Monitoring Student Progress in Reading
Over the past 10 years, quality assurance of instruction and evaluation of students in primary and lower secondary school has come into focus by means of a number of national initiatives. The Folkeskole Act requires schools to evaluate student outcome from instruction in relation to skills and knowledge objectives and the points of attention (i.e., the minimum level within the skills and knowledge objectives that a student must reach to be able to follow instruction in class) as identified by the Ministry of Educationʼs Simplified Common Objectives for Danish.75,76 The skills and knowledge objectives are presented in stages of academic development that students must achieve in each subject area rather than by specific grade levels.77 While these evaluations form the basis for lesson planning and tutoring, it is up to municipalities or schools to choose how to evaluate the implementation of the curriculum.78
General Progress Evaluation
Parents receive a “general progress evaluation” of students for each subject.79 Beginning in Grade 8, teachers record grades at least twice a year in subjects that require a leaving examination and provide a written report showing the studentsʼ academic achievement twice a year. Information about grades is given in writing or, more commonly, verbally at a meeting attended by individual students, their parents, and the teacher.
Examinations
Since 2009, an assessment of students’ language skills has been mandatory at the beginning of Grade 0. Municipalities decide how to conduct these assessments, the content of which may follow centrally defined recommendations.80 All of the students in Grades 3 and 4 who were assessed in PIRLS 2016 underwent this compulsory language assessment when they were in Grade 0.
The use of commercially available standardized tests to assess primary students’ basic reading skills has been common practice for many years. Four standardized tests relating to national standards for expected reading skills are among those often used to test skills such as word recognition and sentence reading.81,82,83,84 Generally, teachers are encouraged to perform an ongoing evaluation of studentsʼ reading and writing development, and to formulate objectives for individual students and the class as a whole.
Since 2006, compulsory national assessment tests have been conducted in six subjects throughout the primary and lower secondary grades to determine whether the skills and knowledge objectives for each subject area have been met.85 Results of these computer-adaptive tests help teachers plan their instruction for individual students, improve schoolsʼ academic standards, and enhance communication with parents. Teachers receive guidelines for the evaluation process through EMU.dk, a national learning web portal. Test results comprising a report on overall class performance, studentsʼ individual scores, and information for parents about their childʼs performance are provided electronically.86 Reading tests focused on language comprehension, decoding skills, and reading comprehension are administered in Grades 2, 4, 6, and 8.
Only results at the national level are published; results for individual students, classes, and schools are accessible only by the school.87,88 Each municipality has the ability to access the results of the schools within it.
Student Plans
Since 2009, individual student plans based on the competency objectives for specific subjects have been mandatory for all grades.89 These written plans, updated digitally at least once a year, describe how each student can benefit from classroom instruction and how parents and schools can collaborate to support studentsʼ educational development.90,91 Student plans contain individual learning goals, results of ongoing reading evaluations, and a proposed course of action based on these results. Students themselves contribute to the formulation of goals, the evaluation of their own work, and their course of action. Teachers regularly inform students and parents about the studentʼs progress, and school principals also may contribute to these reports with their opinions. It is up to school principals to arrange appropriate home-school cooperation.