YARC002 – Passage Reading Primary contains: test material, manual and record forms (x 10)
YARC003 – Complete Set Secondary contains: Passage Reading Secondary test material, Passage Reading Secondary manual and Passage Reading Secondary record forms (x 10)
Passage Reading Primary (age 5–11): Comprising fiction and non-fiction texts, the passage reading primary suite has been developed to identify the reading (decoding) and comprehension skills of 5–11 year-olds. It assesses accuracy, reading rate and comprehension in a single test. A version of our Single Word Reading Test is also included as a benchmarking test.
Passage Reading Secondary (age 12-16): The passage reading secondary suite comprises a series of fiction and non-fiction passages for 11–16 year-olds. Designed to be read silently, the test assesses reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension. A version of our Single Word Reading Test is also included as a benchmarking test.
The Passage Comprehension Test does not have a high ceiling as it was designed to be more sensitive to poorer readers. If those in Primary schools want a test that has a higher ceiling, then the NGRT is an excellent group test alternative as it is adaptive and so better readers experience much more difficult passages. If an individual test is preferred, then the WJ Tests of Achievement battery is highly recommended.
Secondary schools should buy the Secondary Passage Comprehension Test. This test has two passages form the Passage Comprehension Test – a Year 3 and a Year 4 passage. The Secondary test goes down to a Year 2 reading level – around Reading Age 7.5. If you need to test below this, then use a different test. The WJ IV Tests of Achievement Battery is highly recommended.
* Only chose the second passages from the same form as the first (both from Form A or both from Form B)
* Chose the passage above if the student managed to read the first passage reasonably well (around 5 accuracy errors and at least 5 comprehension questions correct).
* If students struggled on the first passage, drop down to the passage below
* If the student read Level 7 (the highest level) as their first passage, they MUST read the Level 5 passage. There is no alternative.
* If the student read the Beginner passage and you believe they won’t be able to manage the Level 1 passage, then administer the Beginner passage from the alternate Form (A or B). This is the only time you can test across forms.
To tackle Early Word Recognition and Letter Sound assessments students will need to have undertaken some formal instruction using phonics. As such, depending on any pre-learning, you may want to delay using these until the end of the term or even the second half of the year.
The student record form allows each student to be tested up to three times and a gap of around 12 weeks should be left between testing.
Enter raw scores from the test into the template provided. There are drop down menus to help you. You must enter scores for each of the error types (mispronunciations, substitutions, omissions etc.). It is recommended that you enter the scores for each of the comprehension questions too as you will get more detail in the reports.
When you have finished, click on the “create report” button at the bottom of the page (you may have to scroll down). Your report will display on your screen as both a pdf and CSV icon. You can right click these and save them to a folder on your PC or server. You can also click these icons and open them to read. The pdf report is a single page summary, the CSV contains data that can be copied to an Excel file which is useful for tracking change over time. If you open the pdf report to read it on screen, don’t forget to save it before closing. If not, you will have to re-enter the student data and generate a new report if you want to look at the results again, as data is held on the scoring servers once you log out.
Word Recognition is built up from simple, easily decodable words to irregular and ‘tricky’ words. All students start with ‘cat’ and keep going until they make 10 errors – this prevents stress from too many incorrect attempts. A child with minimal word reading ability will register a score on this test.
If students need to be assessed using the Supplementary Passages (either as indicated by their Single Word Reading Test score or because they have clear reading difficulty), these are read aloud, so that the error analysis can be carried out.
YARC Secondary includes a test of reading fluency where students do read aloud, are timed and errors are counted. During the standardisation of the passages a high correlation was found between scores for reading fluency and those for rate of reading calculated from the silent passage reading. If a student reads very quickly or very slowly, it is advisable to administer the fluency test as a second line check.
During standardisation, it became apparent that summarisation as a task could be challenging even for those with average and above average comprehension skills. Summarisation is reported separately from comprehension so that you can examine profiles of strength and weakness.
Students with a reading age of six to ten years (SWRT raw score 11–42) should be given the Supplementary Passages 1 and 2 which have been standardised on the secondary sample. This will give standard scores for accuracy, rate and comprehension, the latter based on an extended set of questions, including summarisation.
If it is necessary to re-test these students, the Teacher Guide includes photocopy masters of Supplementary Passages 3 and 4. These are equivalent forms to Supplementary Passages 1 and 2. Although they have not been standardised on the secondary sample, they will yield an age equivalent score for accuracy, rate and comprehension. This is often enough to check that progress is being made.
As students progress, they can move to Level 1 of the secondary passages, accessible to older students with a reading age of 10 years and above.
Generally, EAL students will experience difficulty with vocabulary and comprehension, particularly inference. The profile produced by YARC will enable you to examine strengths and weaknesses and track progress over time. The Single Word Reading Test will give a measure of word level reading and indicate the level of entry to YARC.
EAL students were included in the standardisation sample (N = 89). Analysis of their results in light of the first language English speakers offers some guidance on what to expect from YARC. Single word reading standard scores are on average 3 points lower; reading comprehension standard scores are between 6 and 10 points lower; reading rate standard scores are between 3 and 7 points lower; and reading fluency standard scores are on average 6 points lower.