Assessment: Universal Screening

Cadre 7 Initial TrainingSeptember 29, 2011

Universal Screening• Screening systems in place?– How can you go more in depth?– Are you ready to develop more breadth?

–What decisions do you need to make as a district about Universal Screening?

– Do staff trust and use the data?

Universal ScreeningThe Bang for the Buck

Why give Universal Screeners?

– To determine the health of the core • Make instructional changes to improve core instruction

– To identify students who need additional instructional support

– Are staff using the screening data for BOTH these reasons?

Universal Screening• Who: ALL students

– Do all staff believe that it should be for ALL?

• When: 3 times a year

– Fall Winter Spring

What makes a universal screener “good”?

• Robust indicator of academic health• Brief and easy to administer• Can be administered frequently• Must have multiple, equivalent forms– (If the metric isn’t the same, the data are

meaningless)• Must be sensitive to growth

A universal screener should over-identify students who might need something more!

Basic Skills– Finite• Phonemic

awareness• Decoding/

phonics• Fluency

Comprehensive Skills– Not finite• Vocabulary• Comprehension

What skills make better screeners?

Oral Reading Fluency• ORF is not designed to provide an

exhaustive assessment. • You can be fluent enough, unless you want

to be an auctioneer!• Strong link to comprehension• Accuracy matters!

Screeners • DIBELS• DIBELS Next• AIMSweb

– Reading CBM– Maze– Math Computation– Math Concepts & Applications– Math Tests of Early Numeracy

• Writing (Total Words Written)• Writing (Correct Word

Sequences)• easyCBM

Not Screeners• DRA2• QRI-IV• Running Records• OAKS • Quick Phonics

assessment• Fountas and Pinnell• Report cards• Core curriculum weekly

tests

What are screeners?

Universal ScreenersA quick & efficient tool

– to determine the effectiveness of core instruction

– to determine BASIC information to determine which students need more instructional supports

DRA, QRI, Running Records

An in-depth tool– To determine basic &

specific reading skill needs

Purpose of Assessments

What assessments are given to all students in your district and why?Do the assessments provide similar information?

Universal Screeners• Elementary• Reading

– DIBELS Next• Math

– AIMSweb • Missing Number (K-1)• Calculations (2-5)

Middle School• Reading

– AIMSweb (Maze)

Additional assessments• Elementary

– Treasures Placement Test

– OAKS• Secondary

– OAKS

Assessments in TTSD

Have staff bought into the screener concept?

• Barriers– “it’s not all about fluency”– “it’s not a valid assessment”– “it’s all about the numbers”– “it will be used to evaluate my

instruction”– “what about comprehension?”

ReflectionDoes the district have an agreed upon

purpose for the universal screener and additional assessments?

Are the purposes of each assessment given to ALL students clear to staff?

How do staff use the assessments?

To determine the health of the core

Are staff using the data?• School-wide (100%) grade level meetings– Fall, winter, spring (following screening)

– Critical to have general education teachers as active members of this process.

Outcome: general education teachers know what to teach and how to teach during the core program to improve students’ achievement

Big Idea• Do not just use screening data to

place students into interventions– Otherwise you will always be feeding the

herd individually

To identify students who need additional instructional support

• Are staff using the data?• To place students into appropriate

interventions• How are these decisions made?

– Are they unbiased?

Big Idea• Trust the data!– Otherwise you will not be feeding the

“right” cows

Make or Improve Your Universal Screening Plan

• How:• Who will conduct Universal Screening? • Who will train the screeners?• Who will prepare materials?• Who will organize materials at the school?• Where will the data go?• Who will organize the data and present it to

teaching teams?• How will fidelity of administration be checked?

Universal ScreeningThe Bang for the Buck