Adaptations of the Names Test: Easy-to-Use Phonics Assessments

In 1990, Cunningham developed a Names Test as a quick and easy screening tool for teachers to obtain information about a student's decoding skills. In 1994, Duffelmeyer, Kruse, Merkley, and Fyfe added 10 names to the original Names Test and developed a comprehensive scoring matrix to increase diagnostic information from the test, based on error patterns. The purposes of the present study were twofold: To administer the augmented Names Test to a sample of students and then reorder the first and last names by difficulty level To create a downward extension of the Names Test that would be more appropriate for use with first‐ and second‐grade students, as well as with struggling readers