Summary:
The two elements of the SPAR tests - spelling and reading - provide a complementary approach to the group testing of literacy at a simple level. The reading test is suitable for group administration to year three children having a wide range of abillity, and for less able, older children whose anticipated reading ages are less than nine years. Fully comparable norms, derived from a common standardization sample, are presented separately for reading and spelling, as quotients and as age norms. The reading test follows the same format as the widely-used "Group Reading Test" and is available in parallel forms A and B. The spelling items are given in the manual as "banks" which allow the selection of three 40-item spelling tests without overlap and more with partial overlap. Each spelling item is presented within the context of a complete sentence.