Reflecting on my reading about general concepts of reading assessments, I can see that there is a time and place for each type of assessment. We may feel that students are being over-tested, but this does not mean that all testing is bad. I can see great benefit to some well-timed, thoughtful testing. The goal of the testing is important. Is it an overall "report card" of the instruction or student performance? Or is the testing meant to help a student close the gaps in their learning? There is a place for both.
When you are hoping to find the area(s) of weakness in a student's reading skills, you can do several things. You could gather several types of information that came from observation, intervention, etc. Then you could try to find their area(s) of weakness. That's one way to go about it, but may not be feasible for all students. Sometimes you just don't have the opportunity to gather this
"organic" type of information for all students. This is where a very thoughtfully designed formative assessment or reading inventory, given by thoughtful instructors, can give you some very important information. Reading inventories help guide you directly to the foundational reading skills that were missed.
When you spend precious time administering a test, check for the ways that you can use the information that will be gleaned. What is the goal of the assessment? Is it going to help you help your students? If it isn't, then maybe you shouldn't be using valuable time this way. In the end, our goal should be to "foster a love of reading" in our students. This has become such a cliche, but it's still the goal for all who teach, I hope. :)
Happy Reading!
