Description
York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC)
Quick Reference Guide
Student age range: 4-18 years
Designed for use by: Teachers, Assessment Co-ordinators, SENCOS
Test duration: 20-30 minutes
Test format: Paper
Test scoring: Hand scored, free online scoring and reporting
The York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC) is a one-to-one, diagnostic reading assessment that enables you to assess your students’ reading and comprehension skills from an early age through to the end of secondary school.
Why use YARC?
- Obtain an in-depth assessment of a student’s reading and comprehension skills
- Identify specific problems and inform appropriate interventions
- Assess EAL students and those requiring extra time in examinations
- Inform educational planning and benchmarking against the national average
Developed by a top team of reading experts from the Centre for Reading and Language at the University of York, YARC is ideal for following up at an individual level after group testing, identifying specific problems and informing appropriate interventions. It provides Standard Age Scores, age equivalent scores and percentile ranks for comprehension, rate and fluency.
YARC consists of three parts:
1. Early Reading (age 4-7)
The early reading suite comprises four short tests specifically designed for 4-7-year-olds or older pupils with reading difficulties. These tests assess a student’s phonological skills, alphabetic knowledge and word reading in a time-efficient and flexible way. They are among the most sensitive type of assessments for beginner readers and may be administered up to three times during a school year. The tests may be given as a complete set of all four tests or as individual tests only.
2. Passage Reading Primary (age 5-12)
Comprising fiction and non-fiction texts, the passage reading primary suite has been developed to identify the reading (decoding) and comprehension skills of 5-12-year-olds.
Administered individually by school psychologists, speech pathologists and specialist teachers, the assessment takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete and is used to:
- Assess and monitor pupil progress
- Identify reading problems
- Assess eligibility for access arrangements
- Provide diagnostic information
YARC comprises two parallel tests of graded passages (A and B) for reading aloud, each of which is accompanied by a set of 8 comprehension questions to test literal and inferential comprehension skills, providing:
- Standard Scores
- Percentile Ranks
- Reading Ages (accuracy, rate and comprehension)
YARC also provides a test of prose reading and comprehension, and assesses specifically three of the many sub-skills used in reading:
- Decoding (reading accuracy)
- Fluency (reading rate)
- Text Comprehension (literal and inferential meaning)
3. Passage Reading Secondary (age 12-18)
The passage reading secondary suite comprises a series of fiction and non-fiction passages for 12-18-year-olds. Designed to be read silently, the test assesses reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension.
Administered individually by teachers, school psychologists and speech pathologists, the assessment takes about 20-30 minutes to complete and is used to:
- Assess and monitor pupil progress
- Identify reading problems
- Assess eligibility of access arrangements
- Provide diagnostic information
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Deborah Rowan, Basic Skills Co-ordinator for the School Improvement Service in the Vale of Glamorgan –
“After the successful trial of YARC at my own school, I began using it more widely in my work within the School Improvement Service. I knew we could use it as a diagnostic tool, to see which intervention programme would be best for which child and to track impact. And I knew I could trust the results to be accurate.”