Basic Reading, a Shorter Comprehension Test
The Deluxe and District Editions include a second type of reading comprehension measure: Basic Reading. The Basic Reading passages are quite a bit shorter, and more simplistically written, to make them easier and more accessible than the Proficient Reading comprehension measures. These tests start at grade 3 and are offered through 8th grade.
Two items of note, while grade 2 is where the Proficient Reading measures start, there are no grade 2 Basic Reading measures. That is because the Proficient Reading measures at grade 2 are already much simpler than the Proficient Reading measures at the other grades (the passages are approximately 700 words long rather than 1500 to 1800, there are only 12 questions rather than 20, and there are only literal and inferential questions rather than literal, inferential, and evaluative). The second item is that the Basic Reading measures are not included in the Benchmark Reports because they were developed to fill a need for easier-access reading comprehension measures for students still developing their Literal Comprehension skills.
The Basic Reading measures are designed for students who are persistently struggling with reading comprehension and are consistently low-performing on the Proficient Reading measures relative to their peers.
The Basic Reading measures include three sub-tests, Short Literary Text, Informational Text, and Read to Perform a Task organized together into a comprehensive reading comprehension assessment.
Instead of one long story with 20 subsequent questions, the Basic Reading has 5 shorter stories with 5 accompanying questions. Here is a sample of one of the shorter stories with its questions.
