Literacy Screening Protocol
Introduction
Our comprehensive literacy screening protocol is designed to accurately assess children for potential reading difficulties. Using a simple yet effective 5-step process, you'll be able to identify students not meeting grade-level benchmarks and make timely recommendations for evidence-based reading interventions using the Acadience K-6 Reading tools. For more information, view our Literacy Home Page and our Reading Development Page.
Training and Support Resources
Before you begin administering any screening tool, it is important to understand and become familiar with the materials and process. The following resources will help to develop your skills and allow you to administer the each of the screening tools in a standardized manner:
First Sound Fluency Training Video
First Sound Fluency Handout (Slides)
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Training Video
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Handout (Slides)
Nonsense Word Fluency Training Video
Nonsense Word Fluency Handout (Slides)
Oral Reading Fluency Training Video
Oral Reading Fluency Handout (Slides)
The Acadience Reading Assessment Manual provides background knowledge, assessment and scoring guidelines, grade norms, and other helpful information for administering and interpreting the tools.
Note: When using the free ALO Essential Training Tool, student profiles cannot be generated and scores cannot be saved. Other features may differ from those in the training materials as well.
Before You Begin
Before you begin administering the screening assessment, make sure to take the following steps:
1. Print a copy of the Literacy Screening Assessment Form or open the fillable version on your computer (note: if using the fillable version, use a different device than the one you will use for the training tool).
2. Open the ALO Essential Training tool on a touchscreen tablet or laptop. For easy access, follow these instructions to create a desktop shortcut (iPad, Android, or Chromebook).
3. Print the stimulus sheets for your client based on grade and time of year:
Literacy Screening Procedure
Once you are ready to begin, follow these 5 steps to administer the literacy screener:
Step 1: Initial Screening Questions
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Complete the demographic information on the Literacy Screening Assessment Form
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Ask the client's parent or caregiver the following 6 questions (taken from the Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire) and record their responses using the 5-point scale, with "Never/Not at all" as 1 and "Always/A great deal" as 5.
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Calculate the total score by adding the scores for each item.
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If the total score is 16 or higher, proceed to Step 2. If the score is below 16, the student is considered “typically developing”. *Students who are typically developing do not usually require any further testing. However, if reading is the referral concern or there is other evidence that the student may be below grade-level reading benchmarks, proceed with the assessment, even with a score below 16.
Step 2: Administer Standardized Reading Assessment
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Fill out the client's grade and time of year on the Literacy Screening Assessment Form
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Select the appropriate grade level on the ALO Essential Training Tool
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Find the appropriate time of year on the ALO Essential Training Tool
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Administer the subtests in order, providing stimulus sheets to the student as needed and following all directions from the ALO Essential Training Tool.
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If the list of subtests for the grade and time of year includes Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), do not administer LNF; skip and proceed to the next subtest
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If the student scores Below Benchmark or Well Below Benchmark on a subtest, do not administer remaining subtests
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For example:
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if the student is in kindergarten and it is the beginning of the school year, you would only administer the First Sound Fluency (FSF) subtest; you would not administer the Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) subtest
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if the student is in grade 1 at the beginning of the year and scores Below Benchmark on phoneme segmentation fluency (PSF), you would not administer NWF. Proceed directly to Step 3 (Testing Down) after recording the score
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After the time runs out for each subtest, the ALO Essential Training Tool will automatically score the test and provide one or more raw scores (numbers) and benchmark status (colours)
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It is very important to record the
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raw score and benchmark status
on the Literacy Screening Assessment
Form in the appropriate area before
proceeding with the assessment, as
the ALO Essential Training Tool does
not save these variables
Step 3: Testing Down
The testing down model of administration reflects the idea that you want to find the lowest level reading skill that is underdeveloped for a student. In other words, if students do not meet grade benchmarks for any of the grade-level subtests administered, you must administer subtests that assess more fundamental reading skills. We begin by testing grade-level reading skills; reading skills develop sequentially, so if grade-level skills are at or above benchmark, it is assumed that lower-level skills have developed appropriately (i.e., testing down is not needed). However, if grade-level skills are below benchmark, it is necessary to test lower-level skills to determine the child’s stage of reading development in order to intervene appropriately.
Testing Down Model
*A “LOW” score is one that is Below Benchmark or Well Below Benchmark
If grade level ORF is LOW, test ORF again at a lower grade level until benchmark status reaches At Benchmark or Above Benchmark.
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For example, if the student is in grade 4 and their ORF is LOW, you would administer ORF at grade 3; if this is LOW, you would then administer grade 2 ORF; if this is still LOW, you would administer grade 2 Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), then grade 1 Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), then kindergarten First Sound Fluency (FSF) if scores continue to be LOW
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When a subtest is At Benchmark or Above Benchmark, discontinue testing.
Step 4: Choose Suitable Intervention
Each literacy skill has an associated intervention resource that outlines the skill and provides resources and activities to support its development.
Intervention Flow Chart
Once you have administered all appropriate subtests, using the testing down model (if required), use the scoring and benchmark chart on the Literacy Screening Assessment Form, find the lowest-level subtest with a benchmark of Below Benchmark or Well Below Benchmark. Although the student may have multiple subtests Below Benchmark or Well Below Benchmark, you only provide one intervention sheet that is associated with the LOWEST identified underdeveloped reading skill. This is because interventions target foundational skills required for reading before moving on to higher-level skills.
As seen in the example below, the End of Year grade 1 student scored Well Below Benchmark on ORF and NWF. After testing down it is determined that the student is developing typically in PSF, so testing was discontinued. You would not provide the Phonemic Awareness intervention resource (because PSF is Above Benchmark). Although the student is Well Below Benchmark on all scores of Oral Reading Fluency, you would not provide any of the intervention resources associated with these low scores (i.e., Word Reading and Decoding, Reading Fluency, or Reading Comprehension) because these are not the lowest-level identified undeveloped skills. The lowest-level LOW test score is Correct Word Sequences on the NWF subtest, so you would provide the resource handout for the corresponding skill: Alphabetic Principles.
Step 5: Communicate Findings
Choose the selected intervention from the following list. The links will provide additional information and resources for each skill that can be shared with caregivers and educators, as well as Handouts that can be downloaded and printed.
Using the data from the Literacy Screening Assessment Form, print and fill out the School Letter and Summary Form or complete the fillable version.
Provide caregivers with the completed School Letter and Summary Form as well as the Handout for the appropriate skill that requires intervention.