Employing a Systematic Set of Tools as a Window into Student Development

The STEP assessment is conducted using two different book series, each with fifteen books each, leveled according to difficulty. These leveled books correspond to each Step and are used to evaluate reading accuracy as well as the problem-solving strategies a student uses to figure out new words or to make sense of new concepts and ideas. During the student's oral reading of the book, the teacher takes a running record of miscues and self-corrections, as well as times the oral reading to determine reading rate. In addition, teachers use a rubric to follow the student's growing fluency.

A comprehension conversation follows the reading and includes questions that span literal, inferential, and higher-order critical thinking. These questions begin at the early step levels and become increasingly central to the assessment as students mature as readers. The intention is not to simply score a student's answers as right or wrong. Instead, this is a discussion between the student and the teacher organized around a set of questions to give the teacher a sense of how a student is building meaning as he or she reads and, consequently, what strategies the student needs to build and grow as a reader. This conversation models the kinds of questions and discussions that occur within classroom instruction.

The formal assessment also includes key supplemental components that research shows are building blocks to reading. These provide a deeper look into some specific skills in reading that supplement what is learned from the oral reading of the leveled text. The areas that are assessed have a developmental sequence that includes concepts about print, phonemic awareness, letter/sound correspondence, and developmental spelling. These components are not separate assessments. Instead, they are integrated into the appropriate Step and have targets for achievement for students to demonstrate their understanding and continued development as readers.

See table: "Components of the Formal Assessment at each Step" (available to download in PDF).