The RISE (Reading Inventory and Scholastic Evaluation) is a computer-administered diagnostic reading assessment for grades 4-9, which takes approximately one hour to complete. It looks at specific components of reading–such as word recognition and decoding or vocabulary–that may be impacting students’ success. These component reading skills are not directly assessed by other assessments such as the SRI or most state achievement tests. The RISE helps to pinpoint areas of need in reading, for individuals and for groups of students.

The RISE is scored by Educational Testing Service. Score reports are returned to schools in about two weeks. Teachers and administrators receive class profiles and individual student profiles. Profiles are color-coded by performance level (warning, needs improvement, proficient), making it easy to spot skill areas that should be targeted for extra instruction. RISE results can help identify students in need of intervention. Because results are broken out by skill area, reports also show areas of need for a class or grade (for example, many 7th graders might show needs in sentence structure). Over time, RISE results can help with monitoring the progress that a school is making in particular aspects of reading teaching and can also show the impact of reading interventions.

The RISE was developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in collaboration with the Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERP) and is currently being used in several large districts in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic regions.