Monitoring Student Progress in Reading
Students are assessed continually in individual subjects and receive a school report documenting their grades, assessment results, and behavior at the end of each semester. Teachers assess students based on oral and written work completed in class, homework, and tests to measure achievement. Student assessment results are reported verbally, in writing, or both.19 After 1990, the use of verbal assessment became widespread in schools, especially at the lower levels. Officially authorized in 1993, these verbal assessments were regulated by Decree 48/2005 of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports. The school head decides on the evaluation format with the consent of the school council, while individual schools establish the assessment guidelines. Written marks are based on a grading scale of 1 to 5, with a score of 1 being “excellentˮ and a score of 5 being “unsatisfactory.ˮ Students who do not pass all compulsory subjects must repeat the grade. Only one grade may be repeated at the primary level and one at the lower secondary level.
Assessment of reading includes the evaluation of reading speed, correctness, fluency, and pronunciation. To evaluate these criteria, teachers may use a commercial standardized test or create their own nonstandardized diagnostic test. Speed and fluency primarily are evaluated through reading aloud or answering simple questions based on a text. Teachers assess students’ interest in reading and their ability to work with text by evaluating their ability to complete reading literacy tasks and engage in dialogue with other students.
Students at the primary and lower secondary levels do not take national or regional examinations. However, the Czech School Inspectorate has used a system of computer-based assessment of nursery, primary, secondary, and vocational school students since the 2011–2012 school year. The system enables national testing of students across subjects and grades. In spring 2016, students in Grades 5 and 9 were tested for reading literacy.