Universal Screening

Our unified vision is that all students in Edina Public Schools become lifelong learners with rich literacy, language, and comprehension skills necessary to be engaged, motivated, critical thinkers and communicators, thriving through rigorous learning opportunities. Therefore, EPS takes all reading concerns very seriously and screens all elementary students for indicators of dyslexia in compliance with Minnesota Statute 120B.12. Universal screening does not diagnose dyslexia, or other significant reading difficulties, but is the first step in identifying students who may need more explicit instruction, or target intervention, in components of reading.

Universal screening is the first step in identifying students who are at risk for learning difficulties. Universal screening measures consist of brief assessments focused on target skills that are highly predictive of future outcomes. We use the FastBridge Assessment System for our Universal Screening instruments, as an initial view of potential difficulties in critical developmental reading components.The data from universal screenings, along with other data and educator input, informs our next steps in identifying students needs to meet the expectations stated in Minnesota Statute, section 125A.56 “a student identified as being unable to read at grade level under section 120B.12, must be provided with alternate instruction under this subdivision that is multisensory, systematic, sequential, cumulative, and explicit.”

FASTBridge Universal Screening Assessments meet the five criteria for effectively identifying reading difficulties and have been approved as a method of dyslexia screening.

1. Brief

2. Standardized

3. Norm-Referenced

4. Valid

5. Easy to Understand

FastBridge Assessments Include:

earlyReading
An evidence-based assessment is used to screen and monitor student progress. Typically administered in grades PreK-1, but may be used for screening up through grade 3 and for frequent progress monitoring at any grade. Each assessment within the earlyReading assessment instrument is designed to be highly efficient and inform instruction. The earlyReading instruments screen:

• Concepts of Print - awareness of 'how print works' and how texts function

• Phonemic Awareness - identifying, deleting, and substituting sounds in words

• Phonics - understanding of the sound-symbol relationships that support decoding and reading of words

• Word Reading Fluency - the ability to decode fluently without relying on memory or context clues

Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Curriculum Based Measure for Reading (CBM-R)

An empirically validated, evidence-based, method of progress monitoring with over 25 years of research on effectiveness. Using short assessments called probes, a CBM can be used for universal screening and for frequent progress monitoring. It is a strong correlative indicator of phonemic awareness, phonics, and comprehension needs. FastBridge provides benchmark targets for performance to help identify students at risk for academic failure.

aReading

Assesses a broad reading ability and predicts overall reading achievement in concepts of print, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, orthography, and morphology.

AUTOReading

Assessment of a student's automaticity with select reading skills, including recognizing letter names and sounds, decoding, identifying the correct spelling of words, word synonyms, and detecting differences in word meanings, AUTOreading is a computer-based test and can be used with students in grades K-12. There are nine AUTOreading subtests. One of these is a warm-up activity where students learn how to complete the assessment by selecting the picture of a named item. When used for screening students complete 2, 3, or 4 subtests (depending on their grade level), and the subtest scores are combined to create a composite score. When used for progress monitoring a teacher should select one subtest which matches the specific intervention.