Ages: Adult 16 years and older
Administration: Individual
Purpose: The Adult Reading Test 2 (ART-2) is a prose reading test standardised in the UK
Qualification Level: B
It measures prose reading accuracy, reading comprehension (silent and aloud) and speed of reading (silent and aloud). There is also a writing speed measure.
Passages increase in difficulty, starting with two practice passages: one for silent reading, the other for aloud. There are then three passages read aloud and three read silently with each one increasing in difficulty.
Students are timed and asked questions orally after reading each passage. Raw scores can then be converted to percentiles and standard scores, with confidence intervals.
The passages have been written with the adult student in mind and the test standardisation is from 16-64. Questions in the comprehension test are divided into factual, memory and inference questions.
All eight passages can be administered or just the 4 silent reading passages or the 4 aloud reading passages.
The test has been developed from the Adult Reading Test (ART). Improvements have focussed upon simplifying and reducing the procedures and offering aloud and silent parallel versions. The test should be used as a diagnostic tool to assess the reading skills of people of sixteen years of age and over.
Method
The use of a short sample of writing to obtain a writing speed has been found to be a good predictor of realistic writing speeds in examinations and essay writing.
It is invaluable for the assessment of reading difficulties amongst adults, especially for students in Further and Higher Education. It is particularly useful in the assessment and remediation of specific learning difficulties.
Research
Three Further Education colleges and four Higher Education institutions. These were chosen to represent a cross section of students at both the further and higher education levels. The test was standardised on 593 students.
The test is designed to support the work of specialist and basic skills teachers, educational psychologists, researchers and those working in the field of adult dyslexia support.
The test gives an assessment of reading which can lead to effective intervention based on individual need.
