Early Literacy Screening Guidance
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) created the guidance document to support schools and districts as they conduct early literacy universal screenings required by Massachusetts regulation 603 CMR 28.03 (1)(f), effective July 1, 2023 which requires that schools and districts take the following actions:
For all students in grades K-3 the Early Literacy Universal Screener Millbury Public Schools will be utilizing is i-Ready Diagnostic
i-Ready Diagnostic is part of the i-Ready Assessment suite. It is an adaptive assessment designed to provide teachers with a complete picture of student performance for students at all grade levels. It:
In addition to i-Ready Diagnostic, the i-Ready Assessment suite includes offline tasks in RAN for Grades K–2 and students identified as needing this form of screening in grade 3. These tasks, which are administered by educators in a one-on-one setting, allow for targeted understanding of students’ strengths and areas of concern related to automaticity.
i-Ready goes beyond state requirements by providing an additional Dyslexia Screening export that includes the i-Ready Reading Difficulty Indicator, a scientifically based indication for whether or not individual students in Grades K–3 have reading difficulties that may require further evaluation and support. Furthermore, based on the most current research on effective early literacy screening, i-Ready also offers offline tasks for oral reading fluency, which are frequently used by educators to achieve a holistic picture of a student’s reading proficiency.