Abstract of

Assessment
The Role of Informal Reading Inventories in Assessing Word Recognition

Sharon Walpole

Michael C. McKenna

In the controversy concerning high-stakes testing in reading, there is one point on which few disagree: Such tests provide little or no useful information to aid teachers in understanding the needs of individual children. The authors suggest that informal reading inventories can serve useful purposes in classroom-level assessment, but that their proper role is as an initial screening instrument. The results must be followed up by more specific assessments in areas of concern, designed to identify instructional needs.

Abstract from Walpole, S., & McKenna, M.C. (2006, March). The Role of Informal Reading Inventories in Assessing Word Recognition. The Reading Teacher, 59(6), 592–594. doi: 10.1598/RT.59.6.10