In less than one hour of time you can determine a students’ reading level—and have it be accurate!!  The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test (GMRT), which is published by Riverside Publishing, will identify your students’ level of reading achievement. 

      At Boston Middle School in 7th grade, we have three levels of classes for reading: a high or advanced literature course, a regular 7th grade reading class and a developmental or low reading course.  In order to determine which students belong in which course, they are tested within the first week of school.  The test is extremely easy to administer and hand-score.  It consists of two parts: a vocabulary test and a comprehension test. 

      The vocabulary test measures a student’s reading vocabulary.  The test contains 45 questions which measures word knowledge, not the ability to derive meaning from context.  It only takes 20 minutes to administer.  The comprehension portion takes 35 minutes and has 48 questions. It measures a student’s ability to read and understand different types of writing and contains 11 passages of various lengths about a variety of subjects.            

      The publisher recommends that the vocabulary test be given first and that the comprehension portion be given on a different day.  We, here at Boston, do follow those guidelines, particularly since we have 42 minute class periods. We share one set of tests between both sections of seventh grade.

      Using a student’s number of correct answers, which the publisher calls a RAW score, you can determine a student’s Normal Curve Equivalent, PR, Stanine, Grade Equivalent, and ESS. I utilize the grade equivalent and stanine more than anything.  There are different stats for the different times of the year that one would give the test: spring, winter, or fall. We use fall stats to determine beginning of the school year placement.

      Students who score in the post high school range for both vocabulary and comprehension are considered for the advanced reading class.  Students reading two or more levels below grade level are generally moved to our developmental class. 

      We do rely on the input of 6th grade teachers to initially place students in the three levels of classes.  We use the GMRT to verify a student’s placement, to give legitimacy to transferring students to where they “should” be, and to aid in the placement of move-in or transient students.

      After transferring students to their appropriate classes, we like to observe their progress for at least 2 grading periods (we have 6 weeks grading periods) to see if the move was appropriate.  Students in advanced reading should earn a B or higher to remain in the class.  If they do not, we

recheck their GMRT scores, check their ISTEP scores, and current class achievement in their other subject areas to determine if a new move is necessary.

      The basic premise of the GMRT is that it is a useful tool for teachers to learn the general level of reading achievement of their individual students.   This aids in determining which students are ready to work with more advanced materials and deciding, for some students, if further diagnosis is needed.  There are tests for all levels from pre-reading to post high school, but we use levels 7/9 and 10/12 Form S&T in 7th grade.

            There are specific answer sheets that go with the test.  You can purchase the machine scorable answer sheets from Riverside Publishing Company, get Scantron sheets, or use a piece of notebook paper, which is what we use since we manually score them.