When I ask my readers what they want to know most about reading comprehension, this is the question I hear the most often ...

How do we assess it?

And the honest answer is… this isn’t simple.

In fact, standardized tests of reading comprehension often give very different results. A student can score well on one and not so well on another.

That doesn’t mean one test is “wrong.”

It means reading comprehension is not a single skill that can be measured cleanly with one score.

Comprehension is complex. It involves language, vocabulary, background knowledge, attention, memory, and more. So when we try to boil it down to one number, things get messy.

(If you want a deeper explanation of why it's messy, I walk through it in this 10-minute YouTube video.)

Now, if you’re using a universal screener, there’s some good news.

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) can actually give us a pretty solid indication of whether comprehension is likely occurring. ORF has about an 80% correlation with comprehension.

In other words, if a student is reading accurately and at an appropriate rate, comprehension is usually okay.

But here’s the key word: usually.

If a student is reading fluently but struggles to retell the passage, or performs poorly on a MAZE task, that’s a red flag. Something is breaking down.

So what do we do next?

Instead of asking, “What comprehension test should I give?” I think the better question is:

What part of comprehension might be breaking down?

Of course, you still need an assessment tool.

I personally recommend the Acadience comprehension assessment called CFOL. (I actually have an interview coming up on the podcast with one of the creators of this assessment.)

The point isn’t to give every part of CFOL.

The point is to notice where comprehension is falling apart.

Are students struggling to retell key story elements?
Then assess that.

Is vocabulary getting in the way?
Assess vocabulary.

Is figurative language the issue?
Look there.

Another option is the CUBED-3 language comprehension assessment. I'm not personally familiar with it, but it's free and has been recommended by many educators.

The big idea here is this:

We don’t assess comprehension to get a score.

We assess comprehension to understand what students need next.

That mindset shift makes all the difference.

Anna Geiger, M.Ed.

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P.S. On Saturday, February 7, I’m hosting a live workshop called Building Comprehension from the Ground Up. This will be different from my typical webinars. It’s a smaller, more focused group, and the goal is very practical. You’ll walk away with specific tips and tools you can implement with your students on Monday. Get your ticket here.