If we are to ensure that as many children as possible are reading proficiently by the time they finish primary school it is clear that we must have careful assessment and monitoring of performance in reading and related skills.

Assessing and monitoring student learning is fundamental to a systematic and explicit approach to reading instruction.

Generally, assessments fall into one of two categories. Formative assessments, those which provide information that allows adjustments to be made as instruction occurs (placement tests, progress monitoring) and summative assessments, those which provide evaluative information about progress over a period of instruction or against learning benchmarks (norm-referenced, standardised assessments).