Understanding the Need for Phonics Assessment 

 

The Science of Reading research proves that mastering phonics is the foundation for reading. This essential set of skills is necessary for students to experience success across all subjects.  

Early phonics assessment allows us to provide widespread, targeted instruction to ensure that all students build solid foundational skills for reading from one grade to another. Phonics assessments are easy to implement and provide invaluable information to empower teachers with the ability to approach phonics instruction with a solid plan. In fact, phonics assessments are the first step in helping students develop the essential literacy skills they will need to become strong, confident readers for life.  

Assessment is an essential element of education used to inform instruction and to determine instructional effectiveness (Wren, 2004). This is even more important for phonics, which is a pivotal gateway skill for all higher learning. The best way to know where to start is to assess students and find out the root causes of their lack of proficiency in the foundational skills required for reading. So, not only does assessment matter, but it is non-negotiable. 

On a broader scale, Districts and school administrators can use the data from various phonics assessment tools to identify patterns in categories such as entire schools, grade levels, or classrooms to inform decisions about curriculum and to identify needs for professional development.   

There are two main types of phonics assessments: diagnostic and progress monitoring. 

Diagnostic assessments are typically administered at the beginning of the year to inform decisions about instruction and identify at-risk students.  

Progress monitoring assessments are administered throughout the year (weekly or monthly) and assist in tracking student progress over time. 

There are several ways to conduct phonics assessments. A few of the more common methods include: 

 

How Students Benefit from Phonics Assessment 

 

Explicit phonics instruction is at the heart of an evidence-based structured literacy program. Without phonics, many students will not develop the foundational skills in decoding and encoding skills they need to become skilled readers.  

In 2022, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reported that 68% of children in fourth grade were struggling with reading and considered “not proficient readers.” As they get older and fall further behind, their reading challenges will impact them across the curriculum in all subjects, and it will be difficult for them to catch up.  

Phonics assessments help us to identify these students early. The data supplies information to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in phonics skills so that educators can personalize instruction to meet the individual student’s needs. The National Center on Improving Literacy stresses that early and frequent assessment is particularly valuable for students who struggle with reading, including those with dyslexia (2025).  

Phonics assessments will:  

At Tier 1, a universal phonics skill screener can be administered to the whole class to help teachers identify which specific phonics skills have been mastered, which skills need review, and where to begin instruction. It will also reveal those students who require additional support.  

Students who showed some risk in the screener results may be administered a phonics diagnostic assessment. The results will confirm the students’ need for differentiated instruction in a small group. These students can receive targeted instruction, immediate and corrective feedback, and close monitoring to master the same concepts that are being taught to the whole class.  

For students who continue to struggle, one-to-one intervention may be necessary to break skills down into smaller steps or target skills to scaffold learning. The individual setting can provide accommodations and a tailored approach to instruction.   

Phonics assessments can identify which specific concepts the student is missing. This will help teachers to identify gaps in the student’s recognition of concepts such as individual phoneme-grapheme correspondences, vowel sounds, phonics patterns, or their application of decoding strategies within words. Without further delay, targeted instruction can be implemented during intervention to address specific needs.    

The results of phonics assessments should be used to identify areas of need so that instruction may be specifically calibrated to teach certain target skills or to guide differentiation. 

Progress monitoring tools may be administered weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly to measure a student’s growth in response to instruction and intervention. Results of these assessments help educators to respond in a timely manner and adjust instruction as needed.  

Assessment results can identify students who are at risk for later reading struggles, inform decisions for placing them into smaller groups or intervention, and track their progress to ensure they are learning important target skills and decoding strategies.   

The results of phonics assessments can be used to visually display areas of strength and weakness, thus enhancing communication with caregivers regarding a student’s progress and ways to support specific phonics skills with simple, engaging activities at home. 

 

What Phonics Skills Are Commonly Tested  

 

Grapheme-Phoneme correspondence (GPCs): Identifying the sounds individual letters make. 

Whole Word Recognition: Reading real and pseudo (nonsense) words without having to sound them out. 

Spelling: Using knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondence to spell words. 

Phoneme Segmentation: Identifying the individual sounds in a word. 

Phoneme Blending: Blend individual phonemes (sounds) to read a word. 

Sight Word Recognition: Reading common sight words without having to sound them out. 

Decoding: Applying knowledge of phonics patterns, vowel sounds, and syllables to read words.   

 

Top Phonics Assessment Tools for Students 

 

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)-measures early literacy development in grades K-8-administered individually. 

Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS)-measures awareness of the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, phonics, and decoding skills in grades PK-3 (also Spanish version and PALS Plus for grades 4-8)-administered individually. 

Test of Word Reading Effectiveness (TOWRE-2)-measures word reading accuracy and fluency in grades K-adult-administered individually. 

The Phonological Awareness Skills Test (PAST)-measures five phonemic awareness tasks in grades K-3-administered individually. 

Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT-5)-measures growth in oral reading, phonics skills, fluency, word recognition, and comprehension in grades K-12-administered individually. 

Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP-2)-measures a wide range of phonological awareness skills (phonemic awareness, phoneme manipulation, phoneme blending) in grades K-12-administered individually. 

Test of Phonological Awareness (TOPA 2+)-There are two versions of this assessment, a Kindergarten version and an Early Elementary version. The test measures children’s ability to isolate individual phonemes in spoken words and understand the relationships between letters and phonemes in English for ages 5-8-administered in a group. 

 

Enhance Your Phonics Assessment Results with IMSE 

 

Assessment is an essential part of teaching. Teachers are encouraged to find a baseline for instruction and benchmark three times a year for Tier 1 students. IMSE’s Beginning Reading Skills Assessment (BRSA) for kindergarten and Leveled Assessments (through grades 3+) are available through IMSE’s professional development trainings and supplemental resources. Let IMSE assist you with administering assessment tools, interpreting results to drive literacy instruction, and taking the guesswork out of differentiation to ensure that every individual student’s needs are met.   

Phonics Information: https://journal.imse.com/what-is-phonics/  

Products for classroom: https://imse.com/products/ 

Training programs for educators: https://imse.com/training-descriptions/  

Schoolwide or classroom online training options: https://imse.com/private-district-trainings/  

Activities: https://journal.imse.com/phonics-activities-for-young-students/  

 

FAQs About Phonics Assessment 

 

What is the core phonics assessment for? 

A core phonics assessment is administered three times during the school year in kindergarten, first, and second grade. The results of this assessment provide information to show which phonics skills students have mastered.  

How is a phonics assessment administered? 

There are various assessments available. Depending on which assessment matches the needs, phonics assessments can be administered orally, through written responses, or using online assessment tools.  

What is the Level 1 phonics assessment? 

Assesses the student’s decoding skills across words of increasing complexity that represent concepts covered in the Level 1 scope and sequence. Results allow for teachers to identify areas of strength and needs and to establish cohorts.  

 

 

Hosp, M. (2023). The critical role of phonics assessment in the Science of Reading, Education Week. 

Wren, S. Descriptions of early reading assessments. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Retrieved November 16, 2004 from: http://www.balancedreading.com/ assessment/assessment.pdf  

National Assessment Educational Progress Report, 2022: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2022/  

National Center on Improving Literacy. (2019). Why Early Intervention Matters for Kids with Dyslexia.  https://www.improvingliteracy.org/post/why-early-intervention-matters-for-kids-with-dyslexia 

 

 

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