Early Literacy Screener Event

The Early Literacy Screener Event is offered at no charge to educators from 2015-2016 Project #220 School Improvement Services member districts:  Arcadia, Bangor, Black River Falls, Blair-Taylor, Cashton, Cochrane-Fountain City, De Soto, Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau, Holmen, La Crosse, Melrose-Mindoro, Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton, Onalaska, Sparta, Tomah, Viroqua, West Salem, Westby, Whitehall, and Wonewoc-Union Center. Non-members may attend at a cost of $25 per person. 

The passage of Act 55 requires each school district in Wisconsin to select Early Literacy Screener for use in grades PK-2. Here is the guidance from DPI regarding this change:

"Beginning in the 2016-17 school year, districts can continue to use PALS or select a different assessment of reading readiness for use with each child enrolled in four-year-old kindergarten to second grade. The assessment of reading readiness, which could be computer adaptive, still must:

? Be administered at least annually

? Evaluate whether a child possesses phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge

? Be an appropriate, valid, and reliable assessment of literacy fundamentals

? Include students enrolled in special education programs

                                The results of the assessment will be communicated to each child’s parent or guardian." 

DPI has made it clear that they will not provide specific guidance or create a list of acceptable assessments. The Early Literacy Screener Event was designed to provide district decision-influencers with information they can use to identify an assessment that best meets local needs for teachers and young learners. While it is certainly possible that districts may choose to stay with PALS, a consultant at DPI recently stated that it is unlikely that all of the supplemental resources currently available to WI educators via the state contract will be available once districts are contracting on their own. Hopefully the PALS rep will be able to provide specific information about what will be available as we move into 2016-17 and beyond. It is important to note that districts also have the flexibility to select different assessments for different grade spans (PK-K & grades 1-2).

During the Early Literacy Screener Event, vendors from five companies (aimsweb, DIBELS Next, myigdis, PALS, STAR Early Reading) will provide a 20 minute overview of their early literacy assessment either virtually or in person. While there are other assessments that seem to meet the Act 55 language, these five have been chosen because they are either currently in use in our area or have been suggested for inclusion by educators. As a large group, we'll discuss the pros/cons of each assessment. Teams will also be given time for district-level discussion.

Districts are strongly encouraged to attend as teams that might include teacher-leaders across the PK-2 grade span, a literacy specialist, principal(s), and the curriculum and instruction coordinator.