Screeners to Assess Literacy Skills in Primary Grades

Hess and Marzola (2018) shed light on the importance and benefits of administering screeners in early childhood as screeners can “predict future reading performance” or used to assist the early literacy teacher in flexible grouping and instructional design (p. 269). Screeners afford the opportunity to improve instruction through improved and targeted invention approaches offered early on in a child’s educational experience. These benefits provide numerous added value to preschool children’s academic success (Farver, Nalcmoto and  Lonigan, 2007) , but assessing each literacy skill set should be conducted in a “manner appropriate to the grade level of the child and evaluated for bias to ensure results do not stem from cultural and linguistic differences” (p. 269).

What are the common focus skill sets for primary screeners? Hess and Mazola (2018) suggest focus skills should center on phonics, phonemic awareness, and listening processing skills  in kindergarten. Screeners measuring fluency and reading comprehension are not appropriate for this grade level. As a child moves into first grade, phonemic awareness and decoding skills monitoring should continue, with a focus placed on oral reading fluency and vocabulary as the child progresses. Reading comprehension can be measured toward the end of 1^st grade. As a child moves into 2^nd and 3^rd grade, instructors should continue to closely monitor phonemic decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and reading compression (Hess and .Mazola, 2018). ELL children are at substantial risk of early academic reading problems and currently there is limited data on early identification and intervention for these children and a need for further research exploring primary ELL screeners, early language and literacy intervention approaches for ELL populations (Farver, Nakamoto, and Lonigan, 2007).

Screening provides an early opportunity to meet the literacy needs of primary students. Through improved and early screening, targeted instruction can assist in making great academic gains early on, reducing the many negative consequences of delaying intervention. Improving training on the use of screeners along with an improved understanding on how to evaluate the quality of screening approaches can benefit schools and early childhood programs.

Hess, L. & Marzola, E. (2018). Assessment of Reading Skills.  In Birsh, J. R. & Carreker, S. Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (4th Ed). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.

Farver, J. M., Nakamoto, J., & Lonigan, C. J. (2007). Assessing preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills in English and Spanish with the Get Ready to Read! screening tool. Annals of Dyslexia, 57(2), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-007-0007-9