The Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA)

A Progress Monitoring Tool

 

Successful reading programs help students become proficient, enthusiastic readers who are able to read for a variety of purposes.  At St. Francis, we utilize a tool to monitor progress around that goal.

The Developmental Reading Assessment helps teachers assess and document students’ development as readers over time.  It enables a teacher to systematically observe, record, and evaluate changes in student reading performance and provides information that helps determine each student’s independent reading level.  While it is not used for diagnostic purposes, it helps shed light on possible problem areas or gaps in reading development in regards to reading engagement, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension.

It is administered to all students in grades kindergarten through five at the commencement of the school year, at the mid year point, and at the end of the school year.  It is also appropriate to use the tool more frequently with struggling readers to ensure continued progress.

The DRA’s are performed by Mrs. Amy Metz. (St. Francis Reading Interventionist)
She is trained and versed on the DRA model and because of that is able to accurately evaluate every child consistently. Our goal is to, at minimum, get every child to meet benchmark for their grade level.