The Science of Reading for Educators

Literacy Assessments Within a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) framework, decision making begins first with assessment. Through the assessments administered, problem solving teams are able to look at the overall “health” of a school by determining how many students are on target to meet grade level expectations versus how many students are not on target for success. This can help schools determine which elements of the core curriculum need to be supplemented or adjusted. Additional assessments can then be utilized to look at the overall performance of grade levels, classrooms, and individual students. There are multiple forms of assessment that are used as part of a comprehensive assessment system within a school, but the three most commonly used to make decisions as part of the problem solving process are universal screeners, diagnostic assessments, and progress monitoring. Universal Screeners A universal screener is designed to determine if a student is at-risk for reading dif