Assessment for Reading Instruction

This trusted text and teacher resource is now in a revised and updated fifth edition, reflecting key advances in the science of reading. It covers the “whys,” “whats,” and “how-tos” of systematic reading assessment in grades K–8. The authors provide a roadmap and practical tools for evaluating students’ strengths and needs in each component of reading, resulting in a seamless integration of assessment, evidence-based instruction, and intervention. Essential topics include evaluating the comprehension of beginning readers, assessing older struggling readers, supporting English learners, and preparing diagnostic reading reports. In a convenient large-size format, the book includes 30 reproducible and downloadable tools, plus an online-only appendix with an additional multipage assessment.

New to This Edition

• Explicitly connects assessment guidelines to the science of reading.
• New chapter on morphology and significantly revised chapters on orthography and assessment of holistic reading. 
• Aligns with the NAEP 2026 reading framework and definitions.
• Fully updated research, additional instructional resources, and two new assessments--Text Analysis Tool and Reading Engagement Scale. 

Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl, EdD, is a literacy consultant and author who focuses on translating literacy research into practice. Formerly, she was Clinical Professor of Literacy at New York University (NYU), where she taught graduate courses and served as Director of both the Literacy Program and the NYU Literacy Clinic. Before entering academia, Dr. Stahl taught in public elementary and middle school classrooms for over 25 years. Dr. Stahl specializes in reading acquisition, comprehension instruction, reading intervention, and literacy assessment. She partners with educators as a consultant to support their efforts to improve reading achievement, especially for students with reading difficulties.

Kevin Flanigan, PhD, is Professor in the Literacy Department at West Chester University (WCU) in Pennsylvania. He teaches literacy courses and serves as Graduate Coordinator of both the MEd in Literacy/Reading Specialist Program and the WCU Reading Center. A former middle-grades classroom teacher and reading specialist/coach, Dr. Flanigan researches and writes about developmental word knowledge and interventions for students with reading difficulties. To help educators put research into practice, he regularly works with teachers and schools to help improve their students’ reading achievement.

Sarah M. Lupo, PhD, is Associate Professor of Literacy Education in the College of Education at James Madison University. She has worked in education since the early 2000s, including as an ESL teacher, English teacher, reading specialist, and literacy coach in Washington, D.C., Arizona, Virginia, and even Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Lupo’s work strives to position all learners as capable and bringing cultural and linguistic assets to the reading experience, while putting theory into practice to find ways teachers can improve text learning in grades K–12.

1. Introduction to Reading Assessment
2. General Concepts of Assessment
3. Emergent Literacy: Language Development and Phonological Awareness
4. Orthographic Knowledge: Phonics, Decoding, Encoding, and Word Recognition
5. Measuring Consolidation and Transfer: Analyzing the Reading of Connected Text
6. Fluency
7. Morphology
8. Vocabulary
9. Comprehension and Strategic Processing
10. Affective Factors
11. Assessing Reading in Grades 4–8: Guiding Concepts
12. Preparing a Diagnostic Reading Report
Appendix: Case Studies
References
Index