Assessment Letters

mCLASS - Students in grades K-3 take an assessment called Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) through an online platform called mCLASS.  DIBELS has a composite reading score and a number of subscores that measure specific skills that lead to fluent reading comprehension.  Below are short explanations for each of the measures within DIBELS.  Each grade level only includes a few of these measures.

• Reading Composite - An overall composite score that is calculated based on a weighting of the subscores.  The Reading Composite is a good overall measure of a student's reading ability.

• Upper Case Letter ID - A measure of a student's ability to name upper-case letters in isolation.

• Lower Case Letter ID - A measure of a student's ability to name lower-case letters in isolation.

• Letter Sounds - A measure of a student’s ability to say the sound a given letter makes in isolation.  This includes long and short vowel sounds.

• Letter Naming Fluency - A measure of a student’s ability to name letters in the alphabet, both upper and lower case.

• Phoneme Segmentation Fluency - A measure of a student's ability to break up words into individual sounds (phonemes).  For example, the word bat has three individual phonemes (Buh-ah-t)

• Nonsense Word Fluency - A measure of a student’s ability to read decodable nonsense words.  An example of a nonsense word would be something like brip or twish.  Because students can rely on memorizing words rather than decoding, nonsense words help ensure students are actually decoding the word to read it accurately.

• Correct Letter Sound - A measure of the correct letter sounds a student uses when reading nonsense words, even if they did not read the entire word correctly.

• Word Reading Fluency - A measure of a student’s ability to read words in isolation.  

• Oral Reading Fluency - A measure of how many words a student can read per minute when reading a passage.

• High Frequency Words - A measure of a student's ability to read words that appear frequently in text.

• MAZE - A measure of reading comprehension.  Students read a passage where every 7th word includes an option of three different words.  Students select the word that makes the most sense within the context of the passage.

iReady Reading - Students in grades 3-5 take a reading assessment through the iReady platform.  iReady focuses on reading comprehension by having students read passages and answer literal and inferential questions about the passage.  The score listed on the assessment letter is the iReady Reading composite score, which is a good general measure of a student's reading comprehension.

Acadience - Students in Grades K-2 take an assessment called Acadience.  Acadience has a composite math score and a number of subscores that measure specific numeracy skills.  Below are short explanations for each measure within Acadience.  Each grade level only includes a few of these measures.

• Math Composite - An overall composite score that is calculated based on a weighting of the subscores.  The Math Composite is a good overall measure of a student's math ability.

• Oral Counting  - A measure of a student’s ability to count by ones accurately.

• Number ID - A measure of a student’s ability to identify a number within a given range of numbers (e.g., 0-20).

• Number Identification Fluency - A measure of a student’s ability to name numbers in isolation.

• Next Number Fluency - A measure of a student’s ability to name the next number for a given number.  For example, the test will show 14, and the student would respond with 15.

• Beginning Quantity Discrimination - A measure of a student's ability to determine which number is greater when given two different numbers in a limited range.

• Advanced Quantity Discrimination - A measure of a student's ability to determine which number is greater when given two different numbers, including multi-digit numbers.

• Missing Number - A measure of a student's ability to identify the missing number in a series of numbers.  For example, the test will show 4, _, 8, 10, and the student would respond with 6.

• Computation - A measure of a student's ability to complete basic arithmetic problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  The types of operations included are determined by grade level.

• Concepts and Applications - A measure of a student’s ability to complete math problems within a context.  Examples include word problems or reading graphs and charts.

iReady Math - Students in grades 3-5 take a math assessment through the iReady platform.  iReady presents a range of math problems for students to complete.  These include basic computation problems and contextual math problems like word problems or reading graphs and charts. The score listed on the assessment letter is the iReady Math composite score, which is a good general measure of a student's math ability.