WWC Recommendation: Screen for reading problems at the beginning and middle of the year

Summary

The video script emphasizes the importance of Universal Screening for early detection and prevention of reading difficulties in students. It highlights the Response to Intervention (RTI) as a multi-tier instructional program that screens all students and monitors their progress. The script underscores the need for biannual screenings, the involvement of diverse school staff in an RTI team, and the selection of efficient, reliable, and valid screening measures. It also discusses the significance of predictive validity, the use of multiple measures to avoid false positives, and the necessity of progress monitoring to ensure appropriate interventions.

Takeaways

• 📚 Universal screening is essential for early detection and prevention of reading difficulties in students.
• 🔍 Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier instructional program that helps in early identification of struggling readers.
• 👀 Schools often overlook students at risk for reading difficulties if they only assess those already showing problems.
• 📉 Students who are not identified early may fall behind their peers and struggle with learning disabilities by grade 2 or 3.
• 📈 Universal screening provides an objective measure of student skills, complementing teacher observation and judgment.
• 📆 Screenings should occur twice a year, at the beginning and middle of the school year, for accurate assessment of student progress.
• 👥 A building-level RTI team with diverse expertise is crucial for coordinating a universal screening program.
• 📝 The team is responsible for selecting screening measures, establishing benchmarks, and managing logistics.
• 📊 Screening measures should be efficient, reliable, and have proven validity for predicting future reading ability.
• 🔎 Using at least two screening measures can reduce false positives and enhance the accuracy of identifying at-risk students.
• 💰 Consideration of costs, including staff time and resources, is important when selecting screening measures.
• 📉 Establishing grade-level benchmarks and cut points is necessary for identifying students at different risk levels for reading difficulties.
• 🔄 Progress monitoring is vital to ensure that interventions are matched to students' developing needs.

Q & A

What is the primary purpose of Universal Screening for students?

Universal Screening aims to provide early detection and prevention of reading difficulties for all students, ensuring that those who are struggling receive help promptly.

Why is it important to implement Response to Intervention (RTI) in schools?

RTI is a multi-tier instructional program that offers a strategy for early detection and prevention of reading difficulties, helping to identify and support students who may not be diagnosed with a learning disability until later grades.

What are the key components of RTI?

The key components of RTI include universal screening of all students and ongoing monitoring of their progress in core reading skills.

Why is it crucial to screen all students instead of only those demonstrating reading problems?

Screening all students helps to identify those at risk for future reading difficulties who might otherwise be overlooked if only students with existing problems are assessed.

How often should schools conduct universal screening for reading difficulties?

Schools should conduct universal screening twice a year, at the beginning and middle of the school year, to provide an accurate picture of student skills.

What role does the building level RTI team play in a school's universal screening program?

The building level RTI team, comprised of diverse members with various expertise, is responsible for tasks such as managing logistics, selecting screening measures, establishing benchmarks, and identifying at-risk students.

What factors should the RTI team consider when selecting screening measures?

The team should consider factors such as efficiency, reliability, and proven validity of the measures, ensuring they accurately predict risk, measure appropriate reading skills for each grade level, and are cost-effective.

What is predictive validity in the context of screening measures?

Predictive validity refers to the accuracy of a screening measure in predicting future reading ability, including its sensitivity in identifying at-risk students and its specificity in identifying students at low risk.

Why is it recommended to use more than one screening measure?

Using multiple screening measures can enhance the accuracy of the screening process, reduce false positives, and ensure that interventions are not provided to an inflated percentage of the student population.

What are the considerations when interpreting screening results?

Interpreting screening results requires grade level benchmarks or growth rates to determine which children are at low, moderate, or high risk for developing reading difficulties. It's also important to establish cut points to identify students who may need additional assistance.

How can schools ensure that screening measures are reliable and not overly taxing on resources?

Schools need to ensure they have the capacity to meet the demands of the screening process, consider the costs involved, and may need to train paraprofessionals to conduct screening to avoid taking teachers away from classroom instruction.

What is the significance of progress monitoring in the context of RTI?

Progress monitoring ensures that students continue to receive interventions at a level of intensity that matches their developing needs, allowing for adjustments to be made based on ongoing assessment of their progress.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Universal Screening for Early Reading Difficulties Detection

This paragraph introduces the concept of Universal Screening as a critical strategy within the Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. It emphasizes the importance of early detection and prevention of reading difficulties, rather than waiting for formal diagnosis in later grades. The paragraph explains that RTI involves a multi-tier instructional program with universal screening of all students and ongoing monitoring of their core reading skills. It highlights the risk of overlooking students who may not yet show reading problems but are at risk. The paragraph also discusses the need for schoolwide coordination, the formation of an RTI team with diverse expertise, and the selection of efficient, reliable, and valid screening measures. It stresses the significance of using multiple measures to enhance accuracy and avoid overburdening resources with unnecessary interventions.

05:01

📈 Establishing Benchmarks and Monitoring Progress for Reading Proficiency

The second paragraph delves into the specifics of establishing benchmarks and monitoring student progress to identify those who may not require additional assistance. It notes the imperfect reliability of any single measure and suggests additional assessments or monitoring for students whose scores are near the cutoff. The paragraph discusses the importance of setting appropriate initial benchmark cut points to balance false positives and missed opportunities for at-risk students. It also touches on the necessity of progress monitoring to ensure that interventions are matched to students' needs. The federal office of special education programs is mentioned as a resource for benchmark information, and the paragraph concludes by emphasizing that screening is just the beginning, with ongoing monitoring being essential for student success.

Keywords

💡Universal Screening

Universal Screening refers to the process of evaluating all students, not just those who are already showing signs of difficulty, to identify those who may need additional help with reading. In the video, it is highlighted as a critical first step in early detection and prevention of reading difficulties, ensuring that no at-risk student is overlooked. The script emphasizes its importance in determining the scope of reading support a school needs to offer.

💡Response to Intervention (RTI)

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier instructional program aimed at providing early detection and intervention for students with learning difficulties. The video explains RTI as a strategy that includes universal screening and ongoing monitoring of students' progress in core reading skills, which helps in identifying and supporting students who are struggling before they fall behind.

💡Learning Disability

A learning disability is a term used to describe a range of processing problems that can interfere with a student's ability to learn. The script mentions that students often don't receive help until they are officially diagnosed with a learning disability, which may occur in later grades, by which time they may have fallen significantly behind their peers.

💡Core Reading Skills

Core Reading Skills encompass the fundamental abilities necessary for successful reading, such as phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The video script discusses the importance of ongoing monitoring of these skills as part of the RTI program to ensure early identification of students who may struggle.

💡Screening Measures

Screening Measures are tools or tests used to assess students' reading abilities as part of the universal screening process. The script mentions that the building level RTI team should select measures that are efficient, reliable, and have proven validity, focusing on appropriate reading skills for each grade level.

💡Predictive Validity

Predictive Validity is the accuracy of a screening measure in predicting future reading ability. The video script explains that it has two aspects: sensitivity, which is the measure's accuracy in identifying students at risk, and specificity, which is its accuracy in identifying students who are not at risk. Using multiple measures is recommended to enhance the accuracy of the screening process.

💡Benchmarks

Benchmarks are standards or levels of performance that indicate when a particular reading skill should be achieved. The script states that once benchmarks are established, they are used to set cut points for identifying students who may need additional assistance. The federal office of special education programs is mentioned as a resource for information on benchmark screening.

💡Progress Monitoring

Progress Monitoring is the ongoing observation and assessment of a student's performance over time to determine the effectiveness of interventions. The video script emphasizes the importance of progress monitoring in ensuring that students continue to receive interventions matched to their developing needs.

💡False Positives

False Positives occur when a screening measure incorrectly identifies a student as needing additional assistance when they may not. The script warns against the use of a single measure, which can result in false positives, and recommends using at least two measures to enhance the accuracy of the screening process.

💡Intervention

Intervention refers to the additional support or assistance provided to students who are identified as needing help with reading. The video script discusses the importance of offering interventions at a level of intensity that matches the students' developing needs, based on the results of universal screening and progress monitoring.

💡Grade Level Benchmarks

Grade Level Benchmarks are specific standards that outline the reading skills students should have acquired by a certain grade. The script mentions that these benchmarks are used to determine which children are at low, moderate, or high risk for developing reading difficulties, and they are crucial for setting cut points in the screening process.

Highlights

Universal screening is critical for early detection and prevention of reading difficulties in students.

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier instructional program for early detection of reading issues.

Students often don't receive help until they are officially diagnosed with a learning disability or have fallen behind.

Universal screening provides an objective reading on student skills, complementing teacher observation and judgment.

Screenings should occur twice a year to accurately assess student progress in core reading skills.

Midyear screenings are especially important for younger students to provide a more accurate picture of their skills.

A universal screening program requires schoolwide coordination of staff and resources.

The RTI team should include diverse members such as teachers, special educators, school psychologists, reading coaches, and the principal.

Screening measures should be efficient, reliable, and have proven validity for the appropriate grade level.

Screening measures should focus on appropriate reading skills for each grade level, from letter knowledge to passage reading.

Using more than one screening measure can reduce false positives and enhance the accuracy of the screening process.

The predictive validity of a screening measure is its ability to accurately identify students at risk for reading difficulties.

Costs associated with additional screening measures include staff time for administration and interpretation of results.

Interpretation of screening results requires grade level benchmarks or growth rates to identify students at risk.

Establishing cut points or cutoff scores is necessary to identify students who may need additional assistance.

Screening is just the start; progress monitoring ensures students receive interventions matched to their needs.

Setting lenient or stringent cut points can impact the accuracy of identifying at-risk students and resource allocation.

Regular progress monitoring is essential to determine which students are most at risk and require additional support.

Transcripts

welcome to the overview on universal

screening for all

students beginning readers who are

struggling need help right away but they

often don't receive it until grade 2 or

three after they have been officially

diagnosed with a learning disability or

have fallen far behind their

peers response to intervention or RTI is

a multi-tier instructional program that

offers a strategy for early detection

and prevention of reading

difficulties key components of RTI are

the screening of all students and

ongoing monitoring of their progress in

core reading

skills when a school only assesses those

students who are already demonstrating

problems with reading other students who

are at risk for future reading

difficulties can be overlooked this is

why Universal screening is such a

critical first step in determining the

scope of reading support a school needs

to offer Universal screening provides an

objective reading on student skills

this does not mean that teacher

observation and judgment is unimportant

by monitoring student performance over

time teachers will make an important

contribution engaging a student's

progress in both core and intervention

programs screenings for reading

difficulty should take place twice a

year at the beginning of the school year

and again in the middle of the Year

these midyear screenings are especially

important for younger students as the

results are likely to give a more

accurate picture of student skills than

those obtained at the beginning of the

year a universal screening program

requires schoolwide coordination of

staff and resources a building level RTI

team should be comprised of diverse

members with a range of expertise such

as teachers special Educators School

psychologists reading coaches and the

principal the team will be responsible

for a number of tasks for managing basic

Logistics such as determining who will

administer the assessments and handle

scheduling to more substantive

responsibilities such as selecting

screening measures and establishing

benchmarks to identify atrisk

students when considering which measures

to adopt the building level team should

give special attention to each measure's

efficiency reliability and proven

validity specific factors to consider

include ensuring that the appropriate

reading skills are being measured how

accurately the measure predicts risk and

cost screening measures should focus on

appropriate reading skills for each

grade level in kindergarten screening

should assess letter knowledge pheic

awareness and expressive and receptive

vocabulary in grade one focus should

shift to address pheic awareness

decoding word identification and text

reading in grade two screening should

focus on word reading and passage

reading it may be necessary to use more

than one screening measure in order to

assess all of these

skills the accuracy of Any Given

screening measure in predicting future

reading ability is referred to as its

predictive validity predictive validity

has two aspects its sensitivity the

degree of accuracy with which it

correctly identify students at risk for

reading difficulties and its specificity

its accuracy in identifying students at

low risk for such

difficulties use of at least two

screening measures is highly recommended

as use of a single measure can often

result in false positives such as

identifying students as needing

additional assistance but who are likely

to do fine without it using two

screening measures can both enhance the

accuracy of the screening process and

ensure that schools are not taxing their

resources by providing intervention to

an inflated percentage of the student

population When selecting which

screening mechanisms to implement it's

important to factor in the various costs

involved each additional measure

requires more staff time to ad Minister

and made his place instruction moreover

interpreting multiple indices or

measurement results can be a complex and

timec consuming task these factors

should be carefully considered When

selecting the number and type of

screening measures to adopt the team

needs to be sure that their school has

the capacity to meet the demands of the

screening process and to consider

alternatives such as training par

professionals to conduct screening

rather than taking teachers away from

classroom

instruction interpretation of screening

results requires grade level benchmarks

or growth rates to determine which

children are at low moderate or high

risk for developing reading difficulties

grade level benchmarks indicate when a

particular reading skill should be

achieved the federal office of special

education programs offers a good

starting point for information on

Benchmark screening and progress

monitoring through its National Center

on response to intervention

website once benchmarks have been

established the district will need to

EST establish cut points or cuto off

scores to identify those students who

are likely to reach proficiency without

additional

assistance it is critical to keep in

mind that no measure is perfectly

reliable when students scores fall

slightly below or above a cuto off score

in a benchmark test schools may wish to

conduct an additional assessment of

those students or monitor their progress

for a period of 6 to 8 weeks to

determine whether the student does in

fact require additional

assistance schools may need to Define

initial Benchmark cut points to obtain

the right level of accuracy for

identifying atrisk students a lenient

cut Point can result in false positives

that end up being more costly to the

school while a more stringent cut Point

may miss students at risk for potential

reading problems in general it's best to

set screening cut points that will

identify a pool of children and then

follow up with regular progress

monitoring to further determine those

most at

risk remember screening is just the

start

progress monitoring ensures that

students continue to receive

interventions at a level of intensity

match to their developing needs