Early in my teaching career, as the newly appointed chair of a junior high’s reading department, I undertook the task of assigning all the school’s seventh graders to reading classes based on their reading levels. I planned to use the results of a national standardized test as the major basis for making the placements. Because the school’s reading achievement was the lowest in the city (Philadelphia), the students were given the sixth-grade version of the test rather than the seventh-grade version. While supervising the taking of the test, I noticed that something seemed off. Looking more closely at the students, I noticed that many of them were not bothering with the test questions. They were simply filling in the answer blanks. Apparently, even the test’s easier passages were too difficult for a large number of students, so they just randomly filled in the answer sheets.
Realizing that many of the students hadn’t been validly assessed, I created a group reading test that included passages on the lowest levels and used the results along with scores on the standardized test to estimate their reading levels. I found that scores below a fourth-grade level on the standardized were suspect and so used the results of the group inventory for the lowest standardized test scorers. Using the group inventory, I was able to identify nearly two-dozen students who were reading very close to a beginning reading and large numbers of students reading two, three, and four years below grade level. With the help of the group inventory, the staff was able to provide instruction on the appropriate level to all of the school’s seventh graders.
Just as in Philadelphia all those years ago, today there are large numbers of older students whose basic reading skills are inadequate. They fail to meet what has come to be known as the “decoding threshold.” As they progress through the early grades, most students learn basic phonics. However, a significant number fail to acquire the skills they need to cope with the reading demands they meet in upper-elementary and middle school. In two large-scale studies of students in grades 5 and above and 3 and above, researchers found that students whose decoding skills were below a foundational threshold made little to no growth in comprehension scores over a 3-year period (Wang et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2024). Overall, it is estimated that 25% of older students are functioning below the decoding threshold (Tortorelli, 2025).
To provide an aid to estimating where older struggling readers are functioning, last week I posted the Group Reading Vocabulary Inventory, which contains words ranging from grades 1 through grade 5. The Reading Vocabulary Inventory can be used to estimate the reading levels of older students reading below grade level. This week I posted the Building Literacy Group Placement Test, which assesses students’ ability to read passages ranging from a 1-2 to a 5-6 reading level. Passages are written to appeal to older students. The Group Placement Inventory has also been designed to estimate the reading levels of older struggling readers. Both assessments can be used with below-level readers in grades 3 through 12. Both assessments are available at no cost at buildingliteracy.org under the Assessing Reading tab.
Once the approximate reading levels have been established, teachers can assess the students foundational decoding skills with four informal tests that are also available at buildingliteracy.org. The individually administered Phonics Inventory, which assesses single-syllable patterns, is geared to the scope and sequence of today’s major programs and can be used to estimate which basic phonics have been mastered and which need instruction. The accompanying Group Phonics Inventory uses a fill-in-the-blank sentence format so that groups of students can be assessed. The individually administered Graduated Syllable Survey assesses students’ ability to read increasingly difficult syllables. It can be used to determine which syllable types need to be taught. The accompanying Group Graduated Syllable Survey uses a fill-in-the-blank sentence format so that groups of students can be assessed.
Individual assessments yield more accurate and more reliable data. However, group tests are more time-efficient to administer and may be the better choice when time is limited or large number of students have to be assessed. Since guessing is a factor, group results should be verified through observation, having students read selected items orally, or administering individual assessments to students whose performance is problematic.
References
Tortorelli, L. (2025, May 1). What is the decoding level threshold? ISD/RESA Early Literacy Coaching Network Meeting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1yClephvc
Wang, Z., Sabatini, J., O’Reilly, T., & Weeks, J. (2019). Decoding and reading comprehension: A test of the decoding threshold hypothesis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(3), 387–401.
Wang, Z., O’Reilly, T., & Sutherland, R. (2024). Replicating decoding threshold in ReadBasix®: Impact on reading skills development (Research Memorandum No. RM-24-06). ETS. https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/RM-24-06.pdf