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Work on the development of a phonics test that will be incorporated into a total word identification test battery has continued for several years. A prototype of the test was developed in winter 1977, and a revised version was administered in spring 1978. Analysis of this test data revealed several problems, and new criteria for the test were established. After a survey of the phonics components of nine popularly used diagnostic and achievement tests was conducted, a new test was designed to meet the new criteria. The new test assesses 45 different spelling-to-sound correspondences in 141 items and is comprised of two subtests on consonants and vowels. The subtests have been administered separately to small groups of students. Interesting patterns were noticed in the errors of students on the vowels subtest. Plans are being made to further revise the phonics test by increasing the number of letter-sound correspondences, and the test will be administered to younger students. (Author/MKM)

Two studies were undertaken to continue a line of research designed to identify the subskills of word identification that correlate most highly with reading comprehension and to develop empirically based instruments to assess those subskills. The issues studied related to the broad area of structural analysis and concerned assessment of skills in the subareas of inflected endings, possessives, and affixes. In the first study, a prototype of the Inflected Endings Subtest was administered to 143 third and fourth grade children. The results indicated that most students had mastered all of the inflected endings assessed, with the exception of the possessive use of the apostrophe. In the second study, a prototype of the Affixes Test was administered to 275 fourth and fifth grade children. The results indicated that while some of the affixes assessed in the test (un-, -ful, -less, for example) were fairly well known by the children, others (pre-, -ant/-ent, for example) were still not understood by a majority of the children. In general, performance on prefixes was significantly greater than performance on suffixes. Overall, girls significantly outperformed boys and fifth grade students achieved higher scores than did fourth grade students. (Author/FL)

A study was conducted to assess the emphasis that elementary school teachers place on teaching vocabulary. The survey, distributed to 359 teachers in 7 school districts around the country, was completed by 228 teachers of grades one through five. Questions were directed at vocabulary instruction within the reading program as well as within the total curriculum. An important focus of the survey was to determine whether classroom teachers differentiate vocabulary instruction based on the ability levels of their reading groups. The results indicated that the teachers did place a high priority on vocabulary instruction, both prior to having the student read a basal passage and in content area instruction. Direct vocabulary instruction as a separate instructional area, however, was not a high priority. Of the teachers surveyed, 52% reported that they do not allocate any time specifically to vocabulary instruction as a separate subject. The teachers appeared to take into account the ability level of the reading groups when planning vocabulary instruction for their reading program. Contrary to other research findings, low ability readers were reported as receiving as much (or more) vocabulary instruction prior to reading a passage as average or above average readers. (Author/HTH)

Three studies were conducted as part of a series designed to identify the subskills of word identification that correlate most highly with reading comprehension and to examine various methods of assessing these subskills. In the first study, the prototype of a decoding (word identification) test was administered to 282 first, third, and fifth grade students, along with The Reading Subtest of the Metropolitan Achievement Tests (Form F). Study Two tested 792 second, fourth, and sixth grade students with a revised version of the decoding test and the Reading Subtest of the MAT. After another revision of the decoding test, the same procedures were used in Study Three to test 360 second, fourth, and sixth grade students. Results from the three studies indicated that all three broad areas of word identification--phonics, structural analysis, and contextual analysis--are significantly related to comprehension. The contextual analysis subtests in each study achieved higher correlation overall with the comprehension measure than did the structure and phonics subtests. Changes in the subtests between Studies Two and Three generally resulted in higher reliability ratings for those subtests that were extensively revised. The revision of subtests, however, made comparisons of results across the three studies inappropriate, and accounts for the considerable variation of correlations between skill subtests and global comprehension measures. (Author/RL)