Information
Background
The SARA assessment (previously known as RISE, also called ReadBasix) consists of six, brief subtests evaluating foundational reading skills. These subtests include:
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Word recognition and decoding
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Vocabulary
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Morphology
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Sentence processing
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Reading efficiency
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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.