Salford Reading Test - your views please

[Jezabelle]

I'm not particularly familiar with this test and wondered if you could share your veiws with me. DD1's teacher has said she has used the test when I chatted to her recently. Do lots of teachers use this assessment? Do you think the results are useful?

Thanks.

Oh BTW DD1 is in reception.

I think the Salford test just tests reading individual words?

If so, then it's not very good. It'll give you a reading age which won't correspond to anything.

It doesn't test if your child can understand what they have read for example.

So, no the results aren't useful. Nor is it a phonetic test. Your teacher should be teaching DD phonics - then they should test what phonics they do and don't know - not random words that are contained in the Salford test.

The Salford is a sentence reading test. It is not a diagnostic test, but a standardised test that gives a so-called 'reading age'.

and reading ages are notoriously unreliable

Thanks, her teacher does teach phonics and DD has made loads of progress in her reception year. I'm sure she assesses in other ways too. I was pleased that she got a high reading age in the Salford test, as I have been very anxious about her reading, (largely due to the fact that I am dyslexic and would find it very difficult to watch my child struggle in the way that I did through school).

I was already a little sceptical about test results that give an average reading age. I take on board everything that has been said, but am still a bit pleased that she did well as I guess it means she isn't actually struggling IYSWIM.

The Salford test is a decoding test. The child reads a series of sentences and their 6th error gives a reading age. It is a fairly good measure of how well they can decode, but doesn't help indicate comprehension. It gives a reading age up to 10.6 on one of the tests and 10.10 on the other (if I recall properly).

Hate the thing! Some like it as it gives a "reading age" that can be used to show progress. But I find it's mainly decoding sentences. When I ask, after the test, what certain words mean in the higher sentence few children can actual define them, but it gives most of my year 2s full score. At least it's fairly quick to administer, but I can't say ot gives me any useful information to plan next steps in learning.
I also hate the Suffolk Reading Test - SEN pupils sometimes get higher scores that able (and careful) readers as it's multiple choice to complete sentences. Some SEN pupils get lucky with "multiple guess" in no time at all, while careful readers don't finish the paper in the time allowed and so get lower scores.

as you say it can show progress year to year but little more