Assessment

Assessment for reading difficulties begins in the classroom. Based on data obtained through classroom work samples and/or universal screening, a student may be referred to the building’s student success team for further assessment and intervention. While school districts do not diagnose dyslexia, these assessments can document a pattern of strengths and challenges that are commonly seen in dyslexia.

Teachers use formative and summative assessments to evaluate students for the characteristics of dyslexia. These assessments provide measures of decoding, fluency, and spelling skills and may also measure the underlying skills of phonological awareness and, more specifically, phonemic awareness.

Sometimes a student may be reading at grade level despite indicators of difficulty with reading fluency and/or spelling. When a student’s strengths in oral language assist them in compensating for word-level decoding difficulties (by helping them to predict words, etc.), it is particularly important to assess non-contextual decoding skills, reading fluency, and spelling skills using such measures as phonics surveys, oral reading fluency, and spelling inventories.

All kindergarten and first grade students are screened for dyslexia using a state-approved universal screener that measures phonological awareness, letter-sound correspondences, and rapid naming. Students new to the district beyond first grade may also be screened. At any point in a student’s educational career, families, teachers, counselors, or the student themselves may request a screening for indicators of dyslexia. This type of request would be appropriate whenever a concern about a student’s ability to decode accurately and/or fluently arises. To request a screening, guardians may contact their child’s classroom teacher, school counselor, or building administrator.

RTI focuses on providing high-quality instruction for all students. Classroom teachers provide strong reading instruction daily, working with both large and small groups of students during the designated reading time. All students are screened multiple times across the year. The results from the screening help schools determine students who may need additional support to ensure they are on track for healthy reading outcomes. Schools use the screening data to plan for additional small group reading support for these students who show risk factors for reading difficulties. Teachers monitor the progress of students receiving additional support and use the data to increase the level of intensity of the reading support as needed. The team may propose additional interventions, a referral for consideration of a 504 plan, or a referral for consideration of a special education evaluation.

An evaluation for an individual with reading concerns includes phonological awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate sounds within words), word reading and phonics skills, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Tests of oral language skills are considered, given the overlap between spoken and written language. Various tests are available to assess these areas.

Students with dyslexia often have:

• Difficulties with phonological and phonemic awareness.  Assessments target the student’s ability to distinguish sounds within words, segment sounds within words, and blend sounds to form words
  
  
• Difficulties developing phonic and word reading skills. Assessments target real word reading, as well as nonsense word reading
  
  
• Compromised fluency and reading rates. Assessments target the reading rate of individual words as well as that of a connected text

Once evaluations are completed, the results are shared with the student’s parents or guardians and, as appropriate, with the student. Informal evaluation results are shared with the school’s student success team, school counselor, and/or the student’s classroom teachers. Formal special education evaluation results are shared with the student’s special education team for consideration of special education eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).