Community-based and workplace programs, unlike credit granting institutions, tend to favor diagnostic assessments over standardized and competency-based assessments. Diagnostic instruments provide instructors with the student's reading levels; this information leads to appropriate initial placement in classes and/or materials. Diagnostic tests require strong interpretive skills that can be gained only through a combination of experience and training. The interpretation of the test results provides specific information about how individuals process print and text, and identify specific areas of weakness and strength in a learner's skills and capabilities. This information is used to design effective lesson plans, form instructional objectives, and determine reading strategies that will meet these objectives.
The findings show that CARA is the most frequently used diagnostic assessment across delivery agencies.1 CARA consists of a 186-page instructor's manual, a 52-page student's assessment booklet, and a CD-ROM. The instructor's manual and student's assessment booklet contain a graded word list and nine levels of passages, ranging in readability from Grades 1 to 12. CARA provides instructors with the student's independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels.
The CARA levels are correlated with the adult literacy and adult basic education programs offered through each province and territory. Each level contains two fiction and three non-fiction passages. CARA has a high degree of alternate-form reliability. This means passages within each level are parallel in terms of difficulty. Consequently, CARA can be used to measure progress and evaluate gains in reading level, processes, and strategies.
1 It should be noted the the author of this paper is also the co-developer of CARA. This should be taken into account when reading the CARA review as the author might be biased towards this tool.