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Literacy Screening Assessments

Wis. Stats. 118.016 requires each pupil enrolled in 4-year-old kindergarten through 3rd grade in a school district or in a charter school to be annually assessed for early literacy skills.

A screener is an assessment that quickly checks your child’s early literacy skills to help teachers plan individualized instruction.

Reading Readiness Screeners

Statewide 4K Fundamental Skills Screening Assessment: Pearson aimswebPLUS

(Initial Sounds, Fall and Spring; Letter Word Sounds Fluency, Spring only)

Screening windows/dates:

The District administers the universal skills screening assessment to students who are enrolled in 4K two times during each school year, as follows:  

  • Within 45 calendar days of the start of the school term for students each fall. 
  • In the second half of the school year, at least 45 calendar days before the last day of the regular annual school term. 

* Note: In the 2024-25 school year, the District is required to administer the assessment only one time. The schedule may be modified due to this exception.

Parent/Caregiver Communication

Parents and caregivers can expect to receive a letter within 15 days of the scoring of the statewide early literacy screener. Reports will be sent twice per year in the fall and spring.

 

Statewide 5K-3 Universal Screener: Pearson aimswebPLUS
(phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, alphabetic knowledge, decoding & oral vocabulary)

Screening windows/dates:

The District administers the universal skills screening assessment to students who are enrolled in 5K through third grade at least three times * during each school year, as follows:  

  • Within 45 calendar days of the start of the school term for students each fall. 
  • Near the middle of the annual school term. 
  • In the second half of the school year, at least 45 calendar days before the last day of the regular annual school term. 

* Note: In the 2024-25 school year, the District is required to administer the assessment only two times. The schedule may be modified due to this exception.

Parent/Caregiver Communication

Parents and caregivers can expect to receive a letter within 15 days of the scoring of the statewide early literacy screener. Reports will be sent three times per year- fall, winter, and spring. 

 

Diagnostic Literacy Assessments

Diagnostic assessments will be administered to students who score below the 25th percentile on the universal screener or who are referred for additional testing by a teacher or parent/caregiver. Act 20 requires that a diagnostic assessment include all of the specific literacy subskills enumerated in Act 20 and meets the technical specifications in Act 20 (i.e., a sensitivity rate of 70%, a specificity rate of at least 80%, and includes a growth measure). 

The District has selected i-Ready and aimswebPlus for use as diagnostic literacy assessments. 

The diagnostic assessments will be used to evaluate a student’s early literacy skills in the following areas: 

  • Phonemic awareness
  • Decoding skills
  • Alphabet knowledge
  • Letter sound knowledge
  • Oral vocabulary
  • Rapid naming
  • Phonological awareness
  • Word recognition
  • Spelling
  • Vocabulary
  • Listening comprehension
  • When developmentally appropriate for the student, oral reading fluency and reading comprehension

In instances where the District is required  to administer a diagnostic assessment (section 118.016(3)(b)), state law does not permit an opt out policy for this assessment.

As an assessment of skills, the above diagnostic assessment can help identify potential learning gaps with greater precision. However, the District’s diagnostic literacy assessment alone does not determine whether a student may have any medical or developmental condition or disability that may be affecting the child’s learning. See 118.016(1)(b) and 118.016(3)(b). 

 

Interventions

Depending on the student’s needs, interventions may be embedded in regular classroom instruction or delivered in a small group setting. 

AASD Equitable Multi-Leveled Systems of Support (EMLSS) will be used to determine the level, and the intensity, of these interventions.

The District is required to provide reading-related interventions or remedial reading services to a student who is enrolled in five-year-old kindergarten to fourth grade if the student’s performance on a universal screening or diagnostic assessment indicates that the student is at-risk for developing reading difficulties. 

The interventions and any additional instructional services provided to such a student must:

  • Address all areas in which the student has been determined to be deficient in a manner that is consistent with the state standards in reading and language arts. 
  • Include the components of science-based early reading instruction, as defined in section 118.015(1c)(b) of the state statutes. 
  • Be described in writing in a personal reading plan that is developed for the student if the student is enrolled in 5-year-old kindergarten to third grade. 

Various state statutes and administrative regulations establish standards and requirements for learning “interventions” that are provided in the specific context of early literacy instruction. For example: 

  • § 118.016(5) (defining requirements for personal reading plans).
  • § 118.016(1)(i) (defining “intervention” as the term is used in connection with personal reading plans).
  • § 121.02(1)(c)3 (specifying standards for interventions and remedial reading services that are provided to a 5K to third-grade student determined to be “at risk” based on a reading readiness assessment).
  • § PI 8.01(2)(c)3 (Register Feb. 2020) (addressing interventions and services that are provided to students in kindergarten through fourth grade under sections 121.02(1)(c)1 and (1)(c)2 of the state statutes).

The following evidence-based interventions provide explicit and systematic instruction and are available for students in need of additional support, including students with characteristics of dyslexia:

Literacy skill(s)

Intervention strategy/resource(s)

Strategies for weekly monitoring of progress 

Oral Language

Wit & Wisdom, UFLI, Heggerty Phonemic Awareness, HD Word, and the Comprehensive Intervention Model are some of the resources that will be used to deliver explicit and systematic instruction. 

Students will have opportunities to respond and practice in accountable texts with productive feedback given.

Weekly progress monitoring will be conducted with aimswebPlus assessments.

Additional informal assessments may also be used.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics

Vocabulary

Fluency

Comprehension

Word Recognition

Fluency