iSTEEP

Introduction

iSTEEP is a computer-based diagnostic and summative assessment used to measure student growth in a particular category throughout the year. It is a test given on the computer with simple yet strict instructions to ensure fairness in its administration. I use this program as diagnostic assessment to assess students familiarity with initial sound recognition a the beginning of the school year, and to check their progress throughout the year. This assessment is useful because it tests student progress in a very specific phonemic skill that can be communicated numerically to the students. We also have a grade-wide tracker in the shape of a racetrack in our hallway where each student's progress towards this goal can be tracked by looking at their individual race car displayed on the track. These cars are placed next to corresponding markers indicating how many beginning sounds the student can identify per minute.

Testing Procedures and Results

These are the instructions for the Initial Sound Fluency test, which every student in my class will be given three times per year as progress monitoring. After ensuring the student understands what an initial sound is and what the test is asking them to produce, the student will be asked "Tell me the first sound in the word _____" for as many words as they can answer in a one minute time period.

This is what the tracker looks like within the iSTEEP system. Each student's data is recorded individually and they are scored out of a potential thirty initial sounds per minute. Currently, my class' average score is 3 correct beginning sounds per minute, with two outliers of 12 and 8 sounds. 10 out of 24 students were not able to correctly identify any letter sounds. Hopefully, as the concept of letter sounds and finding beginning sounds in words is introduced into our whole group phonics instruction, these results will go up dramatically the next time this test is given. If they do not, these results will affect how we practice this skill whole group and I may need to designate morning meeting time and guided reading time towards practicing this particular skill.

At the end of one minute, the assessment is over. The number of words the student has attempted are tallied. In this example, the student attempted to name the initial sound in six words, and was successful with two of them. The student's results are calculated and recorded through the iSTEEP program so that the student's progress with this skill can be monitored throughout the year. This test lets me know which students have a solid understanding of letter sounds as parts of words and which are still working towards this skill, which we review whole group during morning meeting and small group during guided reading.

Conclusion

iSTEEP is a straightforward summative and diagnostic assessment used to assess one particular skill. Students are invested in this test because the visual of our racetrack helps them understand not only where they are in relation to our end of year goal (20 sounds per minute), but also how they are performing in relation to their peers. Having students engaged in their own growth has many benefits, but most of all they can be proud of their own growth. After the test is taken a second time, I will bring each child out individually to move their race car up on the track and talk about what that means for their increased phonemic understanding. Students love the ceremony aspect of this and are motivated by this test and how its results are communicated to them to continue learning.

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