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The Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessment - First Grade serves as a tool for teachers to use in gaining information about the developing skills of their students. It is a diagnostic assessment that allows teachers to plan instruction tailored to meet individual student needs.

The assessments are generally given in October, January, and April.and contain developmentally appropriate items that become progressively more difficult with each administration. The sections of the assessments are designed to be brief, easy to administer, score, and incorporate into instructional plans.

The Center for Innovation in Assessment has completed several studies that establish the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments as both valid and reliable. The results of these studies are compiled as technical reports for each grade level. To view the technical reports or for references to other research supporting the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments, visit the Research tab of this website or click here.

Phonics: Students are asked about their understanding of print concepts, to identify letter sounds, and to identify beginning, ending, and middle sounds.

Vocabulary: Students are asked to identify and comprehend sight words, compound words, contractions, inflectional endings, and word groupings.

Comprehension: Students are asked to read and comprehend words, sentences, and short passages (stories).

Phonemic Awareness: Students are asked to identify rhyming words, identify sounds in words, substitute sounds, delete sounds, and blend sounds to form words.

The Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments provide immediate feedback about students' abilities so teachers can plan instruction. Ihe Center for Innovation in Assessment provides an online scoring tool called The ROAR System as an integral part of the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments. Scores can be directly entered into The ROAR System, which tallies scores and quickly produces student and class reports for the teacher. These reports can be shared with parents and administrators. To find out more about The ROAR System, click here.

Teachers who do not wish to use the ROAR system may use an included paper Score Recording Form to tally answers and identify skill area needs.

General Information Booklet: The General Information Booklet contains information about goals, administration, and scoring. Also included are sample parent letters, student progress report forms and standards checklists.

Resource & Intervention Guide: The Resource & Intervention Guide includes: the Indiana Academic Standards for English, and short diagnostic/practice pages for defined skill areas. It also contains Classroom Activities that can be used to help students develop standards-related skills and strategies, and a resource list of childrens' books and teaching materials.

Download the First Grade Resource & Intervention Guide in PDF format.

* Included in any set of the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assesments

The Center for Innovation in Assessment conducts research to analyze assessment and intervention programs to determine whether they are supported by scientifically-based reading research, and to discover whether they are reliable and valid. CIA recently finished such research on the Indiana Reading Diagnostic Assessments. Click here to view the Indiana Reading Assessment - Grade 1 Technical Report.