Diagnostics:
Digging Deeper

A Diagnostic Inventory, or Assessment, is used to measure students' skills in the Components of Reading: oral language development and vocabulary, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension.

There are many diagnostic inventories and assessment instruments that can support us in learning more about the specific reading needs of students.

Here are some examples of commonly used Word Recognition (Foundational Skills) diagnostics across EPS schools:

Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling Assessments LETRS

1) LETRS Phonological Awareness Skills Test (PAST)

• PAST is an informal, diagnostic, individually administered assessment tool to help teachers determine the point of instruction for students and to monitor progress.

2) LETRS Phonics and Word Reading Survey

• This survey is an individually administered tool for identifying which correspondences and patterns the student has learned, and which ones the student needs to be taught. This survey is used for the last half of Kindergarten and onward.

Sonday Essentials Mastery Checks

• Mastery Checks are given periodically to ensure that students are learning the systematic phonemes or if reteaching or other support is needed.

Being a Reader Placement and Mastery Checks

• These assessments are designed to quickly and efficiently assess the foundational skill areas students know, what they need to know, and to place them accurately in small groups supported by the Being a Reader instructional resources. Teachers can use these data to discuss instructional effectiveness at their grade level and to identify students in need of additional instructional support.

CORE Phonics Survey

• This inventory assesses the phonics and phonics-related skills that have a high rate of application in beginning reading.