Intake Assessment Materials
Reviewed by Rena Neufeld

The Intake Assessment Materials manual is designed to provide Fundamental Level (0 to grade 8) instructors and adult students with a short and easy-to-use procedure for assessing a student’s educational goals and experiences.

The manual is intended for use by experienced adult literacy instructors. The student assessment is divided into four parts: the initial interview, a reading assessment, a writing assessment, and a math assessment.

The assessments are designed to reduce the anxiety that many adult learners experience as they return to the learning situation. Each assessment is short, the instructions are easy to follow, and each lends itself to useful dialogue between the learner and the instructor.

The manual describes a student-friendly procedure for the initial interview that allows students to articulate their own strengths, goals, and expectations. It explains the importance of this initial interview for both the student and the instructor.

The manual includes photocopiable reading passages and mathematical worksheets, interview forms and assessment charts. It provides straightforward instructions on how to administer and analyze each assessment. Everything is adult-oriented. The printed material for the student is presented with limited text on each page, making it more readable and less intimidating.

The instructors who use this assessment manual find it to be an excellent resource, thoughtful, easy to use, comprehensive, and sensitive to the needs of adult learners. The learners who are assessed with this material find the experience positive, enjoyable, and informative. One instructor writes, “Years of experience in assessing are apparent in this resource." Another instructor comments that this resource “…has saved us a tremendous amount of time by providing all the necessary parts for an initial interview. I think the format of the material and the range of questions, reading selections, and math testing that is provided here makes this an invaluable resource for literacy instructors.”