Reading Evaluation Adult Diagnosis (Revised)
(READ, 1972-82)

Purpose: To assess learner's reading needs and progress.

Source: Literacy Volunteers of America, 5795 Widewaters Parkway, Syracuse NY 13214; (315) 445-8000.

Costs: The cue books cost $7.25. Answer sheets, suitable for two administrations to the same learner, cost $1.25.

Description: The test has three parts. The first part assesses sight word recognition - identifying words without the application of phonic analysis. The learner is shown lists of words and asked to read them aloud. The easiest list includes words like "he" and "big;" the most difficult list includes words like "family" and "arrive." The second part assesses word analysis - the application of phonics to unfamiliar words. Learners are asked to name the letters of the alphabet, pronounce consonants, and pronounce words that may be unfamiliar. The third part assesses reading or listening comprehension. The learner is asked to read aloud, and to listen to short passages and answer questions about them - who, what, where, and how? There are two approximately equivalent forms of Part 1 and Part 3 of the test; there is only one form of Part 2.

Reliability, Validity, and Scores: No data on reliability are reported in the cue book, which also serves as a manual, nor in the supplemental information requested from the publisher. No data on validity are reported in the cue book. Supplemental information sent by the publisher indicates that a prior version of this test, prepared by a different author, correlated moderately with the reading scores from the Adult Basic Learning Examination (ABLE). That does not indicate the validity of the current version. No norm data are reported. Implications for instruction are provided with each section of the test.

Comments: This test is part of the materials prepared and distributed by Literacy Volunteers of America. It is intended to be used for diagnosis and monitoring. The reading difficulty ranges up to only about grade 5. The short reading passages are generally adult in orientation, but they seem bland to this reviewer and may not be of high interest to many low-income adults.

The test must be administered individually. The instructions are moderately complex, sometimes awkward to comply with, and occasionally incomplete. The complexity is caused by the variety of different types of items, each with its own instructions; dividing instructions for a given exercise among non-contiguous pages; interspersing pre-test and post-test items in the display materials; and specifying various skip patterns depending on the learner's performance. There is no time limit and no indication of how long the test normally takes to administer. Manual scoring is moderately complex, but takes only a few minutes for each student.