Assessing a Student's Level

• Determine where to start each student.
• Determine students' readiness to advance to the next level after they complete assignments.
• Monitor student reading progress over time.

Part 1

Preview the Benchmark Passages & Running Records or Benchmark Books & Running Records (Levels aa-J) collections before assigning. (Initially, you may have to take more than one running record to determine an appropriate start level.)

Assign a Benchmark Passage or Benchmark Book (Levels aa-J) by clicking on the Assign button and selecting students.

Review About Running Records to learn about the details of scoring an online running record.

Parts 2 & 3

Retelling Rubrics and Comprehension Quick Check Quizzes automatically follow the recording of the passage or book and provide details about a student's understanding and comprehension.

Retelling recordings provide details that identify strengths and weaknesses students might have comprehending fiction or nonfiction texts; including analysis of text structures. Listen to recordings and score rubrics for either fiction or nonfiction text.

• Students are prompted to tell you about the story or text in as much detail as he or she can remember.
• Rubrics provide specific details expected from every student so teachers can judge each retelling with the same rigor.

Multiple-choice quizzes provide students with feedback when completed on how well they scored.

• You can preview and review each quiz question and answer in addition to seeing a student's score and skills missed.
• Use the Skill Reports in your Kids A-Z management hub to see comprehension strengths and opportunities for additional instruction for your whole class or look at individual student reports to individualize instruction.

The three-part process establishes a baseline to support choosing books from Learning A-Z's extensive collection.

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How Do I Monitor Students' Reading Progress?

Use Benchmark Passages or Benchmark Books (Levels aa-J) and their associated resources for progress monitoring as students' reading improves and/or as they complete self-paced assignments. Use Assessment Reports for a whole-class view. Review student profile pages to see individual reading rate and progress reports so you can further monitor the progress of individual students.

Assessment Schedule

Developmental Level	Reading Level	Schedule
Beginning readers	Levels aa-C	every 2 to 4 weeks
Developing readers	Levels D-J	every 4 to 6 weeks
Effective readers	Levels K-P	every 6 to 8 weeks
Automatic readers	Levels Q-Z	every 8 to 10 weeks

Note Students who are not progressing at the expected rate should be assessed even more frequently than the Assessment Schedule suggests.

Use the chart below along with the information in Assessment Reports to determine if students are ready to move up a level.

Scorecard formulas are automatically calculated based on recording length and errors you have marked using our online rubrics or forms. See Assessment Reports to review a list of calculated scores for your class. See About Running Records to learn more about taking, marking, and scoring a running record.

Scores

Running Record Accuracy Rate	Quick Check Comprehension Quiz	Action
95% +	100%	Advance Student a Level
95% +	80%	Instruct at this Level
95% +	<80%	Lower a Level, Assess Again
90-94%	80-100%	Instruct at this Level
90-94%	<80%	Lower a Level, Assess Again
<90%	N/A	Lower a Level, Assess Again

For Raz-Plus members, results from the printable running records can be entered to display in a student's Reading Rate report in your Kids A-Z management hub. That way, you have not only the digital running records and assessment information, but also the results from printable running records—all in one place.