What Principals Wish They'd Known About Early Literacy Intervention Before Fall Testing
You've seen your fall literacy assessment data. Now winter screeners are coming, and pressure is on to
make sure every intervention minute counts.
What can you do right now to ensure your literacy interventions actually help your students grow as readers? We sat down for a Q&A with Asha Haki-Tyler, Director of Partnerships at Ignite Reading, to find out.
Q: Fall literacy data is in, and principals are looking to winter. What's the biggest mistake you see
districts make at this point in the year?
A: A big mistake I see is districts thinking it's too late to make intervention changes. If students aren't making progress, waiting until your winter screeners to confirm what you suspect will cost kids critical instructional time.
November is actually the perfect time to evaluate whether your interventions are working. By now, you should have 6-8 weeks of progress monitoring data to tell you what’s working and what isn’t.
The key is using that data now to fine-tune your MTSS so that when winter screeners come, you're seeing the growth you expected.
Q: If the data shows the interventions aren’t closing kids’ skills gaps, what should they do first?
A: First you need to look at the progress monitoring tool itself. Is it the right tool?
If a student is still working on basic letter recognition and sounds, for example, you should be using Letter Name/Letter Sound fluency as a measure of progress, not oral reading frequency!
You’ll also want to check to see:
- What is the student’s attendance like? Are they getting the intervention regularly?
- Are there any engagement or behavior issues that have been getting in the way of instruction?
- Is the teacher implementing the intervention with fidelity?
- Does the intervention focus match the needs of the student?
Depending on those answers, next you will want to examine whether the intervention should be continued, intensified, or even discontinued.
Q: Looking ahead to that winter screening data, what should principals be thinking about now?
A: Your progress monitoring data should tell you what to expect for your students currently receiving intervention. You shouldn’t have any surprises there. If you're seeing consistent progress in your weekly or biweekly monitoring, those students should show growth on winter screeners.
When it comes to the students who are not currently receiving intervention, your winter screeners are going to tell you who is maintaining growth and help you catch those students who are falling through
the cracks.
Winter data will show you whether your core instruction is working for the majority of students or if you're going to see an influx of new students needing support. If the latter happens, you'll want your intervention system ready to absorb them without overwhelming your staff or diluting the quality of support.
Not sure if your early literacy interventions are set up for success this winter? Email Asha Haki-Tyler at
asha.haki-tyler@ignite-reading.com to discuss your specific challenges, or download the free visual guide
to assessing your reading assessment quality.