Assessment Design and
Framework
Fields 038/039: Reading (Subtests I & II)
The assessment design below describes general assessment information. The frameworks that follow are detailed outlines that explain the knowledge and skills that these assessments measure.
Assessment Design
| Format | Computer-based test (CBT) and online-proctored test |
|---|---|
| Number of Questions |
|
| Time* |
|
| Passing Score | 220 |
*Does not include 15-minute tutorial
Frameworks
Field 038: Reading Subtest I
Pie chart of approximate test weighting outlined in the table below.
| Domain | Range of Competencies | Approximate Percentage of Subtest Score | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Reading Assessment | 0001–0003 | 34% |
| II | Foundations of Reading Development | 0004–0007 | 32% |
| III | Reading Development | 0008–0010 | 34% |
Domain I–Reading Assessment
0001 Understand formal and informal techniques for assessing reading.
Includes:
- Recognize the importance of monitoring student progress on an ongoing basis and using a variety of developmentally appropriate classroom-reading assessments to provide multiple indicators of student progress.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics and uses of standardized tests and other formal reading assessments (e.g., norm-referenced tests, criterion-referenced tests, reading rate assessments, curriculum-based measurements, use of rubrics, reading software assessments).
- Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics and uses of a variety of informal classroom-reading assessments (e.g., informal reading inventories, miscue analyses, anecdotal notes, student retellings).
- Demonstrate knowledge of how to administer various formal and informal assessments.
0002 Understand how to interpret and communicate the results of reading assessments.
Includes:
- Analyze the results of formal and informal reading assessments to determine whether a student is below, at, or above expected performance standards.
- Analyze the results of formal and informal reading assessments to determine specific areas of reading strengths and weaknesses for individual students or groups of students.
- Demonstrate knowledge of methods for collecting and organizing data from formal and informal classroom-reading assessments to show progress over time for all students.
- Analyze miscues to identify a reader's patterns of problem solving, self-monitoring, and self-correction.
- Analyze data and evidence from classroom-reading assessments to identify students who may need additional support (e.g., from parents/guardians, administrators, support personnel and other classroom teachers or specialists who work with given students) to address reading difficulties.
- Demonstrate knowledge of effective methods for communicating results of reading assessments to students, parents/guardians, administrators, support personnel, and other classroom teachers or specialists who work with given students.
0003 Understand the use of assessment data to plan and guide instruction for readers at all skill levels.
Includes:
- Demonstrate familiarity with assessments used to determine students' independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels and recognize the importance of using data from such assessments to select appropriate and readable materials for individuals and groups at all levels of reading proficiency.
- Recognize the importance of using data from assessments to plan flexible groupings in instruction to address students' changing reading needs.
- Recognize the importance of using data from assessments to plan and implement timely classroom interventions, differentiated instruction, and individualized instruction to address the needs of students at all proficiency levels.
- Recognize how to use diagnostic reading data to build on the strengths and address the needs of students with reading difficulties.
- Recognize how to use diagnostic reading data to build on the strengths and address the needs of English Language Learners.
Domain II–Foundations of Reading Development
0004 Understand language acquisition, reading processes, and theories of reading development.
Includes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of fundamental processes of first-language acquisition and subsequent language acquisition and the interrelationship between language acquisition and reading development.
- Demonstrate knowledge of major theories and research relating to the reading process, factors affecting reading development (e.g., cognitive, linguistic, motivational, environmental, sociocultural), and reading instruction, and recognize current trends and issues in reading education.
- Recognize the relationship between spoken and written language and the role of oral language in reading development (e.g., knowledge of vocabulary and syntax, transfer of skills from oral language to written language).
- Identify oral language activities that enhance students' reading development (e.g., read-alouds, language play, group discussions, questioning, sharing information).
- Recognize the interrelationship between encoding (writing) and decoding (reading) and demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' transfer of reading skills to writing and writing skills to reading.
- Demonstrate knowledge of research-based components of effective reading instruction (e.g., direct explanation, teacher modeling and/or demonstration, explicit instruction, guided practice, independent practice).
0005 Understand the role of phonological awareness in reading development and strategies for promoting phonological awareness skills.
Includes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of phonological awareness (i.e., the awareness that oral language is comprised of smaller units such as spoken sounds, syllables, and words) and the role of phonological awareness at different stages in students' reading development.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for developing students' phonological awareness (e.g., discriminating between the individual words in a sentence, identifying rhyming and nonrhyming words, producing rhyming words, clapping syllables in a word).
- Recognize effective materials and activities for teaching phonological awareness skills that are appropriate for students at different stages of reading development.
0006 Understand the role of phonemic awareness in reading development and strategies for promoting phonemic awareness skills.
Includes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of phonemic awareness (i.e., a specific type of phonological awareness involving the ability to distinguish the individual sounds of a spoken word) and the role of phonemic awareness at different stages in students' reading development.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for developing students' phonemic awareness (e.g., discriminating onsets and rimes; segmenting a word into phonemes; blending phonemes to form a word; adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes within a word).
- Recognize effective materials and activities for teaching phonemic awareness skills that are appropriate for students at different stages of reading development.
0007 Understand methods for promoting literacy as a lifelong skill.
Includes:
- Identify factors in the classroom that influence students' reading (e.g., language-rich, print-rich, and content-rich classroom environments, grouping procedures, types of reading tasks, high-interest reading choices).
- Identify ways to cultivate students' enthusiasm for reading (e.g., read-alouds, book clubs, discussion groups, author studies, plays, reader's theatre, literature circles) and their interest in exploring a variety of reading materials.
- Identify strategies for learning about and using students' personal interests to motivate and enhance their independent reading.
- Recognize the value of inquiry and demonstrate knowledge of strategies for helping students use reading to set and pursue their own research goals, select resources, investigate topics, organize and interpret data, and present their conclusions.
- Recognize the importance of developing students' skill in reading complex text and the critical role of wide reading and close reading in students' development of college and career readiness in literacy skills.
Domain III–Reading Development
0008 Understand how to promote students' understanding of concepts about print and the alphabetic principle.
Includes:
- Recognize ways in which students can come to understand that print carries meaning and represents spoken language in written form and that print and pictures (e.g., signs, labels, newspapers, informational books) can inform, entertain, and persuade.
- Demonstrate awareness of techniques for teaching concepts of print (e.g., directionality of print, one-to-one matching of words, return sweep, tracking print in text) and criteria for selecting books to introduce and reinforce these skills (e.g., large font, wide spacing between words, single-lined text or only a few lines of text, simple page layouts).
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for developing students' awareness of the distinction among and identification of written letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting letter knowledge (e.g., rapid, automatic identification of uppercase and lowercase letters) and letter formation.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' understanding of the alphabetic principle (i.e., the recognition that phonemes are represented by letters and letter combinations).
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for teaching letter-sound correspondence.
0009 Understand the role of phonics and other word-analysis skills in promoting reading development.
Includes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of explicit and implicit phonics instruction that is sequenced to the increasing complexity of linguistic units (e.g., phonemes, onsets and rimes, letters, letter combinations, blending letter sounds in sequence, syllables, morphemes).
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for helping students decode single-syllable and multisyllable words that follow or contain common phonics generalizations (e.g., phonograms) and patterns (e.g., CVC, CVCC, CVVC, CVCe).
- Recognize techniques for helping students apply their knowledge of phonetic spellings and conventional spelling patterns (e.g., inflectional endings, compound words, blends, digraphs, contractions, plurals, possessives, regular and irregular vowel patterns).
- Recognize effective materials (e.g., decodable text, predictable text, alliterative text rhymes, songs) for introducing and reinforcing phonics skills for reading development.
- Demonstrate knowledge of methods and strategies for promoting students' development of other word-analysis skills (e.g., structural analysis, syllabication, identification of common morphemes [base words, root words, inflections]).
0010 Understand strategies for promoting fluency at the word level and text level.
Includes:
- Recognize the role of rapid, automatic sight-word recognition in reading fluency and demonstrate knowledge of strategies for extending students' banks of recognizable sight words.
- Recognize the role of rapid and efficient decoding in reading fluency and demonstrate knowledge of strategies for improving students' fluency by developing and reinforcing their decoding skills.
- Demonstrate knowledge of reinforcement activities that promote students' reading fluency (e.g., choral reading, Reader's Theatre, frequent independent reading, paired reading, repeated reading of familiar material).
- Demonstrate knowledge of reinforcement activities (e.g., teacher read-alouds, paired reading, modeling, teaching students how to "read" punctuation) that promote prosodic reading (e.g., expression, phrasing, inflection).
Field 039: Reading Subtest II
Pie chart of approximate test weighting outlined in the table below.
| Domain | Range of Competencies | Approximate Percentage of Subtest Score | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | Comprehension | 0011–0013 | 34% |
| II | Reading and Literature | 0014–0016 | 24% |
| III | Reading Across the Curriculum | 0017–0020 | 42% |
Domain I–Comprehension
0011 Understand factors that affect reading comprehension.
Includes:
- Recognize the role of reading fluency (e.g., accuracy, reading rate, prosody) in facilitating comprehension and strategies for promoting students' reading fluency to support comprehension.
- Recognize the role of phonics in developing rapid, automatic word recognition and the relationship between decoding and reading comprehension.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the role of vocabulary in facilitating reading comprehension (e.g., familiarity with grade-level vocabulary, common idioms, figurative phrases, and playful use of language [puns, wordplay, palindromes]) and strategies for preteaching vocabulary to support comprehension.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between students' oral language proficiency and their ability to comprehend text at the word level, the sentence level, the paragraph level, and the text level.
- Recognize the role of background knowledge in supporting fluent reading and reading comprehension and demonstrate knowledge of ways to activate students' prior knowledge and scaffold reading tasks to support comprehension.
- Recognize how differences in students' backgrounds (e.g., cultural, linguistic) affect their reading comprehension.
0012 Understand methods, activities, and techniques for applying comprehension strategies throughout the reading process.
Includes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of explicit strategies for orienting students to new texts (e.g., discussing background knowledge related to the topic, setting a purpose for reading, generating questions prior to reading).
- Demonstrate knowledge of explicit strategies for promoting students' ability to engage in close reading and to monitor their own comprehension as they read (e.g., rereading, adjusting reading rate based on passage difficulty, self-monitoring, self-questioning, visualizing, paraphrasing, note taking).
- Demonstrate knowledge of explicit strategies for supporting students' comprehension through oral response (e.g., teacher modeling; summarizing; retelling; sharing reactions; making text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections) and written response (e.g., generating pictures; journals, semantic maps, Venn diagrams and other graphic organizers).
0013 Understand the selection and use of reading materials for different purposes, including materials for introducing or reviewing various comprehension skills and strategies.
Includes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of how to select and use a diverse body of works, authors, U.S. and world literature, and other resources to promote students' literary-response and analysis skills.
- Demonstrate awareness of the role of independent reading in the development of comprehension and vocabulary knowledge and of strategies for facilitating students' selection of appropriate independent reading materials.
- Identify ways to facilitate student text selection for specific purposes (e.g., to locate and gather facts to support a persuasive argument, to conduct research, to address student issues, to allow students to gain insight into themselves and others).
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for selecting and using materials that provide opportunities for students to read and construct meaning from various visual/graphic features of texts (e.g., tables, charts, graphs, maps, illustrations).
- Demonstrate knowledge of key dimensions of text complexity (i.e., qualitative, quantitative, and reader and task considerations) and the importance of considering these dimensions when selecting texts to meet the needs of students in the contexts of individual, group, and whole-class instruction.
Domain II–Reading and Literature
0014 Understand the characteristics of a variety of genres and types of literature and informational texts.
Includes:
- Identify the characteristics of major literary genres, including poetry, drama, and prose (e.g., short story, novel, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy).
- Recognize the elements of fiction (e.g., plot, character, setting, theme).
- Analyze how literary devices (e.g., imagery, simile, metaphor, foreshadowing, hyperbole, refrain) contribute to an author's purpose, meaning, and style.
- Identify the characteristics of major nonfiction genres (e.g., essay, biography, autobiography, memoir, editorial) and types of informational texts (e.g., textbook, news article), including common textual features (e.g., paragraphs, topic sentences, concluding sentences, glossary) and graphic features (e.g., charts, maps, diagrams, illustrations) of nonfiction and informational texts.
- Identify common organizational structures (e.g., chronological order, logical order, cause-and-effect, hypertext) of informational texts.
0015 Understand literary texts from various genres, cultures, and time periods and how to use evidence and main ideas as the basis for interpretation.
Includes:
- Analyze language, character development, setting, theme, mood, tone, point of view, foreshadowing, irony, and other elements in literary texts.
- Analyze sound, imagery, symbolism, and figurative language in literary texts (e.g., rhyme, alliteration, personification, metaphor, simile).
- Demonstrate knowledge of inference and interpretation skills applied to literary texts and how to support inferences (e.g., about setting, characters, events) with convincing evidence from the text.
- Analyze the ways in which a literary work reflects the traditions, perspectives, and culture of a particular group of people or time period.
- Compare and contrast traditional literature with mythology, folktales, and legends from different cultures.
0016 Understand strategies for developing and reinforcing students' reading comprehension skills as they relate to literary texts.
Includes:
- Identify levels of comprehension of literary texts and demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting comprehension of literary texts at all levels (e.g., literal, inferential, evaluative, critical).
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to evaluate the structural elements of plot (e.g., subplots, parallel episodes, climax), development of plot, and the ways in which conflicts are or are not addressed or resolved.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to analyze an author's purpose, point of view, and voice.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to interpret a character's traits, emotions, and motivations.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to identify the speaker and determine if a text is narrated in the first or third person.
- Recognize that theme refers to the main idea and meaning of a selection, whether implied or stated, and demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to analyze theme as it relates to a literary text (e.g., identifying and analyzing symbols used to develop a text's theme).
Domain III–Reading Across the Curriculum
0017 Understand strategies for developing and reinforcing students' reading comprehension skills as they relate to informational texts.
Includes:
- Identify levels of comprehension of informational texts and demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting comprehension of informational texts at all levels (e.g., literal, inferential, evaluative, critical).
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to distinguish fact from opinion and nonfiction from fiction.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to recognize and trace the development of an author's argument, point of view, or perspective in an informational text.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to identify evidence to support an argument and to locate information to answer questions and draw conclusions.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to use various methods for summarizing main ideas, supporting ideas, and supporting details.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to identify and use common text features (e.g., transitions) and organizational structures (e.g., chronological order, logical order, cause-and-effect, compare-and-contrast) of informational texts to enhance comprehension.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to relate messages and themes from one content area to those in another.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to evaluate critically the merit of texts in all content areas and disciplines.
0018 Understand strategies for promoting content-area knowledge through reading and for improving research habits and study skills.
Includes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of various methods for improving students' comprehension of content-area texts (e.g., analyzing text structure or format, summarizing, semantic mapping, creating graphic organizers).
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' use of common textual features (e.g., introductions, paragraphs, topic sentences, concluding sentences, glossary, index) and graphic features (e.g., charts, graphs, maps, diagrams, captions, photos) to locate, analyze, organize, and recall information.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting various study skills (e.g., highlighting, outlining, mapping, note-taking, test-taking skills).
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for relating students' prior knowledge and experiences to subject-area content.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to analyze how certain words and concepts relate to multiple subject areas.
0019 Understand various methods for promoting and expanding vocabulary development.
Includes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for determining and verifying the meaning of unfamiliar words or words with multiple meanings using word-analysis strategies (e.g., decoding, structural analysis) and context clues (e.g., contrast, restatement, cause-and-effect, syntax).
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for determining and verifying meanings, pronunciations, synonyms, antonyms, and parts of speech of unfamiliar words or words with multiple meanings through the use of technology and other reference materials (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus).
- Recognize criteria for selecting appropriate vocabulary words for study (e.g., key words, content-specific words, words needed to comprehend a passage, words that have roots and affixes that give clues to their meaning).
- Demonstrate knowledge of instructional strategies and activities for promoting word consciousness and vocabulary development (e.g., word classification, etymology, semantic mapping, use of vocabulary words in new contexts, frequent, meaningful exposure to and use of new vocabulary).
0020 Understand how to vary reading strategies for different texts and purposes for reading and how to facilitate students' use of various reading materials.
Includes:
- Demonstrate knowledge of different types and functions of texts and strategies for teaching students how to vary reading strategies (e.g., skimming, scanning, rereading, in-depth reading) for different texts and purposes for reading.
- Recognize ways to select, organize, and manage instructional materials and technologies to address the reading needs and interests of groups and individuals.
- Demonstrate knowledge of a wide body of appropriate literature, texts, and other resources that reflect various content areas and disciplines and identify appropriate strategies for facilitating reading of given texts.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for promoting students' ability to locate, select, and use information from a variety of print, nonprint, and technological references and resources.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for motivating students to read in a range of subject disciplines and for supporting their reading of both informational and fictional texts in a variety of genres and modes of discourse, including technical texts related to various content areas.