In a message dated 2/20/2006 11:02:50 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
jn at cloudworld.co.uk writes:
"We are wondering about assessment over here in  UK, in anticipation of the 
government adopting synthetic phonics for  teaching in schools."
 
You might consider developing a "correct" nonsense word testing  system.  If 
you want to see a highly incorrect (87% misspelled nonsense  words) you might 
want to visit dibels.com and check out their level one.  I  didn't bother 
going past that after finding so many egregious errors.  I  did inform them.  I 
even showed each incorrect misspelling of a nonsense  word, why they were 
misspelled, and made suggestions for having a correctly  spelled nonsense word to 
test the child's knowledge of the phonic principle  involved.  I got a polite 
thank you and that was that.

If you would  like assistance in a project such as that, I would be glad to 
help.  And  when I offer help, I am not asking for money.  We are very 
nonprofit here  at AVKO.
 
Don McCabe, Research Director
AVKO Educational Research Foundation
spelling.org