Literacy Assessments

1. LiteracyAssessments Literacy Workgroup Marcia Atwood Michelle Boutwell Sue Locke-Scott Rae Lynn McCarthy

2. Getting Ready • Would like to have an opening activity here to activate background knowledge

3. Assess Frequently • In order to determine reading problems early • In order to monitor which skills are developing and which skills need more explicit instruction • In order to allow teachers to make informed instructional decisions at the point of need.

4. Four types of Reading Assessment • Outcome • Screening • Diagnostic • Progress monitoring

5. Outcome Assessments • Outcome-assessments that provide a bottom-line evaluation of the effectiveness of a reading program. • NYS ELA, Terra Nova, SAT

6. Screening • Screening-administered to determine which children will need additional support in achieving important reading outcomes. • DIBELS, AimsWeb, CBMs

7. Diagnostic Assessments • Diagnosis-assessments that help teachers plan instruction by providing in-depth information about students’ skills and instructional needs. • DRA-2, Informal Reading Inventories, Standardized Assessments

8. Progress Monitoring • Progress monitoring-Assessments that determine if students are making adequate progress or need more intervention to achieve grade level reading outcomes

9. International Reading Association Standards for Literacy Assessment • Interests of the students are paramount in the assessment • The teacher is the most important agent of assessment • The primary purpose of assessment is to improve teaching and learning • Assessment must reflect and allow for critical inquiry into curriculum and instruction

10. Assessment must recognize and reflect the intellectually and socially complex nature of reading and writing and the important roles of school, home, and society in literacy development. • Assessment must be fair and equitable • The consequences of an assessment procedure are the first and most important consideration in establishing the validity of the assessment.

11. The assessment process should involve multiple perspectives and sources of data. • Assessment must be based in the local school learning community, including active and essential participation of families and community members • All stakeholders in the educational community-students, families, teachers, administrators, policy makers, and the public-must have an equal voice in the development, interpretation and reporting of assessment information.

12. Families must be involved as active, essential participants in the assessment process.

13. Before Assessing • The reason for the assessment and the use of the data must be clear

14. What do you do with the data? • Identify the need • Validate the need • Plan the support • Evaluate the support • Review outcomes

15. Based on Your data, you can determine… • What’s working? • What’s not working? • Who is on target for achieving standards and benchmarks? • Who is at risk for reading difficulties?

16. Identify Patterns • Are there components mastered/not mastered by the majority of students? • Are there differences in the performance of subgroups? • Are there similarities among students’ performance? • Are additional data needed?

17. In the classroom teachers can use data to… • Group students for instruction • Target specific reading concepts and skills that students have not mastered • Determine instructional intensity • Monitor student progress • Identify personal professional development interests and needs

18. Changes can be made in… • Intensity of instruction • Group size • Amount of time in intervention • Change in program • Assessment procedures

19. Reading Instruction Must… • Be explicit and systematic • Be paced appropriately • Be based on student assessment data • Allow opportunities to see it, do it with the teacher, practice on their own • Be based on research

20. In order to achieve this, teachers must…. • Teachers must understand the importance of assessment • Teachers must understand how to administer different types of assessment and when to administer them • Teachers must analyze the data in order to use it to inform instruction

21. Assessing Phonological Awareness • CTOPP –Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing • Wiley Blevins phonemic awareness screening • DIBELS first sound fluency • DIBELS phoneme segmentation fluency

22. Assessing Phonics • Really Great Reading Diagnostic Decoding Survey (can download free from www.reallygreatreading.com) • Words Their Way Spelling Inventory • DIBELS nonsense word fluency • TOWRE-Test of Word Reading Efficiency

23. Assessing Vocabulary • PPVT-III Peabody Picture Vocabulary • TOLD-Test of Oral Language Development

24. Assessing Fluency • DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency • AimsWeb Oral Reading Fluency • DRA2 Diagnostic Reading Assessment 2 • Intervention Central reading passages • Easy CBM

25. Assessing Comprehension • DIBELS DAZE • Maze passages (cloze) • DRA-2 • Writing samples • Retelling

26. Assessing Motivation • Interest Inventories

27. Let’s Look at Data • This is literacy data for a middle school • What does the data tell you? • What questions does it raise? • What is missing?

28. How would you lead this district towards a QIP goal? • Using the LQI tools that you have in your packet, determine what is needed specifically in the area of assessment for literacy in this district • What would your goal look like?

29. What Activities Would you Recommend? • How would you go about meeting the goal? • What activities, materials, etc. would you use?