A Teacher's Guide to Standardized Reading TestsAuthor: Lucy McCormick Calkins, Kate Montgomery, and Donna Santman with Beverly Falk
Format: Paperback
Published: Heinemann, 1998

A Teacher's Guide to Standardized Reading Tests reflects the authors' belief that teachers and students will be less victimized by tests if they are more knowledgeable about them. To that end, their book provides a complete overview of tests, showing teachers how to use this information to be more powerful and more articulate participants in today's political conversations and in interactions with colleagues, parents, and students. It demonstrates how the methods used in the reading and writing workshop can be built upon and adapted to test-preparation work. It rethinks the reading workshop in light of standardized tests, describing predictable challenges children will face when taking tests and ways teachers can help children develop the capabilities to meet those challenges. Finally, it provides guidelines for reading and interpreting test results, enabling teachers to minimize the damage caused by troubling scores.