TheReadingMind

Susan Sturock, Consultant

“What happened to the way I used to teach reading?!”

Synthesizing the Universal Assessment Schedule, Reading Research

and State and Federal Mandates

The Universal Assessment Schedule that has been created for your school is representative of
compliance with current reading research and State and Federal learner proficiency mandates. It is
necessary that those who are doing such intricate work with children know and understand why they
are doing what they are doing. Without this deep understanding, teachers are vulnerable to simply
complying with administrative directives to assess students. Compliance to administrative directives
does not create the cultural change in teaching necessary to produce dynamic, positive change in our
students. With deep understanding, teachers realize the connectedness of the greater world of
education to their classroom activities. With deep understanding, all involved in education move past
compliance into a philosophy of commitment. Committed educators produce learners and this is our
goal.

International and National Research: Definition of Foundational Literacy Skills

The following information is excerpted from Reading and Writing with Understanding by Sally
Hampton and Lauren B. Resnick. This text is a publication of the International Reading Association and is
one of several publications by New Standards, a joint project of the Learning Research and Development
Center at the University of Pittsburg (Pennsylvania, USA) and The National Center on Education and the
Economy (Washington, D.C.USA). “This book synthesizes the research evidence about reading and
writing with the wisdom and guidance of a distinguished group of educators and researchers who have
enlightened the field with their insights into students’ literacy development.”

The following quote defines the transcending literacy skills necessary to being able to read and
write with understanding , thus the name of Hampton’s and Resnick’s text.

“The US National Reading Panel has summarized research that finds the early stages of reading
include developing phonemic awareness, understanding phonics, becoming fluent as a reader,
enlarging vocabulary, and understanding text (National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development , NICHD, 2000). “

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TheReadingMind

Susan Sturock, Consultant

In the ReBalanced Literacy graphic (Graphic A), you can note that:

 instructional time in all five of these areas referenced in NICHD 2000 above is planned
 assessment time to monitor growth (formative assessment) in each of these areas is
provided.

(Graphic A)

State and Federal Mandates: Are We Just Teaching to the Test?

This background information is important to keep in mind when considering any state’s high stakes
assessments. It is important for teachers to understand that we are designing instruction around
the identified early reading stages and what research tells us is the best practice to create these
effective literacy skills. We are not just designing instruction to perform well on a test.

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TheReadingMind

Susan Sturock, Consultant

Standardization of Early Reading Goals

The NCLB legislation required each state receiving federal education monies to embed these
common instruction goals in its academic standards for education. These skills are then
assessed on each state’s annual literacy assessment.

To illustrate specifically, consider the State of Michigan’s state curriculum known as the GLCEs
(Grade Level Content Expectations). These GLCEs are assessed on the MEAP (Michigan
Educational Assessment Program) assessment. Specifically, from grades K-8, Michigan’s ELA
GLCEs are broken into four basic strands Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening and Viewing.
Within each of these strands are domains. Please note that within Strand I of the Michigan
GLCEs, the five areas of effective instruction are listed (Graphic B).

(Graphic B)
Strand 1 Strand 2 Strand 3 Strand 4
Reading Writing Speaking Listening & Viewing
DOMAINS
Word Recognition and Word Genre (GN) Conventions (CN) Conventions (CN)
Study (WS) Discourse (DS) Response
Process (PR)
• Phonemic Awareness Personal Style (PS)
• Phonics Grammar & Usage (GR)
• Word Recognition Spelling (SP)
• Vocabulary Handwriting (HW)
Writing Attitude (AT)
Fluency (FL)
Narrative Text (NT)
Informational Text (IT)
Comprehension (CM)
Metacognition (MT)
Critical Standards (CS)
Reading Attitude (A

Keep in mind that the MEAP is a criterion-referenced assessment, as are most state-wide
assessments in reading and math. The criteria are, in this instance, mastery of the domains
within these strands.

Please check your state’s academic standards and grade level benchmarks. While they may not
be as clearly outlined as Michigan’s, you will see that The Fab 5 (areas of essential
instruction/academic standards) are indeed embedded in the learning expectations.

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TheReadingMind

Susan Sturock, Consultant

The Universal Assessment Schedule: Doing The Right Work With A High Degree of Order

In order to identify and accelerate remediation in learning environments and to authentically

separate learning disability from learning deprivation, universal assessment in these five academic
standards is necessary. Universal assessment means that all students in the learning environment
receive these various assessments, no one is excluded unless provided for in the schedule. Data
collected from these assessments measure individual student growth and ability and define the nature
of the differentiated instruction.

Graphic C below provides an example Universal Assessment Schedule. This is a simple

collection of the assessments a school or district is engaging in that measure student growth in The Fab
5. (It can also include other high stakes assessments.) All members of the teaching/learning
community must be aware of the types of and times of various formative assessments.

(Graphic C)

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TheReadingMind

Susan Sturock, Consultant

The Universal Assessment Calendar: Being Published and Transparent

Administrators must further assure that time is provided for processing the results of
these assessments. A calendar posting the dates for each assessment, as well as a time for
processing the results of these assessments, needs to be developed and published on an easily
accessed source. My recommendation is on the school website. By posting the Universal
Assessment Schedule and Calendar, the entire learning community establishes an important
cultural pillar: the understanding that teaching and learning are diagnostic and prescriptive
across grades for all members of the school community that includes students, regular and
special education teachers and parents (report cards).

RTI, Differentiation and Universal Assessment: Insuring Reading Foundations

The foundational philosophy of Response to Intervention is prevention rather than

remediation. Constructing a Universal Assessment is the essential first step in any district’s
effort to assure the existence of strong Tier I instruction, or best first instruction, for all
students. It is the data collected from these assessments that allows teachers to diagnostically
and prescriptively differentiate instruction.

Universal Assessment Benefits: Students Who Struggle to Read

Theoretically, students move at a steady pace through the various stages of reading (see Chall’s
Stages of Reading). This progress, however, is greatly influenced by a child’s oral language capacity. In
Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children written by Betty Hart
and Todd Risley, we read the research on poverty’s impact of poverty on a child’s ability to approach,
and be successful in, these five areas of instruction (Fab 5).

In learning environments where significant poverty exists, universal assessments extend further
up into the grade levels than it does in learning environments where poverty levels are not as high
(below one-third). These assessments are not reductive in nature. In other words, they are not meant
as an opportunity to “dumb down” the curriculum. Rather the assessments act to advise teachers of
deficits in essential skills so that accelerated remediation opportunities can be designed while
simultaneously affording rich, grade-level learning opportunities. These essential assessments act as
advocates for those who are often times the least able to advocate for themselves – struggling students.

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TheReadingMind

Susan Sturock, Consultant

Universal Assessment Benefits: Students With Advanced Skills

Educators do, and should, voice concern over adequate learning opportunities for
students who are very able. Highly able students’ needs can be overlooked because we either
don’t have the tools to recognize them or because they are gracious in their silence. Universal
assessment creates a very concrete picture of basic skills which in turn illuminates the fact that
we are designing skill lessons that are already in place for some students in our classrooms.

Authentic differentiation for these students has just as much merit as it does for students who
struggle. Advanced students have the right to grow a year for a year’s worth of seat-time.
Universal assessment removes the silence surrounding this demographic group and helps us
face the challenge of creating opportunities for them as well as for our struggling students.

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