Designing and using assessment systems to prevent reading difficulties in young children

1
Designing and using assessment systems to prevent
reading difficulties in young children
Dr. Joseph Torgesen Florida State University
and Florida Center for Reading Research
Western North Carolina LD/ADD Symposium,
November, 2005
2
A model for preventing reading failure in grades
K-3 The big Ideas
1. Increase the quality, consistency, and reach
of instruction in every K-3 classroom
2. Conduct timely and valid assessments of
reading growth to identify struggling readers
3. Provide more intensive interventions to catch
up the struggling readers
The prevention of reading difficulties is a
school-level challenge
3
A model for preventing reading failure in grades
K-3 The big Ideas
1. Increase the quality, consistency, and reach
of instruction in every K-3 classroom
2. Conduct timely and valid assessments of
reading growth to identify struggling readers
3. Provide more intensive interventions to catch
up the struggling readers
4
Systematic assessments of reading growth Big
Ideas
Screening assessments that identify children who
are lagging behind in growth of critical skills
Progress monitoring in growth of critical reading
skills for all children during the year to help
plan instruction
Diagnostic assessments to help provide additional
information useful for focusing and planning
instruction
End of year outcome assessments in the critical
elements of reading growth is the child on track
to read at grade level by third grade-how
effective is our program?
A data management system that supports the use of
assessment information in planning instruction
5
Systematic assessments of reading growth Big
Ideas
Screening assessments that identify children who
are lagging behind in growth of critical skills
What should we screen for?
Kindergarten letter knowledge, phonemic
awareness, vocabulary
1st Grade, phonemic awareness, phonics,
vocabulary
2nd Grade phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary
3rd Grade reading fluency, vocabulary
More or less comprehensive screeners DIBELS,
TPRI, PALS, PPVT, have information about
reliability and validity
6
Systematic assessments of reading growth Big
Ideas
Progress monitoring in growth of critical reading
skills for all children during the year to help
plan instruction
What can we progress monitor at present
Kindergarten letter knowledge, phonemic
awareness, phonics
1st Grade, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency
2nd Grade phonics, reading fluency
3rd Grade reading fluency
Different frequencies for different groups Whole
class three, four times a year Students
receiving interventions more frequently
7
What can teachers learn from PM assessments?
Information from progress monitoring
Are the children actually learning what I am
teaching?
Are the children ready to move forward in the
curriculum?
Is my intervention strong enough to place the
children on a growth trajectory that ends in
grade level performance by the end of the year?
8
2nd Grade Growth in Oral Reading Fluency
96
80
64
Correct words per minute
48
32
16
Sept Dec Feb
May
9
What can teachers learn from these assessments?
Information from progress monitoring
Are the children actually learning what I am
teaching?
Are the children ready to move forward in the
curriculum?
Is my intervention strong enough to place the
children on a growth trajectory that ends in
grade level performance by the end of the year?
Decisions to be made
Should I reteach the last unit to some of my
children?
Should I move the child to a smaller group, or
program more instructional time?
Should I seek help to implement a more powerful
instructional strategy?
10
In order to monitor progress adequately, we need
two different kinds of information about progress
Information from curriculum embedded tests or
teacher obs.
Are the children actually learning what I am
teaching?
Are the children ready to move forward in the
curriculum?
Information from index tests like the DIBELS or
TPRI
Is my instruction powerful enough to place the
child on a trajectory for grade level achievement
by the end of the year?
11
Systematic assessments of reading growth Big
Ideas
End of year outcome assessments in the critical
elements of reading growth is the child on track
to read at grade level by third grade-how
effective is our program?
Kindergarten phonemic awareness, letter
knowledge, phonics, vocabulary
1st Grade phonics, text fluency, reading
comprehension, vocabulary
2nd Grade text fluency, reading comprehension,
vocabulary
3rd Grade text fluency, reading comprehension,
vocabulary
12
Diagnostic Testing
Purpose of diagnostic assessment-- to provide
information that is useful in planning more
effective instruction
Diagnostic tests should be given when there is a
clear expectation that they will provide new, or
more reliable, information about a childs
reading difficulties that can be used to provide
more powerful instruction.
13
Diagnostic testing within the rich assessment
context of screening, PM, and outcome tests
If schools are implementing screening, progress
monitoring, and outcome assessments in a reliable
and valid way, this should substantially reduce
the need for additional testing using formal
diagnostic instruments.
Will the diagnostic assessment actually provide
more information, or more reliable information,
about the childs strengths and weaknesses in the
components of reading than they already possess.
If it will provide additional information, will
this new information be useful in planning
additional instruction for the child?
14
Diagnostic testing within the rich assessment
context of the Reading First assessment plan
Should students identified as at risk at the
beginning of the year automatically be
administered a diagnostic test to provide
additional information to help plan instruction?
If you know a child is low in phonemic awareness,
letter knowledge, and vocabulary at the beginning
of K, what more can we reliably measure to guide
instruction?
If you know a child is low in phonemic awareness,
and knowledge of the alphabetic principal, and
vocabulary at the beginning of 1st grade, what
more can we reliably measure to guide instruction?
15
Diagnostic testing within the rich assessment
context of the Reading First assessment plan
On the basis of the diagnostic information
available from the screening measures,
interventions focused on critical components of
reading could begin immediately, rather than
waiting for additional diagnostic information
generated by diagnostic tests. The major
argument for not doing additional diagnostic
testing in this case is that it would be unlikely
to add any additional information critical to
planning effective interventions, and it might
delay the process of beginning the needed
interventions for these at risk students.
16
Systematic assessments of reading growth Big
Ideas
A data management system that supports the use of
assessment information in planning instruction
The Florida Progress Monitoring and Reporting
Network (PMRN). Web-based data management and
reporting network
School level entry of screening, progress
monitoring, and some outcome scores
Immediate reports for teachers, principals,
district staff
Tied to the Florida Student Information System,
so that student progress is tracked
longitudinally, and from school to school
17
Class Status Report for teacher or principal
This is an example of a first grade classroom
report for December.
The teacher can immediately see which of her
students are at most risk for not being at grade
level at the end of the year, and can use this
report to group students for targeted instruction
and support
18
median
Student Progress Report for teacher or
principal This report shows the progress of a
third grade student in becoming a fluent and
accurate reader in third grade. At the beginning
of the year, the student was classified as high
risk on this measure, but the student received
excellent intervention, and by the end of the
year, he was performing in the low risk range.
19
Class Tracking Tool Kindergarten LNF Full Year
Students only Sorted by Overall
20
School Distribution Report Interval 4 KG-LNF
21
District Status Report
This report allows district level staff to
quickly examine the performance of each of the
schools in the district on critical measures of
early reading skill.
22
Using Screening and outcome data to evaluate the
strength of Instruction at state, classroom,
and school level
23
of students at grade level level at
Assessment 1 using combined index from DIBELS
measures
75
65
39
38
24
of students at grade level level at
Assessment 4
67
52
48
39
25
Percent of students at High Risk level at Assess 1
33
23
14
9
26
Percent of students at High Risk level at Assess 4
28
22
20
18
27
What are the areas in most need of immediate
improvement?
Stronger support for the growth of text reading
fluency in second grade
28
(No Transcript)
29
Instructional Emphasis for Second Grade
2004
2005
30
(No Transcript)
31
One problem that arises from so many students
coming into 2nd grade still weak in effective,
accurate word reading strategies
Growth in fluency requires accurate practice
A major factor underlying growth in fluency for
struggling readers is how fast the number of
words they can recognize by sight increases
Children must read unfamiliar words with perfect
accuracy on multiple occasions before they can
become sight words
Sight vocabulary must grow very rapidly in second
grade to keep pace with normative development
32
Our third graders are holding their own in
fluency development, but they come into third
grade too far behind in the development of fluent
reading skills
33
(No Transcript)
34
What are the areas in most need of immediate
improvement?
Stronger support for the growth of text reading
fluency in second grade
More powerful instruction toward mastery of the
alphabetic principle early in first grade
35
(No Transcript)
36
What are the areas in most need of immediate
improvement?
Stronger support for the growth of text reading
fluency in second grade
More powerful instruction toward mastery of the
alphabetic principle early in first grade
Creative work to develop and support stronger
interventions for struggling students in grades
1,2, and 3 school level must become involved
Continued efforts to expand vocabulary
instruction-linked to comprehension- accessing
words in multiple contexts
37
Another way to think about improvements and
performance two indices of instructional
effectiveness
Effectiveness of Core Instruction (ECI) what
percentage of students who began the year at
grade level on the screening measures finish the
year at grade level?
Effectiveness of Interventions(EI) what
percentage of students who began the year at some
level of risk on the screening measures finish
the year at grade level?
38
The ECI and EI
9 of 13 students who were at grade level
continue at grade level
ECI .69
One academic year
2 of 7 students who began the year at risk
finished the year at grade level
EI .29
39
Core and Intervention effectiveness in year 1 and
2
Core Program Intervention
40
Schools with High Average Effectiveness of
Iterventions
District EI tile Min FRL ECI Grade
Orange 39 99 84 89 82 A
Collier 36 97 98 99 79 D
Orange 34 95 83 80 95 A
Collier 33 93 94 93 93 B
Palm Bea. 33 91 78 75 84 C
Sarasota 32 89 80 85 89 B
Orange 32 89 93 93 67 B
Lee 32 89 67 73 84 B
Palm Bea. 31 89 95 87 66 C
Broward 31 89 99 66 67 B
41
Schools with Low Average Effectiveness of
Interventions
District EI tile Min FRL ECI Grade
Hillsboro. 8 2 88 93 4 C
Polk 8 3 55 74 10 C
St. Lucie 10 4 58 71 14 C
Polk 10 5 66 89 3 C
Pinellas 10 5 60 74 23 B
Volusia 11 6 68 89 1 C
Brevard 12 7 79 97 32 D
Marion 12 7 47 81 52 A
Hillsboro. 12 7 84 84 45 B
Hillsboro. 12 8 63 58 66 A
42
A final concluding thought.
There is no question but that leaving no child
behind in reading is going to be a significant
challenge
It will involve professional development for
teachers, school reorganization, careful
assessments, and a relentless focus on the
individual needs of every child
But, its not the most difficult thing we could be
faced with
43
Consider this task for example
44
Questions/ Discussion