An academic screener is typically a short, informal test that is given to all students to determine whether additional assessment of skills is needed.

Screening allows our instructional staff the opportunity to identify potential learning challenges early on. Early and intense intervention to address reading difficulties is the best way to prevent reading challenges from becoming more severe over time.

With early identification and early intervention, students at risk for reading difficulties, including dyslexia, can succeed in school and graduate ready for college, career, and civic life.

None of our district's assessments diagnose dyslexia. Our assessments are designed to identify student strengths and areas for growth in order to design instruction to meet their needs.

The screener assesses students' ability to understand and distinguish sounds that make up a word (called Phonological Awareness) and the ability to connect the sounds that make up words with the letters in the word (called Phonics). Difficulties with these skills are areas associated with dyslexia.

Our district is using the iReady assessments by Curriculum Associates. iReady provides the following screening tools:

1. Phonological Awareness - The i-Ready computer adaptive assessment integrates a phonological awareness assessment. Phonological awareness is the knowledge of speech sounds such as rhyme, alliteration (words that start with the same sound), the number of words in a sentence, and syllables within words.

2. Phonics - The i-Ready computer adaptive assessment integrates a phonic skill assessment. Phonics skills are the ability to connect the sounds students hear in spoken words to the letters they see in written words. For example, a student who can connect sounds to letters knows to read "th" in then as a single sound, rather than the sound of t and the sound of h separately. Students have to learn many different connections between sounds and spelling patterns.

3. Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN)- The i-Ready system provides off-line, 1:1 administered RAN assessments. A RAN is a task that involves quickly and accurately naming aloud a series of familiar items. This includes letters, numbers, colors, and objects found in a classroom.

Our teachers will also use the i-Ready reading assessment to screen for difficulties with site words, vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Not necessarily. There are many reasons a student may have difficulty with these skills. Any of the following could be reasons:

• During the pandemic shut down, remote learning might have made it difficult for some students to fully develop these skills in class.

• Not enough time or attention was given to the development of these areas early on in the child's life.

• For multilingual learners, it is possible that what looks like a difficulty on a screener is actually a result of the assessment being in English only. Using the WIDA assessment for multilingual learners helps ensure we know more about the students' abilities.

• Other student factors may interfere with students' ability to focus on developing these skills. (i.e., during times of trauma, low or sporadic attendance in class, attention challenges, etc.)

If the student has received and attended to specific instruction in these areas and continues to struggle, it is possible dyslexia may be a cause.

These assessments are tools to help teachers identify a student's specific strengths and areas for growth so that they can make a targeted, data-informed instructional plan.