At this point in time a new attitude toward public schools is growing among parents, within the business community, throughout the tax-paying public, and even in its body of elected representatives. The mass media often report on widespread discontent over whether tax-supported schools at present frankly reveal precisely how well they perform their duties in providing students full opportunity to learn to read. Many parents discover evidence that these schools do not consistently fulfill their obligations in that regard.
Children often bring home report cards that indicate they are reading proficiently.
The observation that teachers' opinions as to how well their students can read are less than dependable is not a recent phenomenon. It immediately was apparent to scientific researchers they had to invent a more valid and reliable means to measure students' reading ability than that afforded by teachers' subjective views about it. The first step in the creation of an SRT is to determine the discrete, fundamental elements of effective reading that it should measure. The first three of these elements are the easiest to measure, and therefore usually are assessed by SRTs. The latter one is less amenable to testing carried on with classroom-size groups of students.