The school year has begun, and educators are facing even more challenges than in a typical fall. Students have been away from the physical classroom for five months or more, and many still have not returned. Teachers are tasked with producing remote learning instruction and navigating continually changing procedures. This leaves many educators wondering, “Where do I even begin?”
Going Back to School Without Assessment Data
Due to the cancelation of spring assessments, educators are starting the school year without recent student performance data. Not only that, but Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) projects that students will be about 30% behind in reading from where they would be in a typical fall. This is on top of an already significant learning loss during the summer.
It is more important than ever to quickly and efficiently determine where students are now and craft a plan to help them make up for learning loss.
Personalize Learning with Actionable Data
Educators need a comprehensive picture of students’ skills and abilities in silent reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and motivation. A fast and effective way to determine students’ academic standing and ensure they are on a personalized learning path to success is the Reading Plus assessment, InSight.
The adaptive assessment ensures that each student is placed on a personalized instructional path. Assessment data informs placement within assigned instructional components as well as recommended instructional intensity.
Measuring Motivation to Engage Students
Research shows that students’ attitudes and mindsets play an important role in learning. In InSight, students respond to statements about reading that help to create a picture of how they see themselves as readers.
Reading Fluency and Stamina
Research shows that 70 percent of non-proficient readers struggle to move their eyes smoothly and comfortably over lines of texts at an appropriate rate. InSight measures a student’s comprehension-based silent reading rate to inform the personalized instructional and practice activities that build and strengthen skills needed for fluent silent reading.
InSight: Three Assessments in One
The Reading Plus InSight assessment serves as a screener, placement, and benchmark assessment.
Screener
InSight groups students by instructional needs to determine which students need comprehension, vocabulary, and/or silent reading rate development support with Reading Plus. Teachers can easily understand their students’ unique needs by reviewing their personalized diagnostic profiles.
Placement
Students are placed into a personalized learning path based on assessment data. A student’s individualized instructional path includes:
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- the most appropriate program components for instruction
- the initial placement level within each component
- weekly assignment recommendations for each component.
Benchmark
The InSight assessment can be re-administered up to two additional times to provide valuable benchmarking for mid-year and end-of-year reading improvement. The Benchmark Report helps teachers monitor each student’s progress over time and determine how Reading Plus usage impacts growth.
Evidence Based, Research Proven
InSight is a valid and reliable assessment that was created under the direction and guidance of leading reading and assessment researchers. The assessment was reviewed by the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) as an academic screener. InSight earned the highest rating of “convincing evidence” of validity, reliability, and classification accuracy.
InSight is strongly correlated to national and state reading assessments. These findings indicate that Reading Plus can serve as a key component in a school’s literacy assessment. Learn more about InSight’s correlations here.
Want to learn more?
Request a virtual demo with your local representative to get a closer look at our adaptive literacy program for grades 3-12. A virtual demo is an easy way to see how Reading Plus fits into your district’s literacy plans.
