ANY DYSLEXIC CAN LEARN TO READ...                                                This is the FIRST Assessment that makes it possible!

The SRA was developed for targeted phonological instruction.  The purpose of using this model is to help the instructor unify scattered components of reading into one cohesive assessment.  SRA serves to evaluate Level One reading skills, which are those skills a student must master by the end of first grade (NYSED Standards, 2008).  The student mastering this level is able to present automaticity in sound-symbol correspondences and multi-letter combinations in preparation for Stage Two Reading (Chall, 1996).   SRA isolates each Level One skill and provides a format that assesses percentiles with specificity. Isolating missed skills becomes the central construct of reading education since the instructor can identify gaps in the student knowledge base.  Results will allow deficits to be addressed individually while the instructor establishes an accurate instructional start point for teaching.  The well-armed instructor will then be able to apply the scientifically based formula: Isolate-Assess-Focus (Sappo, 2002).

Both historically and scientifically, a clear link has been made between mastery of sound-symbol association and higher level reading and academic performance (Gough & Walsh,1991). Learning in any form should sequentially build on preceding skills or abilities. “Learning is possible if you base the more complex structure on simpler structures…” (Piaget, 1964). “Real Reading”, therefore, requires mastery of phonemes and meta-cognition.  The student becomes adeptly cognizant that words have structures based on sounds. The SHAPE Reading Assessment is based on this research-based approach.

The value of this assessment is realized when we take a long, hard look at current reading programs commonly used in our schools.  Often reading is taught using non-reading strategies like the technique we combine to call “guess-pass” (Sappo, 2002) reading.  This non-reading strategy encourages the student to guess at words that cannot be read or to skip them entirely.  Wrong guesses and frequent passes cause frustration that can lead to anger or apathy if not resolved.  Too often students give up on the education system, only to drop out of school altogether.  Why?  They have been pushed through year after year with very little guidance toward actual phonemic, or “real reading” (Sappo, 2002).  These students become increasingly less able to perform academically as reading skills become more and more necessary for subject learning. “Guess-pass” reading results in low impact learning with no stimulus toward the acquisition of necessary skills.  

There remains a keen social awareness that far too many of our children are still not reading.  We say still because the deficit was clearly identified early in the twentieth century.  By mid-century the problem was already considered by many to be critical (Flesch,1955).  The highly recommended use of a phonics-first approach to reading was virtually ignored.  By the early 1950’s only 15 percent of our schools incorporated phonics-first teaching (Flesch,1981).  What are the results today?  Only a dismal 31 percent of eighth graders and 34 percent of twelfth graders meet the National Assessment of Educational Progress standard of reading “proficiency” for their grade level (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2002).   

The crisis becomes more evident when you compare these statistics to the reality based requirements for economic survival.  For instance, between 1996 and 2006, the average literacy level required for all American occupations has risen by 14 percent (Barton, 2000).  Now consider the fact that students in the lowest 25 percent of achievement are twenty times more likely to drop out of high school than students in the highest 25 percent (Carnevale, 2001).  Statistically we see the worsening of this societal dilemma working as an impetus for a much needed and long awaited “reading revolution”.

The SHAPE Reading Assessment (SRA) can be useful in research as program developers seek to implement adequate reading instruction for their schools, being most specifically compatible with the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading.  Fortunately, programs that are becoming more available to schools incorporate Orton-Gillingham based theory and practice which include a multisensory, structured, sequential, cumulative, cognitive, and flexible structure.  Utilizing the three learning modalities (visual, auditory and kinesthetic), the instructor can introduce and reinforce isolated skills one at a time so that mastery is achieved before moving on to the next skill deficit.  Since the program relies on intense instruction, the SRA matches this demand as a diagnostic and prescriptive tool.

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