Monitoring Student Progress in Reading
The Education Act requires schools to “regularly evaluate students and periodically report the results of the evaluation to the students and their parents.ˮ22 More recent guidelines advise schools to report feedback to parents at least twice annually, including at least one written report.23 Primary school assessment includes teacher questioning and observation, conferencing, and student self‑assessment. As of 2012, all primary schools are required to administer standardized tests of English reading and mathematics toward the end of second, fourth and sixth grades and to report individual outcomes to students’ parents. Irish medium schools additionally are required to administer standardized tests of Irish reading at the same grade levels. The annual administration of standardized reading tests to all students from first to sixth grade is almost universal in Irish schools, as is the reporting of achievement data to parents.24,25
All primary schools must provide the Board of Management and the Department of Education and Skills with the standardized test results in aggregated form of students in second, fourth and sixth grades. These data are from commercially available tests, and are used to monitor longitudinal standards in literacy and numeracy. Ireland also monitors standards through the regular assessment of reading and mathematics performance of students in a representative sample of schools, using secure tests that are not otherwise available to schools. National Assessments of English Reading and Mathematics are conducted every five years by the Educational Research Centre on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills to monitor the achievement of national standards, identify factors related to test performance, and inform educational policy.