Accountability for Reading and Readers: What the Numbers Don't Tell

Abstract

The authors share what they learned when they assessed second graders' acts of reading. The children were in three different reading programs: Two were commercially produced and emphasized systematic, explicit phonics instruction (Reading Mastery, Open Court); the other was a literature-based program using an adaptation of guided reading. The authors address what it means to be accountable to children involved in the complex act of reading and argue that by such measures of accountability we learn much about readers that simple numbers from tests cannot tell.