Waddington Diagnostic Reading and Spelling Tests Second Edition

These group based tests are easy to administer and provide very detailed diagnostic information beyond a student's reading and spelling age. Teachers will quickly obtain a valuable snapshot of all students in a class/school, as well as critical diagnosis for special cases. Reviews/research by others.

The reading tests have a combination of letter, word, rhyme, phonic, picture to word and picture to text recognition. All tests embody scope and sequence of learning to read / spell skills, which is why they are widely used in Australia, particularly by staff faced with difficult student cases. Chapters explain links to teaching and learning theory and practice in a very logical down-to-earth manner. Norms are based on over 30,000 student testing samples across all states and territories according to ABS statistics. Calculate chronological ages automatically, record results and analyze student performance with School Data Express.

The second edition has a full colour cover. Unlike the 1988 first edition, this new publication has two of each reading and spelling test. A minor revision occurred late 2002 and the current reprint is 2007. To see whether you have the latest copy, check page 2 of your book. On page 2, it will show the date.

The minor revision corrects a few typos and provides extended information on pages 15 and 16, in place of a picture. The extended information explains why the nursery rhymes are used as well as announcing 7 reading phases and 18 distinct reading levels. The minor revision also provides pointers to the 18 reading age levels and Reader Express, our new software program which matches 'best books' to students according to reading ages. The normative data and price remains unchanged from the original 2000 print run.

The first edition was sold to over 6000 educational institutions. This second edition contains 2 of each reading and spelling test in parallel form. Each test's parallel effectiveness and internal reliability was adjusted over a period of several years during controlled pre-trials across several hundred students in classes R to 7. After the test items were established, the full-on sampling included over 7600 students across Australia according to ABS demographics (1999). In all, over 30,400 tests were implemented and assessed by classroom teachers, according to uniform testing guidelines, under the supervision of school appointed co-ordinators. Normative data was calculated centrally. Chapter 7 of the publication provides very interesting trends from the sampling, comparing results from 1988 with 1999.

The introduction to the publication points out that the tests and accompanying diagnostic procedures and referrals to other resources have been constructed for the following purpose: "To assist with the identification, diagnosis and remediation of children with learning difficulties by bridging the gap between those teachers who rely mainly upon observation and personal judgement in assessing a student's performance and those who naively accept the limited information of derived scores provided by tests as being the major consequence of diagnosis."

The book is easy to read and provides clear guidance with back-up case examples and hands-on materials. It is written by a classroom teacher of 20 years teaching experience and twice over Advanced Skills Teacher, thus reflecting realistic coalface issues from the ground up.

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