English Language Arts

Newsletter

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Fall is Here

Anyone else thinking, "what happened to September?" Our first quarter of school is already complete. Even though time is flying by, I am ready for fall, the cooler weather, changing leaves, and all the fun this time of year brings. 🍂 Next to summer, this is my favorite time of year!

October has a way of telling us the school year is truly underway. Fall activities are in full swing, classroom routines are settling into place, and our relationships with students continue to deepen. It is also a time when we begin to see more clearly what our students know, what they are ready to learn, and where they need additional support. With so much happening this time of year, it can be easy to keep adding to our plates. My reminder this month is to be intentional about the instructional practices we know make a difference and to let go of those that don't move student learning forward. You may notice some information or resources are repeated in this newsletter. My hope is that this becomes a resource you can return to throughout the year when you need an idea, strategy, or support. Be sure to explore the other tabs at the top of the page. I will continue to add additonal resources and strategies that are both helpful and practical to support the work happening in your classrooms everyday.

And finally, remember to make time for yourself. Find a cozy read, enjoy the cooler weather, take a walk, visit a pumpkin patch, or watch a Sunday football game while snoozing on the couch. You deserve a break. Thank you for all your hard work this first nine weeks of school.

Mary Lonker

KAP Updates and Reminders

The Assessment Cycle

The Interim testing window Is now open until Oct. 30th! Interim assessments are aligned to state curriculum standards and scores can be used to evaluate students’ knowledge and skills and inform decisions at the classroom, school, or district level. Systems no longer need to wait until Interim window closes for the state to receive distric scores! As soon as everyone In your district has completed the Interim tests, you simply email kap-supports@ku.edu and ask for your district Interim data.

The KAP Interim Assessments now incorporate more engaging item types by increasing the use of technology-enhanced items while reducing the number of multiple-choice items.

Mini Tests Drive Instruction

Incorporate Mini Tests in your classroom Instruction has become even easier, and several new tests have been added for this school year!

Log Into your KITE Educator Portal.
Choose among available Mini Tests available by domain, cluster, or standard. You can even see text complexity levels.
Build custom tests that reflect classroom instruction.
Explore a variety of reporting options to help gauge student learning and facilitate instructional planning.
If you need help, all you have to do Is ask! Email: Mary.Lonker@ksde.gov or kap-support@ku.edu

Literacy: The work of all of us

The Decoding Threshold

I attended a webinar in September provided by the George Bush Institute for Adolescent Literacy. One of the guest speaker, Rebecca Kockler, shared researach from a 2019 study from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) examining the relationship between decoding and reading compreshension in more than 30,000 students in grades 5-10. Researchers found that students performing below a specific “decoding threshold" - meaning they were not yet able to decode text automatically, accurately, and efficiently - showed stagnant growth in reading comprehension (Wang et al., 2019).

What does this mean for our middle and secondary students? We have a significant number of students who continue to struggle with decoding multisyllable words, and that can directly effect their reading comprehension. As a previous middle and high school teacher, I would often assume students had already learned "those skills." However, this research reminds us that literacy development doesn't stop when students leave the elementary grades. Sometimes students need continued, explicit support with decoding, morphology, and other foundational skills as they encounter increasingly complex text.

What We Can Do Together

I also know every teacher is working harder and longer than ever! Teaching often feels harder than it ever has before and adding one more “thing” to the day isn't realistic or even doable. So, maybe the question isn't “What else do I need to do?” but “What can we do together?” I think about literacy like a relay race. We are constantly passing the baton from one teacher, grade level, and classroom to the next. Literacy is the work for all of us, not something that belongs to one grde level, one classroom, or one content area. When we work systematically and collectively, we can continue to move studens forward.

Tim Shanahan's October 3 post, Reading Achievement and the Long Tail of the Pandemic, offers several important takeaways as we think about how we can strengthen literacy instruction across K–12. A couple of my favorites are:

Increase the amount of reading and writing students actually do.
Give students access to challenging texts—with the support they need.
Keep foundational skills in the picture.

None of this needs to become one more initiative. It is about becoming intentional witht he work we are already doing and helping pass the literacy baton forward.

KSDE 2026-27 Literacy Screening Protocol

This school year has brought with it some important changes for universal screening (the dyslexia screener) based on the changes in the new law (Kansas HB2485) passed spring of 2026. Below are the changes that impact this current school year and a couple of updates for future planning.

For the 2026-2027 school year:

Schools can use the approved screener they have been using. You do not need to acquire a new screening tool for this year. While you screen three times a year, reporting for this year will be fall and spring via KEDS.
This law requires additional grade levels data reported to KSDE. This year, you report for PK, K, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9th grade. For Pre-K students, you are only reporting for 4 year olds. For this year, if you are using MyIGDIs or FastBridge, you will provide screening results. If you have not been screening preschool students, you will mark not assessed and will start screening next year with the new statewide universal screener which will include preschool to align with the law. For 9th graders who screen with no risk, you do not need to continue screening beyond fall of 9th grade unless concerns arise.
When reporting this year, you do not need to break apart rate and accuracy for grades 2 and 3 and you do not report on the specific subskill as in the past. You use the composite score (see your technical manual or contact your vendor) and from that composite score, report one of three levels of risk (high risk, some risk, at or above benchmark-or the wording your screener uses for these levels of risk).
There will be no more screener data uploads to KIDS. All literacy screening data will be provided to KSDE via KEDS. KSDE has been in contact with the SIS providers in the state and they should be able to ensure that your system is set up to articulate with the KEDS system. On October 10th KSDE will take a "snapshot" of student screener data and that will provide your screening results for fall. On May 28th, KSDE will take a "snapshot" of student screener data in your SIS and that will be the screening results provided in the spring. It is important that your data is put into the system correctly so KSDE can access it on those dates. Contact your SIS for questions related to putting the information into their platform. For technical questions related with KEDS, please contact the KEDS help desk at: KEDS@ksde.gov

How do we provide the required literacy screening for our students that have the most significant cognitive disablitieis?

The Kansas Alternate Early Literacy Screener has been renamed the “Kansas Alternate Literacy Screener.” It is only intended for students with an IEP who have a most significant cognitive disability. Teachers will assess students’ early literacy skills using simple rubrics.

As a result of Kansas HB 2485, KSDE has had to make changes to the Kansas Alternate Literacy Screener. Teachers will need to administer all the rubrics for the student's grade. The score for each rubric will be entered into the score sheet; the scoring guide will assign a performance level based on the total score from all rubrics.

Districts will then report high risk, some risk, or at benchmark through the Kansas Education Data System (KEDS) by Oct. 10, for this fall and May 28, 2027, for the spring. No entry will be entered for eighth grade comprehension based on the Dynamic Learning Map® (DLM®) as has been done in the past. KSDE is in the process of building out the alternate literacy screener for grades fourth through eighth which will be used for the 2027-28 school year.

For more information, refer to the Dyslexia Requirements and Recommendations webpage  or contact Cary Rogers, cary.rogers@ksde.gov, with questions.

For the 2027-2028 school year:

As required in Kansas HB2485, starting in fall of 2027, all systems will use a statewide universal screener. KSDE has sent out a request for proposal (RFP) to initiate the process to select the screener and negotiate a competitive statewide price for systems (there was no fiscal note for this requirement). The plan is to have the screener selected by the end of the calendar year. Stay tuned to KSDE weekly and this newsletter for updates.

Based in screener data, a student in grade K-3 who is not already on an IEP with a reading goal, and who screens at high risk is provided an individualized literacy plan. House Bill 2485 notes that KSDE will provide the template for the plan and guidance for systems.

IMPORTANT!

A DRAFT template and guidance document will be provided in October, with a feedback form, for review by systems. Feel free to pilot the template and provide KSDE with feedback on the template by February to allow for finalization with a goal of systems to have the final draft of the template in their hands by April 1st of 2027. Students who are provided a plan should receive a minimum of 90 minutes of targeted and tiered interventions weekly (individualized or small group instruction).

New State Assessment Pilot

KSDE has received approval from the U.S. Department of Education to pilot a new approach to statewide assessment and accountability through the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority (IADA). The Kansas Through-Year Curriculum-Directed Assessment will allow students in participating districts to complete brief, rigorous assessments each quarter rather than taking a single summative assessment in the spring.

The goal is to provide student results within 72 hours after each assessment window closes, giving educators timely information to identify strengths, address learning needs, and adjust instruction while there is still time to improve student outcomes throughout the school year. The assessments will remain aligned with the Kansas Standards and will serve both instructional and accountability purposes. Performance across the quarterly assessments will be used to establish an annual determination of student performance for state accountability.

The pilot is planned for five years. Six Kansas school districts will begin implementing the Kansas Through-Year Curriculum-Directed Assessment during the 2026–2027 school year while continuing to meet federal assessment and accountability requirements.

If you have more questions, or can't find what you are looking for, please email me for assisstance: mary.lonker@ksde.gov

The KSDE Website Update

Over the summer KSDE launched our new website. As documents and resources have been approved, they have been uploaded an added to the website. You can access the ELA Standards and shared resources by following these steps.

Go to KSDE.gov
Click on the Student Success Tab at the top of the webpage
Under the Student Success menu, click on "Resources by Subject Area." Under this tab you will find several content subject.
Click on the English Language Arts link. Here you will find links for ELA Educator Resources and the links for the ELA Standards.

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