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Early Literacy Universal Screening Assessments

Early Literacy Screening Guidance

Early Literacy Screening Guidance

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) created the guidance document to support schools and districts as they conduct early literacy universal screenings required by Massachusetts regulation 603 CMR 28.03 (1)(f), effective July 1, 2023 which requires that schools and districts take the following actions:

  • Assess each student's reading ability from kindergarten through at least third grade at least twice per school year;
  • Use a valid, developmentally appropriate, DESE-approved early literacy screening instrument;
  • For students whose screening results are significantly below relevant benchmarks:
    • Determine which actions within the general education program will meet the student's needs; and
    • Within 30 school days, inform the student's parent or guardian of the screening results and the LEAs response, and offer them the opportunity for a follow-up discussion.

For questions about Regulation 603 CMR 28.03 (1) (f), please contact mary.l.brown@mass.gov

Strong Start — Early Literacy Screening Resources:

To support districts with adoption and implementation of an approved early literacy screening assessment, please consult these helpful resources:

Coming Soon!

  • Early Literacy Screening Resources: To support districts with a comprehensive early literacy universal screening protocol, DESE will provide resources such as professional development slide decks and mini webinars on relevant topics.

If you would like to be notified about support opportunities and resources, please complete this form.
For questions, please contact mary.l.brown@mass.gov .

DESE Review of Universal Screening Assessments

In 2022, DESE engaged in a comprehensive process to identify early literacy universal screeners that comport with the Massachusetts Dyslexia Guidelines and principles of anti-bias. A diverse group of experts which included researchers, teachers, administrators, and specialists worked with DESE to determine assessment criteria. Publishers had the opportunity to submit information about their assessments, which were reviewed and scored based on established criteria . Current Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education approved early literacy universal screeners are listed below in two categories: Meets Expectations and Partially Meets Expectations.

For details about each approved assessment, download the Screening Assessments At-a-Glance guide .

Please note that all approved early literacy universal screening assessments listed below can be used as intended by the publisher to meet the requirements of the regulation. The information contained in the highlights and challenges sections are meant to support measuring all skills outlined in the Massachusetts Dyslexia Guidelines.

Approved Early Literacy Universal Screening Assessments

Approved: Meets Expectations

The following early literacy universal screening assessments met all DESE's required criteria in the 2022 review. These assessments are currently approved.

Amira from Amira Learning

Highlights and Challenges
Highlights of this AssessmentChallenges to be Aware Of
  • Computer adaptive tool utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) and speech recognition software
  • Speech recognition software has ability to detect dialects and accents. The more students use the software, the more the program "learns" to detect variances in speech
  • Dual language assessments in Spanish and English can be administered consecutively.
  • Option to assess in English but proctor in Spanish
  • Progress Monitoring tools provided.
  • Students may be unfamiliar with an AI-type approach, so some students may benefit from a strong teacher overview (support materials are provided).
  • The software may have difficulty recognizing speech of students with speech challenges. Teachers are encouraged to listen to student recordings and rescore subtests if needed- which also helps the software learn.

DIBELS 8th Edition from University of Oregon

Can be used with DIBELS 8 Data System (DDS), offered through Amplify

Highlights and Challenges
Highlights of this AssessmentChallenges to be Aware Of
  • Set of one-minute fluency probes
  • Teacher administered to individual student
  • Opportunities for direct teacher observation of how students approach literacy tasks
  • Electronic scoring and analysis using DDS version
  • Available in Spanish; linguistically authentic
  • Progress Monitoring tools provided
  • A Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) score is determined through a Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) Task with distinct cut scores. Younger students without automaticity of letter recognition may have difficulty with this task. MA Dyslexia Guidelines recommend using objects for the first administration of RAN in kindergarten.

EarlyBird from EarlyBird Education

Highlights and Challenges
Highlights of this AssessmentChallenges to be Aware Of
  • Gamified tablet-based app with virtual prizes awarded for completing literacy tasks
  • Computer adaptive: tool adjusts to student's responses/performance
  • Student independently engages with the games; recommend adult oversight for small groups
  • Dashboard provides exceptionally clear and usable assessment data and easily accessed explanations of data
  • Currently available in English only
  • Currently approved for Kindergarten only
  • Progress Monitoring Tools are not currently available

mCLASS from Amplify

Highlights and Challenges
Highlights of this AssessmentChallenges to be Aware Of
  • Set of one-minute fluency probes
  • Observational assessment (by educator) using a mobile technology platform (tablet) with fully digital scoring and analysis
  • Includes a vocabulary component
  • Available in Spanish; linguistically authentic
  • Dual language reports available
  • Progress monitoring tools provided
  • A Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) score is determined through a Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) Task with distinct cut scores. Younger students without automaticity of letter recognition may have difficulty with this task. MA Dyslexia Guidelines recommend using objects for the first administration of RAN in kindergarten.

Approved: Partially Meets Expectations

The following early literacy universal screening assessments met many criteria and did not meet in at least one area in the 2022 review. These assessments are currently approved.

Acadience Reading K–6 from Voyager Sopris Learning

Highlights and Challenges
Highlights of this AssessmentChallenges to be Aware Of
  • Previously known as DIBELS Next, Acadience uses a series of short, fluency-based probes
  • Digital version offers a data management system which includes a dashboard experience
  • "Pathways of Progress" reporting allows educators to set student goals and evaluate progress; clarifies what rate of progress is typical
  • Progress monitoring tools provided
  • Uses a nonsense word reading task to measure word reading. The MA Dyslexia Guidelines recommend inclusion of single word recognition as a word reading/word identification task.
  • Vocabulary and Listening Comprehension subtests are experimental and untimed
  • Currently available in English only
Considerations:

Educators wanting to include a word reading task as recommended in the MA Dyslexia Guidelines, could consider using the word reading task from DIBELS 8th Edition. This measure is available at no cost on the DIBELS 8th Edition website. While the score from this subtest would not be included in the student's level of risk determination, educators could consider this information along with the full data set collected from the Acadience Reading assessment.

While not explicitly included in the MA Dyslexia Guidelines, listening and oral comprehension are predictive of reading difficulties. Educators are encouraged to use the experimental listening comprehension and vocabulary tasks included with Acadience and/or to screen these skills with other tools.

Fastbridge from Illuminate Education

Highlights and Challenges
Highlights of this AssessmentChallenges to be Aware Of
  • Combines computer adaptive assessment and curriculum-based measures; components are earlyReading, aReading and the companion CBMReading
  • MA educators teaching kindergarten and grade one will use earlyReading which is administered 1:1 and is a series of 1–2 minute probes. Educators teaching grades 2 and above will administer aReading which is a computer adaptive assessment
  • Some assessments are available in Spanish
  • Progress monitoring tools provided
  • Not all subtests are available in Spanish
  • The tool's default assessment schedule does not align with the MA Dyslexia Guidelines. The subtests are available at the frequency recommended by the Guidelines, but the educator must select the appropriate subtests from within the assessment tool's system
  • A Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) score is determined through a Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) Task. The RAN task is recorded on a form titled "Test of Letter Names" which may be confusing as a RAN letter naming task assumes the student is already familiar with letter names and focuses on naming speed.
  • A RAN task with pictures is not available, so younger students without automaticity of letter recognition may have difficulty with this task. MA Dyslexia Guidelines recommend using objects for the first administration of RAN in kindergarten.
Considerations:
aReading has been shown to accurately predict future reading difficulties for grades 2 and above; it has not shown the same level of accuracy for grade one (NCII Classification Accuracy). earlyReading has been shown to accurately predict future reading difficulties for kindergarten and grade one.

i-READY from Curriculum Associates

Highlights and Challenges
Highlights of this AssessmentChallenges to be Aware Of
  • For universal screening, MA educators will use i-Ready Diagnostic and i-Ready Literacy Tasks, although there are many other assessments included as part of the suite.
  • Core component is i-Ready Diagnostic, a computer adaptive assessment that adjusts to the student's performance
  • i-Ready Literacy Tasks are administered one-to-one with a focus on foundational and fluency skills
  • Spanish Reading available as a fixed form (not adaptive) but administered digitally; linguistically authentic
  • Progress monitoring tools provided
  • Strong professional development will be needed to ensure teachers understand the comprehensiveness of this suite of assessments.
  • Some subtests are measured on two different assessments.
  • For the word identification task on i-Ready Diagnostic, students view a short list of words and are asked via computer audio to identify the word they hear. This task does not provide an opportunity for students to read words aloud. A task in which students read words aloud is available using the i-Ready Literacy Tasks assessment.
Considerations

While not explicitly included in the MA Dyslexia Guidelines, listening and oral language comprehension are predictive of reading difficulties. For readers, i-Ready includes an oral retell task as part of Passage Reading Fluency. For younger students, educators may want to screen these skills with other tools.

The i-Ready Diagnostic has been shown to accurately predict future reading difficulties; the i-Ready Literacy Tasks have not (NCII Classification Accuracy).

MAP Reading Fluency from NWEA

Highlights and Challenges
Highlights of this AssessmentChallenges to be Aware Of
  • Computer adaptive assessment that adjusts to student's performance
  • Speech scoring technology records and scores students' oral reading; educators can review, hand score, and share if desired
  • Spanish available as a computer adaptive assessment for K–3 for benchmarking; linguistically authentic
  • Progress monitoring tools provided
  • Does not include a Decoding Nonsense Words task as recommended by the MA Dyslexia Guidelines.
  • RAN Task uses pictures only; does not include a RAN letters task as recommended by MA Dyslexia Guidelines.
Considerations
Educators wanting to include a nonsense word decoding task and RAN Letters task as recommended in the MA Dyslexia Guidelines, could consider using the Nonsense Word Fluency task and Letter Naming Fluency task (with the RAN cut-scores) from DIBELS 8th Edition. These measures are available at no cost on the DIBELS 8th Edition website. While the scores from these subtests would not be included in the student's level of risk determination, educators could consider this information along with the full data set collected from MAP Reading Fluency.

STAR (Early Literacy, Reading and CBM) from Renaissance

Highlights and Challenges
Highlights of this AssessmentChallenges to be Aware Of
  • For universal screening, MA educators will use at least two of the following assessments: Star Early Literacy; Star Reading; and Star CBM
  • Star Early Literacy and Star Reading are computer adaptive assessments; students progress to Star Reading if they are independent readers (grade one and above)
  • Star CBM is administered one-to-one with focus on targeted skills
  • Available in Spanish; linguistically authentic
  • Progress monitoring tools provided
  • Strong professional development will be needed to ensure teachers understand the comprehensiveness of this suite of assessments.
  • Some subtests are measured on two different assessments.
  • There is no Word Reading task as identified in the MA Dyslexia Guidelines. The MA Dyslexia Guidelines recommend inclusion of single word recognition as a word reading/word identification task.
  • There are no oral language comprehension/listening comprehension tasks
  • RAN Letters task is currently being field tested and is not available as of June 2022.
Considerations

Educators wanting to include a word reading task as recommended in the MA Dyslexia Guidelines, could consider using the word reading task from DIBELS 8th Edition. This measure is available at no cost on the DIBELS 8th Edition Website. While the score from this subtest would not be included in the student's level of risk determination, educators could consider this information along with the full data set collected from the STAR assessments.

While not explicitly included in the MA Dyslexia Guidelines, listening and oral language comprehension are predictive of reading difficulties. Educators may want to screen these skills with other tools.

STAR Reading (grades 1–5) and STAR CBM (grades 1–5) have been shown to accurately predict future reading difficulties; STAR Early Literacy has not (NCII Classification Accuracy).

Also Reviewed

The following early literacy universal screening assessments were reviewed and did not meet all required criteria at this time. These assessments may meet expectations in the future if DESE receives additional information demonstrating that required criteria are met. Assessments not listed on this page have not submitted materials for DESE review.

  • Aimsweb Plus from NCS Pearson
  • Istation Indicators of Progress (ISIP) from IStation
  • Lion for Reading from Liberty Source
  • STAR CBM from Renaissance

Information for Schools and Districts

  • MA DESE is expecting additional responses from publishers and will update this list periodically.
  • Approved assessments shown with a checkbox have been issued a contract under a Master Agreement, under which districts may make purchases without needing to do their own competitive procurement. If your district would like to utilize the Master Agreement please contact nechama.d.goldberg@mass.gov to obtain any documentation required by your district Business Office.
  • Please contact Mary.L.Brown@mass.gov with any questions.

Information for Vendors

DESE has issued a bid opportunity for vendors interested in providing early literacy screening assessments to schools and/or districts in Massachusetts, which is open until December 31, 2024, through COMMBUYS, the state's procurement system. Please contact Mary.L.Brown@mass.gov with any questions.

Disclosure Statement

Reference in this website to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public and does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Our office is not responsible for and does not in any way guarantee the accuracy of information in other sites accessible through links herein. DESE may supplement this list with other services and products that meet the specified criteria.

Last Updated: February 28, 2024

 
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Disclaimer: A reference in this website to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public and does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.