Review of Teacher ’ s School Readiness Inventory

The Teacher’s School Readiness Inventory (TSRI), developed by Marvin L. Simner of the University of Western Ontario, is a five-item teacher rating scale designed to help prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers “make proper referral decisions” (scoring manual, p. 2) for children who are “at risk for school failure” (p. 12). Using a 5-point Likert-type scale, a teacher rates each child on distractibility, attention span, and memory span; verbal fluency; interest and participation; letter-identification skills; and printing skills. These five ratings are then summed to form a total score (the only score Simner recommends for decision making). Children receiving a TSRI total score at or below the established cutoff point are considered to be academically at-risk and, in turn, are referred either for additional testing or for immediate remediation, depending on the child’s score.