Study Guide
Special Reading
Test Design and Framework
The test design below describes general assessment information. The framework that follows is a detailed outline that explains the knowledge and skills that this test measures.
Test Design
| Format | Computer-based test (CBT) and online-proctored test |
|---|---|
| Number of Questions | 100 multiple-choice questions |
| Time* | 2 hours |
| Passing Score | 220 |
*Does not include 15-minute tutorial
Test Framework
| Content Domain | Range of Competencies | Approximate Percentage of Test Score | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | Foundations of Reading Instruction and Assessment | 0001–0003 | 27% |
| II. | Reading Development | 0004–0007 | 37% |
| III. | Reading Comprehension | 0008–0009 | 18% |
| IV. | Classroom Environment and Professional Learning | 0010–0011 | 18% |
Domain I–Foundations of Reading Instruction and Assessment
Competency 0001–Demonstrate knowledge of theories and foundations of literacy development.
For example:
- Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of theoretical, historical, and scientifically based research components of reading development and implications of major research findings for reading instruction (e.g., concepts of print, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, text comprehension).
- Demonstrate knowledge of theoretical, historical, and evidence-based components of writing development, processes, and foundational skills.
- Demonstrate knowledge of linguistic foundations of language and literacy development (e.g., stages of oral language acquisition; stages of literacy development, including the interrelated development of reading, writing, and spelling; linguistic factors affecting second-language and literacy development and instruction).
- Demonstrate knowledge of psychological, cognitive, and sociological factors (e.g., physical, social, emotional, cognitive) that influence reading and writing development and instruction (e.g., automaticity, executive function, attention, verbal memory, processing speed, graphomotor control).
- Demonstrate knowledge of environmental, cultural, and motivational factors that influence literacy development (e.g., language spoken at home, literacy experiences, cultural values).
- Demonstrate understanding of common characteristics of readers and the importance of providing differentiated reading instruction to all students.
Competency 0002–Apply knowledge of foundations of scientifically based and evidence-based reading instruction.
For example:
- Apply knowledge of scientifically based, evidence-based, and standards-based principles of reading instruction and intervention (e.g., applying data-based decision making, deconstructing and aligning reading standards).
- Apply knowledge of the interrelationships between listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and visually representing when planning and implementing instruction.
- Apply knowledge of ways to plan and implement differentiated reading instruction that incorporates explicit explanation, teacher modeling, guided practice, independent practice, and feedback.
- Apply knowledge of instructional approaches (e.g., flexible grouping, scaffolding, differentiation, intervention, extension) to address the needs of students with various developmental levels, cognitive abilities, reading proficiency levels, background knowledge and experiences, and/or linguistic backgrounds.
- Apply knowledge of principles of reading instruction related to at-risk readers (e.g., promoting positive transfer of reading skills from the primary language, activating prior knowledge before reading, using oral language to contextualize new vocabulary and content presented in texts, using visual aids and manipulatives, scaffolding reading assignments and related academic tasks).
- Apply knowledge of the use of instructional practices, approaches, and methods for eliciting students' engagement in and motivation for reading and promoting students' self-efficacy with regard to reading.
- Apply knowledge of ways to evaluate literacy programs, curriculums, technology resources, and other instructional materials to ensure they are scientifically research-based, aligned with state and national standards, and appropriate for meeting students' evidence-based strengths and needs.
Competency 0003–Apply knowledge of foundations of reading assessment.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the role of assessment in guiding standards- and evidence-based reading instruction, intervention, and extension in the classroom; and informing program planning at school, district, and state levels.
- Demonstrate knowledge of concepts related to assessment (e.g., validity, reliability, bias issues, differences between quantitative and qualitative data, the importance of administering assessments with fidelity) and the importance of using multiple data sources to inform instructional planning.
- Demonstrate knowledge of characteristics, uses, and limitations of various assessment types (e.g., formal, informal, formative, summative).
- Apply knowledge of the ability to select, administer, and interpret the results of assessments for various purposes (e.g., screening, identifying, instructional planning, progress monitoring, measuring outcomes).
- Apply knowledge of ways to administer appropriate assessments to determine students' independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels; and demonstrate the ability to interpret the results of such assessments.
- Demonstrate knowledge of state and district assessment frameworks, proficiency standards, and benchmarks and how to interpret data for specific purposes (e.g., identifying strengths and needs in a school's reading curriculum).
- Apply knowledge of strategies for providing leadership to and collaborating with school personnel in developing, selecting, and administering effective and current reading assessments.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for providing leadership to and collaborating with school personnel in analyzing, interpreting, and using assessment results for instructional decision making in the classroom and school.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for analyzing, reporting, and explaining assessment results to a variety of stakeholders (e.g., school personnel, families, students).
- Apply knowledge of the components and features of comprehensive reading assessment models, including Missouri's multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) (e.g., consistent progress monitoring, appropriate documentation of assessment results, implementation of interventions).
Domain II–Reading Development
Competency 0004–Apply knowledge of emergent literacy skills and phonological and phonemic awareness.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of key concepts and reading strategies related to emergent literacy skills, such as concepts of print (e.g., book-handling, print carries meaning, the directionality of print, the ability to track print in connected text).
- Apply knowledge of the continuum of phonological- and phonemic-awareness skill development (i.e., segmenting sentences into words; blending and segmenting syllables; blending and segmenting onset/rime, including identifying and producing rhyming words and alliteration; identifying beginning, medial, and final phonemes in words; and blending, segmenting, deleting, adding, and substituting phonemes in words) and strategies to promote students' development along the continuum in systematically planned instruction.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies and evidence-based practices for letter recognition and formation.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the alphabetic principle (e.g., identifying the most common sound or sounds associated with each letter of the alphabet) and strategies and practices for promoting development and reinforcement in letter-sound correspondence.
- Demonstrate knowledge of key concepts and scientifically based reading research in phonemic awareness, including the critical role of phonemic awareness in learning to read an alphabetic language.
- Apply knowledge of methods for teaching phonemic awareness (e.g., explicitly teach articulatory features of phonemes, use manipulatives to represent phonemes, explicitly teach English phonemes that English Learners may not have in their primary language).
- Apply knowledge of the distinction between phonological awareness (i.e., the awareness that oral language is made up of smaller units, such as spoken words and syllables) and phonemic awareness (i.e., a specific type of phonological awareness involving the ability to distinguish the separate phonemes in spoken words).
- Apply knowledge of ways to select and use developmentally appropriate oral language and writing processes (e.g., use of invented spelling) to support and reinforce students' development in emergent literacy skills and phonemic awareness.
- Apply knowledge of ways to provide research-based, evidence-based, and developmentally appropriate assessment, instruction, differentiated instruction, intervention, extension, and ongoing progress monitoring in emergent literacy skills and phonological and phonemic awareness.
Competency 0005–Apply knowledge of phonics and word analysis.
For example:
- Apply knowledge of key concepts in phonics (e.g., the role of phonics in developing accurate decoding and automaticity, the reciprocity between decoding and encoding) and the importance of providing explicit, systematic phonics instruction.
- Apply knowledge of key terminology and concepts in phonics, including types of consonant and vowel sounds and common regular letter combinations (e.g., digraphs, blends, diphthongs).
- Apply knowledge of regular and irregular high-frequency words and common inflectional endings (e.g., –s, –ed, –ing).
- Apply knowledge of syllable patterns (e.g., open, closed), syllabication skills, morphemes (e.g., word roots, derivational affixes), and structural analysis skills (e.g., base words, prefixes, suffixes) to develop students' accurate, automatic decoding of multisyllable words.
- Apply knowledge of spelling development and appropriate guidelines for teaching letter-sound correspondences, vowel patterns, and orthographic guidelines at each level of development.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the role of high-frequency words in accurate, automatic reading of grade-level text; and evidence-based practices for promoting students' accurate, automatic decoding of high-frequency words with both regular and irregular spellings.
- Apply knowledge of ways to select and use developmentally appropriate oral language and writing processes to support and reinforce students' development in phonics and word analysis.
- Apply knowledge of ways to provide research-based, evidence-based, and developmentally appropriate assessment, instruction, differentiated instruction, intervention, extension, and ongoing progress monitoring in phonics and word analysis.
Competency 0006–Apply knowledge of reading fluency.
For example:
- Apply knowledge of the role of automaticity in reading fluency and comprehension.
- Apply knowledge of the key indicators of fluency (i.e., accuracy, rate, and prosody—expression and appropriate phrasing).
- Apply knowledge of the importance of providing explicit instruction in fluency designed for students at different stages of reading development.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between oral and silent reading as it relates to the development of fluency.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the importance of incorporating accountability for comprehension in instructional activities focused on developing students' reading fluency.
- Demonstrate knowledge of common factors that disrupt fluency (e.g., lack of automaticity, limited decoding skills, lack of vocabulary knowledge, insufficient background knowledge, comprehension skills).
- Apply knowledge of ways to select appropriate texts for developing fluency at different stages of reading development (e.g., using decodable texts aligned with phonics patterns students have learned, exposing students to a wider range of texts and content vocabulary as development progresses).
- Apply knowledge of ways to provide research-based, evidence-based, and developmentally appropriate assessment, instruction, differentiated instruction, intervention, extension, and ongoing progress monitoring in the components of reading fluency.
Competency 0007–Apply knowledge of vocabulary and academic language.
For example:
- Apply knowledge of the development of vocabulary and academic language (i.e., the language used in books, tests, and other formal writing) and the correlation between vocabulary knowledge and academic achievement.
- Apply knowledge of the importance of early, robust, and explicit language experiences and oral language activities to promote and support students' vocabulary and academic-language development.
- Apply knowledge of components of effective vocabulary instruction, including instruction of content-area vocabulary (e.g., explicitly teaching words and word-learning strategies, promoting word consciousness and a love of words, encouraging and supporting wide reading, providing meaningful exposure and opportunities to use new vocabulary).
- Demonstrate knowledge of the different levels of vocabulary knowledge (i.e., unfamiliar with the word, familiar with the word but not its meaning, able to recognize the word in context, and able to use the word correctly).
- Demonstrate knowledge of the tiers of vocabulary words (i.e., Tier One—found in everyday speech, Tier Two—general academic, and Tier Three—academic discipline-specific) and ways to prioritize words selected for explicit instruction that are central to the meaning of a specific text and/or likely to be used frequently among texts.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for promoting word study, including explicit instruction in word meanings, synonyms, antonyms, figurative language, multiple-meaning words, and idioms.
- Apply knowledge of ways to use morphemic analysis (e.g., examining roots, prefixes, and suffixes of words) and etymology (e.g., common English roots and affixes derived from Greek and Latin) to determine words' meanings.
- Apply knowledge of independent strategies for building vocabulary and for verifying the meanings and pronunciations of unfamiliar words or words with multiple meanings (e.g., reference materials, context clues, semantic and syntactic cues).
- Apply strategies to scaffold vocabulary instruction for at-risk readers (e.g., visual-tactile kinesthetic supports, cognates, additional oral rehearsal of vocabulary).
- Apply knowledge of ways to select and use developmentally appropriate oral language and writing processes to support and reinforce students' development in vocabulary and academic language.
- Apply knowledge of ways to provide research-based, evidence-based, and developmentally appropriate assessment, instruction, differentiated instruction, intervention, extension, and ongoing progress monitoring in vocabulary and academic language.
Domain III–Reading Comprehension
Competency 0008–Apply knowledge of comprehension and analysis of informational texts.
For example:
- Apply knowledge of key concepts in the comprehension and analysis of informational texts, including reading for understanding, setting a purpose for reading, adjusting reading approaches according to the reading purpose (e.g., skimming, scanning, close reading), and making connections from text to self, text to text, and text to world.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for promoting reading comprehension of informational texts at the literal, inferential, and evaluative levels.
- Demonstrate knowledge of various informational text types (e.g., narrative, explanatory, opinion, persuasive, argumentative) and genres (e.g., history, biographies, journals, news articles) from a variety of cultures and time periods.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for teaching students how to use organizational text structures (e.g., compare/contrast, cause/effect, chronological, problem/solution) and text features (e.g., graphs, photographs, maps, charts) to enhance comprehension of informational texts.
- Apply knowledge of factors that can affect reading comprehension (e.g., lack of automaticity, limited decoding skills, lack of vocabulary knowledge, insufficient background knowledge, syntactic difficulties) and strategies for scaffolding and facilitating students' comprehension and analysis of informational texts.
- Apply knowledge of appropriate strategies students can use independently to support their own understanding and analysis of informational texts (e.g., prior knowledge, self-monitoring, summarization, think-alouds, questions/questioning, determining importance, synthesis, visualization).
- Apply knowledge of ways to promote critical thinking about informational texts by modeling and guiding students in constructing critical/higher-order questions (e.g., questions related to sources; validity; bias; voices and perspectives, both present and absent).
- Apply knowledge of the close-reading process and ways to provide explicit instruction and to model and guide students' use of various comprehension strategies (e.g., text-based questioning, analyzing vocabulary) that support understanding and analysis of complex informational texts.
- Apply knowledge of ways to select and use developmentally appropriate oral language and writing processes to support and reinforce students' development in comprehension and analysis of informational texts and strategies for promoting students' reading and writing in disciplinary literacy to meet instructional goals.
- Apply knowledge of ways to provide research-based, evidence-based and developmentally appropriate assessment, instruction, differentiated instruction, intervention, extension, and ongoing progress monitoring in the comprehension and analysis of informational texts.
Competency 0009–Apply knowledge of comprehension and analysis of literary texts.
For example:
- Apply knowledge of key concepts in the comprehension and analysis of literary texts, including reading for understanding; setting a purpose for reading; adjusting reading approaches according to the reading purpose (e.g., skimming, scanning, close reading); and making connections from text to self, text to text, and text to world.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for promoting reading comprehension of literary texts at the literal, inferential, and evaluative levels.
- Demonstrate knowledge of various literary text features (e.g., pictures, predictability) and genres (e.g., fiction, science fiction, poetry, drama) from a variety of cultures and time periods.
- Demonstrate knowledge of strategies for teaching students how to use organizational text structures (e.g., beginning, middle, end) and story elements (e.g., characters, plot, problem, solution, theme) to enhance comprehension of literary texts.
- Apply knowledge of factors that can affect reading comprehension (e.g., lack of automaticity, limited decoding skills, lack of vocabulary knowledge, insufficient background knowledge, syntactic difficulties) and strategies for scaffolding and facilitating students' comprehension and analysis of literary texts.
- Apply knowledge of appropriate strategies students can use independently to support their own understanding and analysis of literary texts (e.g., prediction, visualization, prior knowledge, self-monitoring, summarization, think-alouds, questioning, determining importance, synthesis).
- Apply understanding of ways to promote critical thinking about literary texts by modeling and guiding students in constructing critical/higher-order questions (e.g., questions related to bias; questions related to voices and perspectives, both present and absent).
- Apply knowledge of the close-reading process and ways to provide explicit instruction and to model and guide students' use of various comprehension strategies (e.g., text-based questioning, analyzing vocabulary) that support understanding and analysis of complex literary texts.
- Apply knowledge of ways to select and use developmentally appropriate oral language and writing processes to support and reinforce students' development in comprehension and analysis of literary texts and strategies for promoting students' reading and writing in disciplinary literacy to meet instructional goals.
- Apply knowledge of ways to provide research-based, evidence-based, and developmentally appropriate assessment, instruction, differentiated instruction, intervention, extension, and ongoing progress monitoring in comprehension and analysis of literary texts.
Domain IV–Classroom Environment and Professional Learning
Competency 0010–Apply knowledge of the literacy-rich classroom environment.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of skills and strategies for creating and maintaining a physical environment that promotes literacy development of all students, such as using classroom arrangements that support a variety of grouping strategies and providing access to reading materials (e.g., books, magazines, journals, media) of diverse topics, genres, and reading levels.
- Apply knowledge of skills and strategies for creating and maintaining a social learning environment that reflects and values diversity and promotes respect for all students.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for promoting students' discussions surrounding texts (e.g., book groups, literature circles, class discussions) and their sense of belonging to a community of readers.
- Apply knowledge of strategies for promoting students' independent reading (e.g., teaching students how to self-select a variety of materials, allotting class time for independent reading).
- Apply knowledge of strategies for promoting community–school and home–school connections and collaborating with families in promoting students' literacy development.
- Demonstrate knowledge of appropriate digital and nondigital tools and resources that address students' diverse learning strengths and challenges and reflect diverse settings, historical periods, and cultures.
- Demonstrate knowledge of selection criteria for literary and informational texts for the purpose of literacy instruction (e.g., qualitative and quantitative text complexity measures, reader and task variables).
- Apply knowledge of ways to facilitate and foster a positive climate that supports a literacy-rich learning environment.
Competency 0011–Apply knowledge of professional learning and leadership in literacy.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of local, state, and national policies and legislation affecting literacy instruction and professional development in literacy.
- Apply knowledge of evidence-based practices and publications, organizations, and conferences related to developing and supervising effective literacy instruction and professional development.
- Demonstrate knowledge of literature and research on organizational change, adult learning, school culture, and culturally responsive learning communities as they relate to an effective literacy program.
- Apply knowledge of skills for providing leadership to and collaborating effectively with stakeholders (e.g., colleagues, families, the community) in the development and implementation of a school literacy program.
- Apply knowledge of professional development strategies for keeping well informed in the field of literacy and sharing knowledge of evidence-based literacy research and practices with colleagues (e.g., leading professional development sessions for classroom teachers).
- Apply knowledge of effective literacy-coaching practices to provide instructional and practical support to colleagues and/or administrators in literacy development, instructional practices, and disciplinary literacy strategies.
- Demonstrate strategies for implementing and supporting professional practices and curriculum (e.g., providing constructive feedback to colleagues when requested, engaging in self-reflection with regard to literacy instruction and the literacy curriculum).
- Demonstrate knowledge of skills for promoting equitable access to literacy and advocating for effective literacy practices and policies that are culturally responsive and value diversity at the school, district, and community levels.