Children are selected to be in the Title I reading program after the DRA reading tests are administered in September.  This is a one-on-one test administered by the reading teacher, the classroom teacher or the IST teacher.  It involved the child reading a short book silently and then retelling the story to the teacher.  She checks the accuracy and details of the retelling and may ask additional questions to ascertain the level of understanding that the child has.  Then the child is asked to reread a selection from the book orally and the teacher checks the fluency of the reading.

    The classroom teacher also administers other assessments.  One is the Benchmark reading test which goes with our Houghton Mifflin series.  It involves reading both a fiction and a non-fiction passage and answering both multiple choice questions as well as questions involving short written answers.   In adddition, the children are given writing prompts to asses their writing skills.  These three tests are combined with teacher observation and the Title I  students are selected by the classroom teacher and the Title I teacher together.