I am a first grade teacher and a DRA level of 44 is impressive for several reasons. The test has a few components. The child must first be able to read at an appropriate rate of speed with very few errors (they are timed). This part is the easy part (in my opinion) for early advanced readers. Many can read quickly and accurately with expression. In order to pass the test, though, the child must also provide a written summary with very little scaffolding. This is quite difficult, as many early advanced readers do not have the fine motor to write such a lengthy summary and have trouble synthesizing information in such a way as to produce a coherent summary in the first place. Finally, to pass the advanced level DRAs, students must be able to interpret and analyze the text. They are asked questions like, "What is the author's message in the story?" or "What is the most important event that took place in the story and why?" This is VERY hard for many young readers, again, for the reasons I mentioned above. If your 6 year old was able to pass all three components of the DRA level 44 then it would be very impressive. Even with my very gifted kids they often have trouble with the written summary and text analysis. We have had conversations in our school about how to use the DRA with early advanced readers.
