Placement guide, language arts

Which level of All About Reading should my child start?

How All About Reading levels line up with school grades, how its placement test works, what to do if your child lands between two levels, and the mistakes parents most often make.

The short answer. Level numbers are not grades: the publisher states plainly that its level numbers do not refer to grade levels and that Level 4 is not 4th grade. Placement is by current reading ability, so a 3rd to 5th grader who struggles can rightly start in Level 1 or 2. The program ends at Level 4, after which the publisher says the child has the decoding skills for high school-level words and moves from learning to read to reading to learn.

Use the publisher's own placement tool to choose the level (free, PDF). If you are not sure where your child really is, or the result surprises you, check the level first: it is quicker than a wrong book.

Check their level first, $9.99 →

All About Reading levels and the grades they usually suit

Level	Usually suits grade	Main topics
All About Reading Level 1	Not given by the publisher	Phonograms A-Z plus th, sh, ch, ck, ng, nk; blending; plurals and compound words; 53 lessons
All About Reading Level 2	Not given by the publisher	Three-letter blends, jobs of silent E, contractions, past tense -ed, syllable division, multisyllable words; 57 lessons
All About Reading Level 3	Not given by the publisher	New phonograms, consonant-le syllables, prefixes and suffixes, homophones, synonyms, figurative language; 54 lessons
All About Reading Level 4	Not given by the publisher	Advanced phonograms, multisyllable words with several suffixes, silent letters, word origins, inference and summarizing; 63 lessons

Grades are the publisher's own guide. Many children sit a level above or below, especially after switching programs.

How All About Reading placement works

There is one free PDF per level, and each checks mastery of the level before it.
For Levels 2-4 the child first reads aloud a story from the previous level, which must be fluent and understood; the parent then ticks a checklist of word lists, syllable tasks and phonogram sounds.
Pass marks: Level 1 needs 17 or more ticks on a readiness checklist, Level 2 and Level 3 need 8 or more, Level 4 needs 7 or more; needing help in two or more areas means start lower.

Open the publisher's placement page

If your child lands between two levels

If only one area is weak, start the higher level and fix that area along the way. If two or more areas are weak, go down: Level 2 test to Level 1, Level 3 test to Level 1 or 2, Level 4 test to Level 2 or 3. Three or more gaps on the Level 1 checklist point to the Pre-reading program first. After Level 4, the publisher offers a Mastery Evaluation to confirm the child is done.

Problems parents often run into

Pace splits parents: some find it slow, with a lesson taking a week, while others say it moves too fast for children who are not intuitive readers.
Older children can breeze through the early words and find the first stories young for them.
There is setup work at the start (cards, tiles, review box) before lessons become open-and-go.
Parents are often unsure whether they also need All About Spelling, which is sold separately.
Because the tests check the previous level, a child who only gets through about half of a test belongs in the level below it.

Point of Progress in 20 seconds

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See where they stand →$9.99 · test and report, one payment

Switching to All About Reading from another program

Coming from another phonics program, give the test for the level just above the skills the child already has; the story read-aloud is the main signal.
Older and remedial readers are placed by the tests like everyone else; the publisher allows adjusting daily time for older remedial students.

Not just a score. Every skill, and every answer.

The score, with its honest range

Grade 4Grade 6 typicalGrade 9

744, likely range 702 to 787. A good or bad day stops looking like real movement.

Every strand, marked

Number senseStrong
FractionsWorth work
RatiosStrong
ExpressionsWorth work

Five to nine strands per subject, on one scale, so the gaps inside one score show.

Question by question

Add 2/3 and 1/4Answered 3/7. Added numerators and denominators separately, so the common denominator step is missing.

Wrong

Every wrong answer, with the most likely thinking behind it.

What to do next, in order

Common denominators
Simplifying fractions
Ratio as a comparison

Ranked by how much each skill holds the rest back, then practised in the workbook.

Get the report, $9.99 →or add the ten-week workbook built from the gaps, $19.99See the full eight-page sample report

When you don't need a whole level

A placement test answers one question: which book. If your child is mostly on track but shaky in one area, say fractions or paragraph writing, a full lower level means months of review they do not need. Practising just the gaps is faster, and keeps them in the book that fits the rest of their skills.

Questions parents ask

How long is a All About Reading lesson?

20 a day, five days a week (lessons often span several days)

Is it bad if my child places below their grade?

No. Programs pace topics differently, so a lower level often reflects the order things were taught, not how able a child is. What matters is starting where the work makes sense.

Do I need a placement test at all?

If you are switching programs or your child has had a hard year, yes. Starting too high is the most common reason a new curriculum stalls in the first month.