Beginning with the 2020-21 school year, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education began collecting literacy screening assessment data from schools and districts participating in certain state grants in order to analyze patterns of performance to inform improvement efforts. These assessments, which were selected from a list…

Like many states, Massachusetts has intensified efforts in recent years to improve literacy outcomes, particularly in the early grades. Initiatives have focused on providing guidance and resources for implementing changes in curriculum, instruction, and additional screening and support for struggling students. In September 2022, the Board of…

More than half of North Carolina's grade 3 students struggle with reading. The percentage of students scoring below proficient in reading at the end of grade 3 was 55 percent in 2017/18. That percentage has remained largely unchanged, at above 50 percent, since 2013/14, when North Carolina passed its K-3 Read to Achieve literacy act. Read to…

More than half of North Carolina's grade 3 students struggle with reading. The percentage of students scoring below proficient in reading at the end of grade 3 was 55 percent in 2017/18. That percentage has remained largely unchanged, at above 50 percent, since 2013/14, when North Carolina passed its K-3 Read to Achieve literacy act. Read to…

A Comprehensive K-3 Reading Policy establishes support and intensive reading interventions for K-3 students to ensure they read on grade level by the end of third grade. The policy also requires third grade students to demonstrate sufficient reading skills for promotion to fourth grade. For students severely below grade level and who do not…

This Study Snapshot highlights key findings from a study that examines full-day kindergarten (FDK) implementation in Oregon. The evidence base on FDK is generally positive for short-term effects and unclear for longer-term effects, with some prior research associating FDK with gains in student outcomes such as grade 3 math and reading standardized…

This teaching tip describes an intervention used in a third-grade classroom implemented to help students pass an end-of-grade reading comprehension test. Low scores on a practice end-of-grade comprehension test prompted a re-examination of classroom reading instruction and a plan for intervention. This teaching tip describes the phases implemented…

The third-grade year is considered a pivotal point in a child's educational career, as a critical shift in learning takes place--one where basic reading skills are established and can begin to be utilized for more complex learning. State policymakers are well aware of the importance of ensuring that all students are reading at grade level by the…

Among the 50 states, Florida's gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) between 1992 and 2011 ranked second only to Maryland's. Florida's progress has been particularly impressive in the early grades. In 1998, Florida scored about one grade level below the national average on the 4th-grade NAEP reading test, but it was…

This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's English language learner students' 2015 state academic test (STAAR) reading, writing, and science results (grades 3-5) and state English language proficiency test (TELPAS) results (kindergarten through grade 5).

Progress monitoring refers to a system of ongoing data collection on academic skills of interest. Short samples of student performance are collected on a regular basis, and the scores from these short samples of performance are graphed to create a picture of student progress. Teachers can use the graphed student performance as they make…

The assessment of phonological awareness (PA) can serve several purposes, including providing a useful diagnostic function in the management of low-progress readers. This paper discusses various aspects of phonological awareness that have implications for literacy teaching at three different points in children's school career: the point of school…

In "Beyond Test Scores: Leading Indicators for Education," Foley and colleagues (2008) define leading indicators as those that "provide early signals of progress toward academic achievement" (p. 1) and stress that educators "need leading indicators to help them see the direction their efforts are going in and to take…

This Information Capsule answers the most frequently asked questions about M-DCPS' academic performance during the 2011-2012 school year. Over the past year, the Florida Department of Education made over 28 changes to the school grading formula, including the transition to new, more rigorous assessments, new accountability components, and…

This general achievement trends profile includes information that the Center on Education Policy (CEP) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) obtained from states from fall 2008 through April 2009. Included herein are: (1) Bullet points summarizing key findings about achievement trends in that state at three performance…