Page 41 - iRead EL in Research Paper

Progress Monitoring and Oral Fluency Assessment for Early
Literacy
Oral uency assessment is a speci c form of progress monitoring designed to track student growth in oral reading uency. Oral uency assessment measures words correct per minute (WCPM), and research has shown that it is “an accurate and powerful indicator of overall reading competence, especially in its strong correlation with comprehension” (Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2006, p. 636).
Research Evidence and Expert Opinion
Research has long supported the notion of assessing reading progress frequently to spot and correct problems early on. By identifying struggling learners as well as the skills they are struggling with, progress monitoring provides guidance for developing more e ective subsequent instruction for these students (Hasbrouck & Tindal, 2006).
Progress monitoring has gained momentum and support with the advent of the Response to Intervention (RTI) methodology that calls for multitiered support and intervention based on frequent measurements of student performance against expected benchmarks. Recent RTI practice guidelines speci cally call for teachers to “screen all students for potential reading problems at the beginning of the year and again in the middle of the year, [and] regularly monitor the progress of students who are at elevated risk for developing reading disabilities”(Institute of Education Sciences [IES], 2009, p. 9). IES RtI guidelines further suggest that students who are not making su cient progress with regular classroom instruction (Tier 2) should be monitored at least once a month, and that the resulting data be used to evaluate whether further intervention is required. For those students who continue to make insu cient progress (Tier 3), individualized, more intensive intervention strategies are recommended (IES, 2009).
RECOMMENDATION
Employ progress monitoring and oral uency assessments to evaluate student progress and to guide instructional decisions.
iRead’s Approach
iRead o ers a variety of tools and resources for measuring and tracking student progress over time, including reports of ongoing student performance, an oral uency assessment, and other instruments focused on speci c early literacy skill areas.
To support the e ective use of the data resulting from its within-lesson formative assessments, iRead provides clear, actionable student performance analytics, readily accessible from SAM Central. Individual results can be downloaded for o ine analysis or for emailing to parents, literacy coaches, and/or other intervention specialists.
• The Screener Analytic provides an overview of the class’s performance on the initial Screener, including the overall score for each student, and their placement point in the software based on their performance on the initial Screener.
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