Topic outline

  • Information


    Background

    The SARA assessment (previously known as RISE, also called ReadBasix) consists of six, brief subtests evaluating foundational reading skills. These subtests include:

    1. Word recognition and decoding

    2. Vocabulary

    3. Morphology

    4. Sentence processing

    5. Reading efficiency

    6. Reading comprehension. 


    The performance on these subtests immediately reflects the test-taker’s strengths and weaknesses as a reader, indicative of English functional levels (EFL). With this assessment, SARA can measure both benchmark skills and act as a diagnostic to inform a tailored instructional plan for an individual, group, or class. Capti services provide personalized activity recommendations for each reading skill assessed. 

    Why You Should Apply?

    With SARA, you are gaining access to a literacy assessment battery that provides immediate results, receiving free access to CaptiVoice services

    Furthermore, by using SARA, you are directly contributing to the federal research project by supporting the continued development of valid and reliable educational tests. Your participation will come with our team’s being blind to your students’ identities. With your participation, we hope to create a score scale that is not based on K-12 scoring scales and is specifically for adult learners. We also hope to use your experiences with SARA to create recommended instructional frameworks responding to a learner’s score and building an individualized tutoring approach for that student.

    If you have any further questions, please check our FAQ page or email our project coordinator at esmith42@memphis.edu

     

    Otherwise, click this link to apply.


    Once You’re in the Study . . . 

    Once you’re a part of the study, the process will be simple. Our team will create accounts for your students that will protect their identifiable information. We will walk you through how to use the CaptiVoice platform as an instructor, and we will show you how to assign the SARA tests to your student. 

    You and your instructors will have access to your students’ scores immediately after the test’s completion. Our team will also have access to the scores. Because we will not have access to your students’ information, their information will still be private.  However, we can consult with you about the interpretation of the scores and how to use them to guide instruction and monitor progress across EFL levels.  This may result in information to help you better target when to administer other accountability tests.  

    As we continue to develop the SARA assessment, we hope to introduce more instructional recommendations that will help you individualize your teaching to your students.

    If you have any questions, our team will be quick to reply within business hours. 




    The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grants R305A190522 and R305A200413 to the University of Memphis. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

  • FAQ

    FAQ

    SARA FAQ

    QUESTION: How many students do I need to qualify? 

    ANSWER: One student is enough to qualify; we are happy to work with however many students you want to take with the SARA assessment. Likewise, there is no maximum number of students. 

    QUESTION: How do the scores compare on a national scale? How does it compare to TABE/CASAS?

    ANSWER: This is one of the outcomes we expect to have at the end of the study.  Participating literacy programs will be asked to voluntarily share TABE/CASAS outcomes to help us to compare the scales. 

    QUESTION: How much does it cost?

    ANSWER: While your program is involved with the study, taking the SARA test (included repeated testing per student) AND using CaptiVoice’s services will come at no cost to you. 

    QUESTION: Is there an instructional path following a tester’s score? 

    ANSWER: At this point, the results of each subtest come with recommendations specific to the subskills of each subtest that the student should focus on practicing.  As we analyze more data, we will build even more specific skills recommendations and links to the lessons from our AutoTutor system.

    QUESTION: How long will the SARA study be ongoing?

    ANSWER:  Free access will continue through August of 2021.  That includes multiple administrations per student. Multiple, parallel forms are available for monitoring progress or showing learner gains.  

    QUESTION: How many SARA forms are there for measuring progress?

    ANSWER: Twelve forms can be used with students across Educational Functional Levels 2-5.  

    QUESTION: Can our program use both SARA and AutoTutor-ARC? 

    ANSWER: Absolutely. AutoTutor is an instructional tool, and SARA is primarily an assessment tool. The same developers are working on both SARA and AutoTutor-ARC and encourage their integrated use.  Email us at read.autotutor@gmail.com to learn more. 




    The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grants R305A190522 and R305A200413 to the University of Memphis. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

  • Sign Up


    The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grants R305A190522 and R305A200413 to the University of Memphis. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.

  • Webinar Archive

    Webinars


    A series of webinars was planned to support educators’ providing reading skill instruction and assessment for adult learners. Sponsored by Captivoice, Dr. John Sabatini delivered the first in this series on September 17, 2020. The webinar was entitled “Adult Learning: Remote Reading Diagnostic and Placement in the Times of COVID-19” and is linked above.


    A series of webinars was planned to support educators’ providing reading skill instruction and assessment for adult learners. Sponsored by Captivoice, Dr. John Sabatini delivered the second in this series on January 28, 2021. The webinar was entitled “Identifying, Assessing and Instructing Adult Learners of English at Functional Levels (EFL) 1 & 2” on January 28, 2021” and is linked above.



    A series of webinars was planned to support educators’ providing reading skill instruction and assessment for adult learners. Sponsored by Captivoice, Dr. John Sabatini delivered the second in this series on March 11, 2021. The webinar was entitled “Identifying, Assessing and Instructing Adult Learners of English at Functional Level (EFL) 3.” and is linked above.


    A series of webinars was planned to support educators’ providing reading skill instruction and assessment for adult learners. Sponsored by Captivoice, Dr. John Sabatini delivered the second in this series on April 08, 2021. The webinar was entitled “Identifying, Assessing and Instructing Adult Learners of English at Functional Level (EFL) 4.” and is linked above.


    The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grants R305A190522 and R305A200413 to the University of Memphis. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.