Instruments
Academic Competence Evaluation Scales (ACES)
The Academic Competence Evaluation Scales (ACES) are questionnaires evaluating social, behavioral, and academic skills related to learning in school. Specifically, ACES measures academic skills in reading, language, mathematics, and critical thinking as well as academic enablers such as motivation, interpersonal skills, engagement, and study skills.
ACES has three versions: ACES-Teacher Form (ACES-TF), ACES-Student Form (ACES-SF), and ACES-College Form (ACES-CF). ACES-TF is for grades K-12 and consists of 73 items using a 5-point Likert scale. ACES-SF is for grades 6-12 and consists of 68 items. The ACES-CF is for students enrolled in colleges or technical schools and consists of 66 items.
As of 2022, ACES-2 is in the process of development and validation, see more details here.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts, Math
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary
Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2.1)
The Adult Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2.1) is a 40-item self-reporting inventory that measures parental behaviors and is commonly used to assess the risk of child abuse and neglect. The AAPI-2.1 provides five subscales: expectations of children, parental empathy towards children's needs, use of corporal punishment, parent-child family roles, and children's power and independence. The instrument is offered in English, Spanish, Creole, and Arabic.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ)
The Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) is a screening instrument that measures developmental performance in young children aged 1 month-5.5 years. Early childhood educators and healthcare professionals use ASQ to collect information from parents on children’s development in five domains: communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, problem solving, and personal-social skills.
The most recent version of ASQ as of 2022 is ASQ-3, the third edition of the instrument. ASQ-3 offers 21 parent/caregiver questionnaires that are used depending on the child's age.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: < 3 Years, Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten
aimswebPlus Reading
The aimswebPlus reading subtests screen and monitor the reading skills of PreK–12 students. aimswebPlus also has add-on screeners for behavior and dyslexia.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Alabama Parenting Questionnaire
The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire is a 42-item self-reporting instrument that focuses on positive involvement with children, supervision and monitoring, use of positive discipline techniques, consistency in the use of discipline, and corporal punishment use. The instrument, designed for parents with children 6-18 years of age, can be used for pre- and post-treatment and is offered in both English and Spanish.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID)
The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID) measures the development of infants and young children (aged 16 days-42 months). Conducted by trained examiners, BSID includes several developmental play tasks to assess cognitive, language, motor, social-emotional, and adaptive behavior development. BSID’s most recent fourth version was created in 2019.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: < 3 Years
Caregiver Interaction Scale
The Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS) is an instrument that measures parent and caregiver behaviors and interactions with children. The instrument consists of 26 items focused on sensitivity, harshness, detachment, and permissiveness. CIS was created in 1989 at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and used in the evaluation of North Carolina’s Smart Start Initiative.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
CARE-Index
The CARE-Index is an observation instrument that measures mother-child interaction and is designed for children ages birth to 2 years. The instrument, which requires a short videotaped play interaction, provides sensitivity, control and unresponsiveness subscales for mothers and cooperativeness, compulsivity, difficultness, and passivity subscales for children.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS)
The Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS) is an instrument developed at University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education and Human Development that assesses parents’ views of their relationship with their child. Created by Dr. Robert Pianta, Ph.D., the instrument consists of 30 items. There is also a short form with 15 items available.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, Second Edition (CTOPP-2)
The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing Second Edition (CTOPP-2) is an assessment that focuses on measuring the phonological processing abilities of students grades PreK-12. The CTOPP-2 contains several composites: phonological awareness, phonological memory, rapid symbolic naming, rapid non-symbolic naming, and alternate phonological awareness.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) 8th Edition
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) 8th Edition is an assessment that can be used for benchmark screening and monitoring growth of students in grades K-8.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade
Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS)
The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) is an assessment of classroom quality measuring environmental provisions and teacher-child interactions affecting the developmental needs of preschool- and kindergarten-aged children. The third edition of the assessment, ECERS-3, includes 35 items focusing on the following six domains: space and furnishings, personal care routines, language and literacy, learning activities, interaction, and program structure. ECERS may be used to evaluate inclusive and culturally diverse educational settings.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten
Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K:2011) Reading Assessments
The ECLS-K:2011 is a longitudinal study, with the same children followed from kindergarten through the fifth grade. The direct cognitive assessments were designed to measure children's knowledge and skills, as well as track their academic growth in different subject areas. Among these subjects included reading.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade
Early Reading Assessment (ERA)
The Early Reading Assessment (ERA) is an assessment for children in grades K-2 that helps educators identify students with delays in reading abilities. Teachers, special educators, speech pathologists, and school psychologists can administer the test. The ERA, which takes 10-15 minutes to complete, contains the written word vocabulary, rapid orthographic naming, and silent orthographic efficiency core subtests that combine to create the Early Reading Index.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade
Emotional Availability Scales
The Emotional Availability Scales (EA Scales) measures the quality of parent-child or adult-child interactions. Emotional availability refers to “the adult’s ‘receptive presence’ to the child’s emotional signals” (Biringen and Easterbrooks, 2012). Created by Dr. Zeynep Biringen, Ph.D., in 1987, the instrument is currently in its 4th edition. The EA Scales consist of both adult and child subscales and can be completed in approximately 20 minutes.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Family Empowerment Scale (FES)
The Family Empowerment Scale (FES) measures empowerment in families whose children have emotional disabilities. The 34 items of the FES questionnaire focus on the level of empowerment (with respect to the family, service system, and larger community and political environment) and the way empowerment is expressed (attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors).
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, 4th Edition (GMRT-4)
GMRT-4 measures overall reading achievement spanning each important stage along the reading continuum—from oral language to mature reading comprehension. The underlying foundation of GMRT is that it is useful for teachers and schools to know the general level of reading achievement of individual students throughout their entire school careers.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary
Gray Oral Reading Test | Fifth Edition (GORT-5)
The GORT-5 is an individually administered assessment of oral reading sold by Pearson.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary
Healthy Families Parenting Inventory (HFPI)
The Healthy Families Parenting Inventory (HFPI) is a self-reporting instrument that measures nine parenting domains: social support, problem-solving, depression, personal care, mobilizing resources, role satisfaction, parent/child interaction, home environment, and parenting efficacy. The instrument, which contains 63 items, is often used for assessing home visitation early childhood programs.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
HMH Reading Inventory
The HMH Reading Inventory, an adaptive test of reading comprehension developed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), consists of two subtests: the Foundational Reading Assessment and the Reading Comprehension Assessment.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Indicators of Individual Growth and Development for Infants and Toddlers (IGDI)
Indicators of Individual Growth and Development for Infants and Toddlers (IGDI) measure development outcomes for children between 6 and 42 months. IGDI assessments are evaluations of 6-minute play sessions with the child and require the use of a set of toys in addition to administration materials. IGDI assessments can be conducted live during the play session, based on a video recording of the play session, or by observing the play session virtually.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: < 3 Years, Pre-Kindergarten
Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS)
The Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) measures the environmental quality of childcare programs for children up to 30 months old. The instrument was originally developed in 1990 and is now offered in a revised version (Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised, ITERS-R). The 39 items of ITERS-R focus on the following seven domains: space and furnishings, personal care routines, listening and talking, activities, interaction, program structure, and parents and staff. ITERS-R is suitable for inclusive and culturally diverse settings.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: < 3 Years
Iowa Assessments - ELA
The Iowa Assessments replaced the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) and Iowa Test of Educational Development (ITED) in 2011-2012 to align with the Iowa Common Core Standards. The assessment can be administered to students in grades K-12 and can be used for monitoring student growth, making relative comparisons, predicting future performance, and identifying students who may need intervention. The Iowa Assessments measure students' abilities in reading, language, mathematics, social studies, and science.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
ISIP Reading
ISIP is a computer administered assessment of reading ability. ISIP Early Reading is inteded for use with children in grades K-3 and can be administered to an entire classroom in a 30 minute time frame. ISIP Advanced Reading is meant to be used with students grades 4-8 and can also be administered to an entire class in a 30 miniute time frame.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade
Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale (KIPS)
The Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale (KIPS) is an observation-based instrument that assesses parent-child interaction during play. The instrument has been rated “A-Reliability and Validity Demonstrated” by California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse and recommended by Parents As Teachers, Healthy Families America, SafeCare, and WAVE Trust & Department for Education, United Kingdom. The observation portion of KIPS, which helps measure 12 key parenting behaviors, can be completed in 15 minutes, while scoring takes approximately 20 minutes.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI)
The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) is a parent-focused instrument measuring the communicative development of children aged 8-37 months. CDI allows professionals to screen and develop prognoses for language delays by tapping into parents’ knowledge of their children’s language skills, starting from early comprehension to early vocabulary and grammar expansion.
Category: Student Well-Being
Sub-Category: Child Development
Grades: < 3 Years
Parent Behavior Checklist
The Parent Behavior Checklist (PBC) is a self-reporting instrument designed for parents with children 1-4 years years old. The instrument, which only takes 10-20 minutes to complete, provides expectations, nurturing, and discipline subscales.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI)
The Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI) is a self-reporting instrument that assess parents' beliefs about the frequency, quality, and importance of their child's literacy activities. The 42-item instrument provides seven subscales: positive affect, verbal participation, resources, teaching efficacy, knowledge base, environmental input, and reading instruction.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Parent Success Indicator (PSI)
The Parent Success Indicator (PSI) is a self-reporting instrument that assess parental behavior, specifically related to communication, use of time, teaching, frustration, satisfaction, and information needs. The PSI is designed for parents with children 10-14 years of age and offers a child survey as well. English and Spanish versions of the instrument are available.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI)
The Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (PCRI) is an instrument for parents to assess their relationship with their children. The instrument, which contains 78 items, has been standardized on over 1,100 parents in the United States. The PCRI can be completed in 15 to 20 minutes.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Parent-Infant Relational Assessment Tool (PIRAT)
The Parent-Infant Relational Assessment Tool (PIRAT) is an observation instrument that rates parent-child interactions for children ages birth to 2 years. The PIRAT measures optimal parental behavior and can be used as a risk assessment by health professionals. The instrument was developed as part of the Parent-Infant Project at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes
The Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO™) is an observation instrument that covers four parenting behavior domains: affection, responsiveness, encouragement, and teaching. The instrument is designed for children from 10 months to 4 years old and is available in both English and Spanish.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS)
The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) is a tool that focuses on fundamental literacy skills. The assessment offers instruments for PreK-3, with a Spanish version available as well. PALS is the state-provided screening assessment for Virginia's Early Intervention Reading Initiative (EIRI). PALS Plus can be used for grades 4-8.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade
Predictive Assessment of Reading (PAR)
The Predictive Assessment of Reading (PAR) can be used to measure a student's reading level, identify skills in need of intervention, monitor progress, and predict future reading achievement. The assessment contains four reading subtests that can be administered to special needs, gifted, ELL students, and developing students in grades PreK-3.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
ReadBasix
ReadBasix is a web-administered reading assessment for students in grades 3–12. ReadBasix measures foundational reading skills including word recognition & decoding, vocabulary, sentence processing, reading efficiency, and other skills involved in reading comprehension via separate subtests. The assessment has multiple forms and is vertically scaled, allowing it to be used for progress monitoring, measuring student growth, or detecting changes in reading as a result of intervention.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
TerraNova3 - Reading
TerraNova 3 reading assessments are designed to measure important higher order thinking skills as well as basic and applied skills. These assessments include norm-referenced achievement scores, criterion-referenced objective mastery scores, and performance-level information.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Test of Early Reading Ability-Fourth Edition (TERA-4)
The TERA-4 is an individually administered assessment of early reading mastery.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension (TOSREC)
The TOSREC is a test of silent reading efficiency and comprehension designed for screening and progress monitoring.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI)
TPRI was created to assesses student progress in critical reading domains, including phonemic awareness, graphophonemic knowledge, word reading, comprehension, accuracy, and fluency.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade
The Cleminshaw-Guidubaldi Parent Satisfaction Scale
The Cleminshaw-Guidubaldi Parent Satisfaction Scale is a 50-item self-reporting instrument that measures satisfaction with child-rearing skills. The instrument, which is designed for parents with children birth-18 years of age, contains five subscales: spouse support, child-parent relationship, parent performance, family discipline and control, and general satisfaction subscales.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
The Home Observation Measurement of the Environment-Short Form (HOME-SF)
The Home Observation Measurement of the Environment-Short Form (HOME-SF) is an observation instrument commonly used to measure the home environment of children ages birth to 15 years old. The HOME-SF is an abridged version of the HOME inventory, which is twice the length, and contains mother-reported items. The HOME-SF provides cognitive stimulation and emotional support subscores along with the total score.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Tool to Measure Parenting Self-Efficacy (TOPSE)
The Tool to Measure Parenting Self-Efficacy (TOPSE) is a UK-developed instrument that assesses six parenting domains: emotion and affection, play and enjoyment, empathy and understanding, control, discipline and boundary setting, pressures of parenting self-acceptance and learning and knowledge. The instrument is designed to be completed on the first session and last session of a parenting program.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Woodcock-Johnson IV - ELA
The Woodcock-Johnson IV contains three co-normed batteries that measure strengths and weaknesses and diagnose learning abilities. The WJ IV is an individually-administered comprehensive assessment suite that can identify patterns of strength and weaknesses in cognitive, language, and academic abilities. In addition to oral language, reading, and writing, the WJ IV also assesses mathematics.
Category: Academic Knowledge and Skills
Sub-Category: English Language Arts
Grades: Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary
Zarit Burden Inventory (ZBI)
The Zarit Burden Inventory (ZBI) is a self-report instrument that measures the level of burden that principal caregivers experience. Originally developed for caregivers of persons with dementia, ZBI is now used with various types of caregivers, including parents of children with health, behavioral, and developmental problems. The current full version, ZBI-22, has 22 items, each using a 5-point Likert-type scale. Shorter versions exist; see Yu et al. (2019) in the psychometric references below.
Category: Home and Community
Sub-Category: Parenting
Grades: < 3 Years, Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade, Post secondary