12.3 Formal and Informal Assessment Instruments

ALTA Competency Exam for Multisensory Structured Language Education CALT

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1 Introduction & Exam Overview

1.1 Current Exam Facts 1.2 Eligibility and Therapy-Level Training 1.3 Registration, Prometric, and Study Plan

2 Language Development: Oral and Written Continuum

2.1 Oral-to-Written Language Continuum 2.2 Receptive and Expressive Oral Language 2.3 Receptive and Expressive Written Language

3 Language Development: Phonological Processing & Research

3.1 Atypical Literacy Development and Remediation 3.2 Phonological Processing Components 3.3 Research on Language Development

4 Structural Linguistics: Phonology

4.1 Continuum of Phonological Skills 4.2 Phonemes, Graphemes, and Morphemes 4.3 Articulatory Gestures

5 Structural Linguistics: Alphabetic Principle & Syllables

5.1 Alphabetic Principle and Sight-Word Recognition 5.2 Six Syllable Types 5.3 Syllable Division Patterns

6 Structural Linguistics: Accent, Morphology & Orthography

6.1 Accent Placement and Sound-Symbol Influences 6.2 Morphology: Roots and Affixes 6.3 Orthography, Affixing Rules, and Etymology

7 Structural Linguistics: Syntax, Semantics & Comprehension

7.1 Syntax, Sentence Structure, and Punctuation 7.2 Semantics and Pragmatics 7.3 Comprehension Strategies and Text Structures

8 Structural Linguistics: Written Language & Research

8.1 Handwriting and the Writing Process 8.2 Research on Structural Linguistics

9 Dyslexia: Definition, Brain & Neurology

9.1 Defining Dyslexia and Instructional Impact 9.2 Brain Anatomy and the Reading Network 9.3 Neurological Aspects of Learning Disabilities

10 Dyslexia: Related Issues, Comorbidity & History

10.1 Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Issues 10.2 Comorbid Disorders 10.3 Historical Pioneers in Dyslexia

11 Dyslexia: Research & Executive Function

11.1 Research on Dyslexia and Related Disorders 11.2 Executive Function and Dyslexia

12 Psychoeducational Assessment: Foundations

12.1 Assessment Terminology and Purposes 12.2 Essential Components of a Dyslexia Evaluation 12.3 Formal and Informal Assessment Instruments

13 Psychoeducational Assessment: Interpretation & Error Analysis

13.1 Interpreting Standard Scores, Percentiles, and Stanines 13.2 Using Results to Guide Services 13.3 Error Analysis of Work Samples 13.4 Psychoeducational Research

14 MSL Strategies: Multisensory, Systematic & Analytic

14.1 Simultaneous VAKT Multisensory Strategies 14.2 Systematic and Cumulative Instruction 14.3 Synthetic vs Analytic Instruction

15 MSL Strategies: Direct Instruction, Automaticity & Diagnosis

15.1 Direct vs Indirect Instruction 15.2 Automaticity in Literacy Development 15.3 Diagnostic Teaching

16 MSL Strategies: Program Principles & Theoretical Models

16.1 MSLE Program Content and Principles 16.2 Metacognition and Learning Environments 16.3 Simple View of Reading 16.4 Scarborough's Reading Rope

17 Federal Laws: IDEA, Section 504 & ADA

17.1 Federal Disability Law Landscape 17.2 Federal Eligibility Guidelines 17.3 Documentation Decisions and Accommodations 17.4 Historical Development of Disability Law

18 Professional Ethics: ALTA Code of Ethics

18.1 ALTA Code of Ethics Overview 18.2 Confidentiality, Competence, and Credentials 18.3 Ethical Standards with Parents and Colleagues

19 Professional Communication

19.1 Professional Student Reports 19.2 Strengths- and Needs-Based Language 19.3 Communicating with Parents, Students, and Colleagues

12.3 Formal and Informal Assessment Instruments

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

Standards 4.C–4.D require CALTs to know the relevance of informal tools and the characteristics/uses of both formal and informal instruments.

Formal instruments are typically published, standardized, and often norm-referenced; they support screening, diagnosis, eligibility documentation, and benchmarking.

Informal instruments—running records, word lists, spelling inventories, writing samples, and instructional probes—provide frequent, fine-grained data for diagnostic-prescriptive MSLE lessons.

Informal assessment does not replace formal evaluation when identification or comprehensive documentation is required; the two streams complement each other.

Instrument selection should match the decision: formal tools for peer comparison and comprehensive profiles; informal tools for immediate instructional adjustment.

Last updated: July 2026

12.3 Formal and Informal Assessment Instruments

Quick Answer: Formal instruments are usually published, standardized (and often normed) tools used for screening, comprehensive evaluation, and benchmarking. Informal instruments—running records, word lists, spelling inventories, writing samples, and lesson probes—supply frequent, instructionally specific data. Standards 4.C–4.D require knowing both the relevance of informal tools and the distinct characteristics/uses of each type.

After terminology (4.A) and evaluation components (4.B), the ALTA blueprint asks therapists to operationalize assessment through instruments. Standard 4.C focuses on the relevance of informal assessment tools for dyslexia and related disorders. Standard 4.D requires identifying characteristics and uses of formal and informal instruments. Together they answer a practical question every CALT faces: Which tool, for which decision, right now?

Characteristics of Formal Assessment Instruments

Formal instruments typically share these features:

• Published manuals with administration, scoring, and interpretation guidance
• Standardized procedures that constrain examiner behavior

Technical data on reliability (score consistency) and validity (evidence the test measures its intended construct)

Normative samples when the tool is norm-referenced, enabling peer comparison

Structured subtests aligned to constructs such as phonological awareness, rapid naming, decoding, orthographic processing, fluency, or comprehension

Common formal categories in dyslexia-related practice include comprehensive achievement batteries, phonological processing tests, timed word and pseudoword reading measures, and oral reading fluency/comprehension inventories administered under standardized rules. Exact product names vary by setting; the exam cares more that you know what formal tools do than that you recite a publisher catalog.

Primary Uses of Formal Instruments

Screening — Efficiently identify students needing deeper assessment.

Comprehensive evaluation / diagnosis support — Build the multi-component profile described in 4.B.

Eligibility and documentation — Provide defensible, comparable scores for school teams, 504/IDEA processes, and private reports.

Benchmarking and reevaluation — Compare status across longer intervals (for example, annual or triennial review).

Formal tools are less ideal as the only weekly lesson planner. They are often time-consuming, expensive, and too molar to tell a therapist whether yesterday’s vowel team needs five more minutes of review today.

Characteristics of Informal Assessment Instruments

Informal instruments are flexible procedures embedded in instruction or clinical observation. They may be published inventories used flexibly, therapist-designed probes, or structured analyses of authentic work. Typical examples:

• Running records / oral reading samples with error coding
• Graded or skill-based word lists (real words and nonsense words)
• Spelling inventories and dictated sentences
• Writing samples analyzed for handwriting, encoding, syntax, and composition features
• Phonological awareness quick checks tied to current lesson targets
• MSLE program mastery tests and cumulative review probes
• CBM-style classroom probes used for instructional decisions (overlapping with 4.A terminology)

Informal does not mean careless. Strong informal assessment is purposeful, recorded, and linked to teaching hypotheses. A random stack of worksheets without analysis is not high-quality informal assessment.

• Primary Uses of Informal Instruments
• Pinpoint the next instructional target (for example, closed vs. open syllables)
• Conduct error analysis that formal standard scores cannot narrate in detail
• Monitor response to teaching between formal testing cycles
• Engage students in metacognitive review of their own error patterns
• Communicate concrete progress examples to families (“Jordan moved from 28 to 42 WCPM on parallel passages”)
• Why Informal Tools Are Especially Relevant in Dyslexia Therapy (4.C)

Students with dyslexia need intensive, diagnostic-prescriptive instruction. Formal evaluations may occur once or twice a year; therapy sessions happen multiple times per week. Informal tools keep the therapist’s model of the student current. They reveal:

• Error patterns — vowel confusion, nasal influence, suffix omission, syllable-division failures
• Transfer — whether skills taught in isolation appear in connected reading and spelling
• Automaticity status — accuracy present but rate still labored
• Affective and strategic behaviors — guessing, avoidance, self-correction, fatigue

Without informal assessment, MSLE risks becoming a rigid script that ignores the student’s changing profile. With only informal assessment and no formal data when identification is at stake, teams risk under-documentation and delayed services. Relevance means complementarity , not replacement.

• Feature Formal instruments Informal instruments
• Standardization Usually high / manualized Variable; therapist-structured
• Peer norms Often available Usually criterion/instructional
• Frequency Periodic Daily to weekly
• Best decision Identify, document, benchmark Plan and adjust lessons
• Grain size Broad constructs/subtests Specific patterns and items
• Matching Instruments to Decisions (4.D)

Use this decision frame on exam vignettes:

Need peer comparison or eligibility evidence? → Formal, typically norm-referenced standardized measures.

Need to know if the student mastered this week’s concept? → Criterion-referenced or informal mastery check.

Need to know if therapy is changing fluency trajectory? → Repeated CBM/progress probes.

Need to plan tomorrow’s decoding lesson? → Informal word lists, spelling samples, and error analysis.

Need a comprehensive dyslexia profile? → Formal battery covering essential components, supplemented by informal instructional data.

A high-quality practice integrates both. The formal report might show phonological awareness and decoding at the 5th–9th percentiles with average listening comprehension. Informal probes then show the student reads CVC closed syllables at 70% accuracy, fails VCe consistently, and omits suffixes in writing. The CALT’s lesson sequence writes itself from that combined picture.

Threats to Valid Use of Either Instrument Type

Formal instruments lose value when administration rules are broken, outdated norms are used carelessly, or scores are over-interpreted beyond the construct measured (for example, treating a brief screener as a full diagnosis). Informal instruments lose value when results are not recorded, when probes are confounded by constant coaching, or when therapists generalize from a single atypical day. Both can be biased by sensory issues, language differences, anxiety, or insufficient rapport. Ethical therapists note limitations and seek collaboration rather than forcing certainty the data cannot support.

Scope Notes for CALTs

CALTs are trained to administer informal assessments and to interpret psychoeducational data in order to plan therapy. Formal diagnostic batteries may be reserved for psychologists, diagnosticians, or other authorized examiners depending on jurisdiction and setting. Exam answers should respect that collaborative reality: know what formal scores mean, know what informal tools contribute, and do not claim credentials you do not hold—while still demonstrating deep assessment literacy.

Exam Focus

Expect items contrasting formal vs. informal characteristics, asking why informal tools matter for dyslexia intervention, or selecting the best instrument for a stated purpose. Prefer answers that keep formal tools for identification/benchmarking and informal tools for frequent instructional decisions, used together rather than in opposition.