This story was originally published by EdSource.
Key takeaways
- By June 30, California schools must choose one of four screening tests recommended by a state panel.
- Most other states already have a universal reading screening test for early grades, but California has lagged behind.
- WCCUSD went through an intensive 18-month process before selecting mCLASS DIBELS as its screening test of choice.
After a decade-long push from reading advocates, California schools are on the verge of requiring every student in kindergarten through second grade to get a quick screening test to detect challenges that could get in the way of them becoming proficient in reading.
Under 2023 legislation, every school district in the state is required to select the screening test it prefers by June 30. They can choose from among four options recommended by a state panel — and then begin administering the test during the coming school year. The West Contra Costa Unified School District is ahead of schedule, having spent 18 months evaluating tests. The school board approved its choice at its May 14 meeting.
California is one of the few remaining states to introduce a universal screening test like this in K-2 grades.
“This is something we have been fighting for for 10 years,” said Megan Potente, co-state director of Decoding Dyslexia CA. Her organization co-sponsored four prior bills, which did not make it through the state Legislature, until it was included in the 2023 education budget bill.
The screening test had a powerful champion: Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom was diagnosed with dyslexia in elementary school and still copes with it as governor. He has become a national spokesperson on the issue, even writing a children’s book about it, titled “Bill and Emma’s Big Hit.”
Districts will only be required to administer the screening test in the K-2 grades, in part because substantial research shows that reading mastery by the third grade is crucial for a student’s later academic success.
The screening test has assumed even greater urgency as California attempts to boost students’ reading abilities. The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress report showed that average reading scores in California and nationally have dipped below pre-pandemic levels.
WCCUSD has made some progress, according to its March academic performance update, especially in a number of schools with low-income students, but says that 19% of students are reading at grade level by mid-year, compared to the national average of 27%. Twenty-two percent WCCUSD students are still scoring three or more grade levels below, compared to 11% nationally.
Its mid-year report said it increased the percentage of students who met or
exceeded reading standards from 24% to 34.5%.
The new test is not intended to provide a definitive diagnosis of dyslexia or other reading difficulties. Instead, its goal is to be a guide for parents and teachers on whether further diagnosis is necessary and to prompt schools to provide other support services.
However, Potente, a former teacher in San Francisco Unified, pointed out that the screening test could prevent students from being placed in special education classes unnecessarily. She said her 16-year-old son, who had reading difficulties, didn’t get any intervention until after the crucial third-grade milestone.
“If we had caught his challenges earlier and addressed them with the intensive instruction that he got later, he would not have needed special education,” she said.
“Screening is just the first step. How the districts respond to the needs of students is really what’s most important,” she said.
How WCCUSD chose new reading test for K-2 pupils
WCCUSD’s process for choosing which test to adopt offers a window into the intensive process that at least some districts have gone through.
The district, which serves large numbers of low-income and English learner students, first established a 20-member task force — made up of its superintendent, teachers, principals, board members, school psychologists, and community representatives — 18 months ago.
The district enlisted 150 teachers to try out mCLASS DIBELS and Multitudes, two of the four options offered by the state, and to provide detailed feedback.
After examining all of the information they received, district administrators recommended that the school board on May 14 select mCLASS DIBELS. (DIBELS, pronounced “dibbels,” is an acronym for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.)
“mCLASS DIBELS was the overwhelming choice of our teachers,” Sonja Bell, the district’s director of curriculum instruction and development, told the board.
The screening test is already in widespread use in many districts, notably in Los Angeles Unified. It was developed by Amplify, a 25-year-old company that produces a range of testing and curriculum materials.
One feature that appealed to WCCUSD teachers and parents is that the DIBELS test is quick — only taking between one and seven minutes. Another plus is that it can be administered by the teacher while sitting with the student. The teacher can observe the student during the screening, which provides valuable information that might not be available if the test were taken on a computer or online.
Another attractive feature was that DIBELS has a Spanish component called Lectura, which will be essential for assessing the reading skills of the district’s large English learner population.
Among the many teachers already using the DIBELS test is Barbara Wenger, a second-grade teacher at Nystrom Elementary in Hercules.
Like many teachers in WCCUSD and other districts around the state, Wenger has been using the test voluntarily, before the task force was set up, sometimes administering it monthly to assess a student’s progress. “I can’t emphasize how important this is to our instruction,” she said.
She recounted her experience at the school board’s May 14 meeting, saying that DIBELS helped her identify a student who could only read four words a minute, instead of the expected 50 words. She put the student in an “intervention group” and gave her structured exercises. The student, she said, is now reading 104 words a minute, making it unnecessary to place her in a special education class.
“This is something we could only have done by identifying her at the beginning,” she said.
Having selected DIBELS as the screening test, the district will turn to a District Implementation Team to oversee a multiyear rollout plan.
It has decided to go beyond the once-a-year screening called for in the legislation and to administer it three times during the year to assess a student’s progress more regularly. A three-year professional development plan for teachers will be phased in.
Crucially, the district says it will notify parents about the results of the screening shortly after it is administered.
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“I can’t emphasize how important this is to our instruction.”
— Barbara Wenger, second-grade teacher at Nystrom Elementary
Like many districts, WCCUSD is already using i-Ready, a screening test for early readers. But the test was not on the list of the four approved by the state. In addition, there were concerns that i-Ready is an online assessment, and just accessing it electronically presents some challenges to students, especially incoming kindergartners.
Wenger said that i-Ready takes significantly more time to administer than DIBELS. i-Ready, she said, shows how far a student is from their grade level, which means it is less likely to flag kids in kindergarten who could benefit from intervention early on.
DIBELS also has a clearer way of communicating results to parents, Wenger said. i-Ready, by contrast, “has a very complicated, confusing, and ultimately overwhelming, report home.”
Although supportive of the test, WCCUSD board member Demetrio Gonzalez-Hoy expressed concern that it would add to the testing burden students are already experiencing.
“We have so many tests already,” he said.
Bell, WCCUSD’s director of curriculum instruction and development, reassured him that the DIBELS test is brief, and that teachers will be careful not to overtax students or push them beyond their ability.
“They’ll stop when they see students have had enough,” she said.
As part of its implementation, the district collaborated closely with GO Public Schools, an advocacy organization, to get broad community input, especially through the organization’s Community-Led Committee on Literacy.
Natalie Walchuk, vice president of GO Public Schools and a former principal, said the process of choosing a screening test has become “a catalyst for meaningful instructional improvement” in the district. She praised the district for “going far beyond the minimal requirements” in the legislation.
Mark Heringer, the organization’s East Bay Managing Director, analyzed the district’s academic progress in his recent newsletter, saying the data, along with long-term trends from state testing, confirm there’s a ways to go, pointing to the district’s .03% improvement in English/language arts scores on the state Smarter Balanced Assessment System.
“As WCCUSD prepares its Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) and finishes the search for a new superintendent, this is a crucial moment. Literacy must be a central priority,” Heringer wrote. “Because when students learn to read, they unlock every other part of their education and every future opportunity.”
Richmondside Editor-in-Chief Kari Hulac contributed to this report.
