Elementary Screeners
Wisconsin recently passed an educational law, commonly known as “Act 20.” One of the mandates of that law requires each child in grades 4K-3 to take an assessment called the aimswebPlus early reading screener.
A screener is an assessment that quickly checks your child’s reading skills to help teachers plan individualized instruction.
In our District, we already use a screener, called the Core Phonics Screener, and your child’s teacher may have talked with you about those results at conferences. The new state-required literacy screener, aimswebPlus, is very similar.
What skills will be tested on aimswebPlus?
The screener will check important literacy skills including alphabet knowledge, letter sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, decoding, and oral vocabulary. The skills are tested differently based on your child’s grade level. Please continue reading for information about these skills and options to be assessed in languages other than English. Over the course of the year, all the assessments below will be given.
When will the reading screener take place?
The aimswebPlus early reading screener will occur three times throughout the year: fall, winter, and spring. Fall 2024 was our “training period” for the aimswebPlus screener. We will begin assessing our 5K-3 learners between Jan. 15-29, 2025. Results will be sent home with progress reports.
If your child scores at or below the 24 percentile on the screener, a Personal Reading Plan will be designed for your child. The plan will include targeted instruction to improve your child's reading skills, which will be delivered during the small group portion of the literacy block at school. Your child's teacher will work closely with you to monitor and adjust the instruction throughout the year.
The screener is completed 1:1 with each child, just like our current district screener, and offers teachers additional important data on how your child is progressing with his/her reading skills. We will assess again in mid-January and one more time in mid-March.
More information will be shared with families prior to each winter and spring assessment, and the results of the winter and spring aimswebPlus screener will also be shared.
Are families required to acknowledge receipt of the reading information?
How can I prepare my child for the early reading screener?
No special preparation for aimswebPlus reading screener is needed. The testing is quick. This fall, our kindergarten and grade one students will complete the Auditory Vocabulary test. Working one-on-one with their teachers, kindergarten and grade one students will point to pictures of words said by their teachers. Our grade two and three students will complete the Oral Reading Fluency test. They will read two passages, one minute each, to their teacher.
If you have any questions or need more information about the early reading screener, please contact your child’s teacher, principal, or our Director of Elementary Education.
Early Reading Skills
2023 Wisconsin Act 20 requires that children are assessed in the early reading skills of alphabet knowledge, letter sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, and decoding. These skills are assessed differently depending on the student’s grade level. You can learn more about these important early reading skills below:
- Alphabet knowledge: Knowing the names of printed letters.
- Letter sound knowledge: Knowing the sounds of printed letters.
- Phonemic awareness: Hearing, saying, and manipulating individual sounds in spoken words.
- Decoding skills: Connecting sounds to written letters to read printed words.
- Oral vocabulary: Understanding the meanings of words when speaking or listening.
aimswebPlus Early Reading Screening Assessments
The aimswebPlus reading screeners that measure the skills above are based on a student’s grade level. You can learn more about these assessments below:
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Letter naming fluency (5K): Measures a student’s knowledge of upper-and lower-case letters. Your child will have one minute to say the names of visually presented upper-and lowercase letters that they know.
- Letter word sounds fluency (4K-1st grade): Measures a student’s letter sound knowledge. Your child will have one minute to say the sounds of visually presented letters, syllables, and words that they know.
- Initial sounds (4K-5K): Measures a student’s phonemic awareness. Your child will be provided a page with four pictures. Your child will be asked to either point to a picture of a word that matches the initial sound the teacher says or make the initial sound of a word spoken by the teacher. This assessment will take 2-3 minutes.
- Phoneme segmentation (1st grade): Measures a student’s phonemic awareness. Your child will listen to a word that is spoken by the teacher and then say each sound they hear in the word. This assessment will take 2-3 minutes.
- Auditory vocabulary (5K-1st grade): Measures a student’s knowledge of words commonly found in 5-year old Kindergarten and Grade 1 reading materials. Your child will match a picture to an orally presented word. This assessment will take 2-4 minutes.
- Vocabulary (2nd- 3rd grade): Measures a student’s knowledge of the meanings of grade-appropriate words. Your child will choose the meaning of target words by selecting from multiple choice options. This is an untimed, computerized assessment that typically takes 4-7 minutes.
- Oral reading fluency (1st-3rd grade): Measures a student’s decoding skills. Your child will read two stories aloud, each for one minute.
Is there an opt out of the new reading readiness screener requirement?
No, according to Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, there is no ability for families to opt their child out of this requirement.