Informal Reading Inventories and ELL Students

Abstract

With the increasing amount of testing taking place in classrooms, teachers may question how appropriate those assessments are for the growing numbers of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States. One of the assessment options for classroom teachers is the informal reading inventory (IRI), which is the most frequently used assessment tool for all students. Because of disagreement regarding the reliability and validity of IRIs for use with native English speakers, teachers should exercise greater caution when using them with ELLs, both in choosing the specific IRI and in interpreting the results based on the influence of students' accents on word pronunciations, familiarity with culturally specific content, the kinds of questions asked, and the relevance to classroom instruction and to students' culture. In addition, teachers should evaluate students' reading ability using several measures rather than a single assessment. Other informal assessments are available for use with ELLs.