Formative Assessment

PLC integrates early screening for academic risk within a Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework that incorporates practices found to have the strongest predictive relationship with children’s ability to decode and comprehend connected text. As a means of assessing students’ development on fundamental early reading skills, PLC has provided project schools with technical assistance on the use of formative instruments for early screening, including the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Access to such tools, coupled with ongoing professional development and job-embedded coaching focused on data interpretation and intervention fidelity, has enabled teachers and administrators to provide their students with tailored interventions well before reading deficits are typically identified.

At a minimum, benchmark assessment data are gathered three times a year on every child to determine which students are responsive to the intervention provided and which students are in need of more intensive support. Subsequently, research-based interventions are employed for each level of support, from broad-based core programs designed to build the skills for most or all children in the class (tier-1 support) to high-intensity, individual or small-group interventions (tier-3 support). When student progress is monitored regularly, student data are used to differentiate instruction and re-group as needed in accordance with student’s skill level.