Grade equivalent score actually went down in reading

Standard scores are much better for comparisons than grade levels. THey’ve all held their own except for the comprehension — and it could be that the kiddo’s been working on decoding so much that he wasn’t sure what they were asking for in comprehension questions. I would ask him about it.
Also, I don’t know about the WIAT but some of the “standardized” tests don’t go in anything like the sequence that AVKO or hte program we used teaches. The tests end up having a whole lot of common but irregular words — so when we’ve been teaching patterns, patterns, patterns and they’ve actually learned a few thousand words that they didn’t know before (because they can read any -ite or -ation word in the world, now), if those words aren’t on the test, their scores don’t go up.
We found that our kiddos hanging down in the lowest percentiles — 1st to 4th — did *not* show big gains in the first year, percentile-wise or standard-score wise. There is simply *SO MUCH* of that foundation stuff to fill in. It would be faster to target the kinds of words that show up on the standardized tests — but it would be in direct contrast to the whole purpose of systematic programs.
THe good news is that the scores *did* go up — though, to be honest, for our lowest guys we were pleased when they hit double digit percentiles. Their competence and independence went up a *whole* lot more than the scores showed because what they knew, they knew *well* and thoroughly; for every common irregular word, they knew 500 fairly common, regular words and how to figure them out.
Of course, I don’t know if that’s what is happening with your kiddo. I am a bit surprised at the drop in comprehension — that usually goes up or at least maintains. However, occasionally fluky things happen there, too. (I had one student whose comprehension scores did a yo-yo thing because on the A version of the test, one of the passages was about a topic he already knew about… aced it every time. Had nothing to do with how well he read; he could have answered the questions without the passage.)

Should I suggest a retest for comprehension? I am assuming we will need to use another version or test. On the spelling maybe that is the reason she is so low, but AVKO does have some irregular words in it. I am seeing AVKO was being mistaught as I looked at her spelling that the teacher gave to me, there were quite a few words that they are suppose to self correct and they weren’t. At this point, I am thinking of having my tutor only teach spelling and they can test her at school, and have her reading instruction at school be the Read Naturally Program CD and have them help her read her Social Studies book and study vocabulary from it for her reading program. I am also still trying to figure out the fluency piece and wether it should be at the low level. My tutor believes she is reading at a higher level and should be using the higher level for fluency on the RN program. I have kept it at a low level because of opinions on this board and thinking she should progress but she was’nt meeting the speed goal.I also have talked to RN and they said she should be going through quite a few stories even at her speed goal. So I am again thinking the school must not be implementing the program correctly.

Request the GORT 4, a test of reading that includes accuracy, rate, fluency(rate plus accuracy) and comrehension. It is more complete than the reading part of the WIAT.

Thank you!

That pseudoword decoding is still too low. She probably needs something like REWARDS. You can’t rely completely on Read Naturally if she’s only decoding on a 2nd grade level. She’s missing some instruction in between basic decoding and text reading fluency practice. Seeing Stars would be good, too, if she really has the sounds and symbols mastered. But I’m betting she needs some advanced ccode work, too. (I like the GORT, also.)

Oh, and you cannot expect the spelling to improve above the level of the dexoding score. Decoding comes first, then encoding (spelling). Her spelling scores are right there with her decoding score as they probably should be.

I think I’d press the school on why she has made very little progress and has declined in some areas. You might have a case to get some private services.

Janis

My outside tutor will be doing Rewards this summer and will start up the Spalding spelling again ( I had to stop because they wanted us to study the 25 AVKO words and it was overwhelming). I know she stopped at the c,g soft sounds on the WIAT test last year, and when we read she is not automatic but she does know the other sound for the c and g.The silent e is still not automatic either. It seems like I will need to somehow find controlled vocabulary readers for these. Sounds like it would be also a good idea to use them in her spelling. I am looking forward to the end of school to concentrate on her reading. I will continue Great Leaps,Check Double Check, and the computer program S.O.S. She has made great progress but, smaller words are more of a problem than larger ones.

IT does sound like she’s been making progress that doesn’t show up on the tests — it’s really, really easy not to practice to that automatic point.
I would also (yea, I know, one more thing!) be sure to be sharing something that’s just fun or interesting to read each day, or use books on tape, etc.

The summer plan sounds good.

Janis