-based comprehension test comparison worksheet, revised Informal Decoding Inventory, and more.