Mastery Tests are designed to provide information on the skills that we are striving to get students to master in the SIPPS program: spelling-sounds and sight words. Dr. Shefelbine took the “lean” approach in only assessing what needed to be assessed to determine mastery for decoding.
The Guided Spelling routine and encoding work in the SIPPS lesson is designed to provide an opportunity to apply those skills and allow you to coach to success.
While the Mastery Tests assess the foundational reading skills taught in a series of lessons, you can observe students during the Guided Spelling routine as an assessment of their application of the various skills involved in successful encoding.