Reading Test Scores and Dyslexia

Testing Doesn’t Improve Reading

Here’s why some teachers focus on test scores such as DIBEL, RAZ or Lexile. Test scores provide verifiable data that students are progressing. Unfortunately, teachers feel pressure to produce such evidence. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be acceptable to report that “Johnny now loves reading whereas last year he hated it.”  So, the test scores empower the teacher and the school, not the student!

Reasons to Use Reading Tests

As an educational consultant, I sometimes give reading tests for the sake of worried parents. I assure the student the scores are not important right now and will not be shared with the school. When I test I use Readworks.org which provides grade leveled readings with comprehension questions. I time the student as he or she reads silently, to obtain a words-per-minute score. Then I orally ask the comprehension questions. I also use this kind of testing to desensitize a student who is test-averse and needs confidence. This allows students to practice reading and answering without pressure. Discussing how comprehension questions are written helps dyslexic students a great deal.

Tests Take Focus Off Reading Fun

That being said, I avoid testing as much as possible, and here’s why. Tests focus the student’s attention on scores instead of the joy of reading. In fact, tests destroy joy. Next, test scores often determine what books a student gets to read. This harms kids with dyslexia, whose intellectual level may be 5-10 years above their reading level in the early grades! It’s much better, in my experience, to let students read absolutely anything they like. Always support their choice by reading with them, or providing audio along with the text.

Don’t Dumb Down Reading

Dumbing down the reading level to accommodate dyslexia, based on test scores, represents the LAST thing you want to do. It makes reading a real bore. So, if students want easy books, fine. If they want hard books, fine. It’s the repetition IN CONTEXT that will send words to long-term memory. Furthermore, a lot of tests in the early grades require oral reading, which can make a dyslexic student hate reading. Finally, reading tests measure speed and pronunciation accuracy, rather than comprehension. Creative gifted dyslexic kids see more possibilities than the average student. So, they may answer questions wrong, according to the test, even while understanding the reading. Thus, the testing experience itself can make a kid doubt his or her own amazing brain.

Read more, Don’t Test More

Happy reading improves reading. Reading well means reading with pleasure. If students enjoy reading, they will read more. Test scores often fail to accurately reflect a dyslexic student’s reading anyway, making them somewhat pointless in the early grades. If the school insists on testing, I’d explain it to your child as “practicing taking tests for high school, but we don’t care about scores now.” It’s such a mistake to take the focus off the story and put it on the scores! It just ruins the whole experience! I’ve known kids that would avoid reading because they knew they would have to take a test on it. So they read as few books as possible.

My Perfect World

In my perfect world, kids with dyslexia could read any book they want, along with the audio so they could track along with the reader. And they would watch all manner of videos and documentaries with the subtitles turned on so the words are flashing past, sinking into their subconscious.  Then they would discuss their reading with an interested parent who totally geeks out with them about tornadoes or bugs or Pippi Longstocking or whatever. Then they’d go off to their music lesson, not their reading lesson. In the long run, music will build the neural connections needed for reading and math at higher levels. The reading lesson just teaches them phonics, which is necessary but of limited value for fast reading later. In fact, most of the dyslexic students I see already know phonics. They are sick of repeating it. But sounding out words never produces fast easy reading. Other tools are needed to reach this goal.

No Worries!

As usual, I get on my soapbox when asked about reading/dyslexia. Mostly, I think you should not worry — your child’s greatest asset in this challenge is you! Students do best when they know their parents believe in them. Students with dyslexia usually test lower than their peers through the elementary grades. Some dyslexic students remain poor readers through life, but in my experience, that results from learning to avoid and hate reading. Students who are not shamed, but given support, see their scores climb sharply and even surpass peers when tested on silent reading comprehension in high school. Many adults with dyslexia read very, very fast once they stop trying to sound out words in their head and just read for meaning.

By Yvonna Graham, M.Ed.

www.dyslexiakit.net

@GrahamYvonna