Education and the lawIn 2001, the Federal Government mandated that states attempt

to close the academic achievement gap, also known as No Child Left Behind Act. Children with disabilities have scored

among the low achiever for academic success when administered standardized tests. In order to bridge this gap, we

must first look at the general education curriculum.(1) All children must be given the opportunity to develop skills required to be academically successful within the general

education curriculum. Since reading is the foundation skill for all learning , it is essential that children with disabilities receive targeted and effective instruction that addresses their core

weaknesses in reading (Lloyd, 2005).

The type of assessment that informs instruction does not necessarily need to be a formal reading test that was purchased from a publisher, although it certainly can be. Assessment can be a simple observation of a child's behavior when writing; it can be an observation of how well a child plays a word game; it can be an observation of a child's oral reading fluency. Every observation has the potential to be an assessment.

It is a good idea, however, to combine teacher observations with more formal and objective assessment information -- the two complement each other, and give the teacher a much better informed picture.

Since reading is the foundational skill for all learning, lets take a look at assessment tools.

Before one can assess, you must first look at what you want to assess.

During teacher team meetings, or during grade conference meetings you can use this form to assess your reading program. You will become more focused as to what and how effective your reading program is. This form can help guide the meetings.

Assessment:The short and The long

Short-term

  Fast and Quick

Snap shot of student levels Grouping according to levels Uses series of leveled books Doesn’t allow for ongoing

instruction Assesses the student

periodically

Long-term

While long –term assessments basically asks the same questions of short term assessments, the big difference here is what you do with the

results from the assessments.

Long-term assessments gives you the students reading accuracy level, fluency level, comprehension level, and can provide

vocabulary level. With long-term assessments, the teacher is able to instruct the whole

student instead of working on the area or areas in which the student needs to build.

Key here is that long-term assessments are on going. It gives both the student and teacher direction. Long-term assessments allows the

teacher and student to monitor progress.

Keys to an Effective Reading Program

Phonics – stresses letter –sound correspondences and their use in reading and spelling.

Vocabulary – understanding words on text or oral language.

Fluency – ability to read text automatically and without effort.

Comprehension – the ability to get meaning from text

Phonemic Awareness – the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sounds in spoken words

According to the National Reading Panel

Components of an Effective Reading Program

Our inquiry began because the data showed that 51% of the students were reading below grade level.

The reading program was assessed. The reading program only addressed 4 essential reading components (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and comprehension) for grades K-2, addressed 2 essential reading components(fluency & comprehension) for grades 3-5.

According to the National Reading Panel, there are 5 essential components of reading, (Phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) and the school had not addressed the vocabulary component on any level.

Here’s a look at the short –term(periodic) Reading Program:

Reading Program A (Tool A)

A series of leveled books

Recording sheets designed to:determine students' reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension levels.

Data is collected at the end of each grading period (3 times a year) to determine student progress

Inquiry Continued

Reading Program B (ongoing) (Tool B)

Ongoing student assessment, text leveling, and curriculum and instruction.

Includes all Common Core Standards for Reading, both in literature and informational text, as well as Language standards.

Because the reading program didn’t address all components of an effective reading program, we researched and found a reading program that did.

The National Reading Panel five essential components of reading:

Components of Reading

Tool A(Periodic Term)

Tool B(Ongoing)

Phonemic Awareness

Grades K-2

Phonics Grades K-2

Vocabulary

Fluency

Comprehension

So, here’s our essential question to the teachers involved in either program..

Do you feel tool “A” (periodic) or tool “B” (ongoing) helps to close the reading disparity amongst the Special Education and General Education students within your classroom?

Here are results after using both programs for 5 months

ELA Predictive Results

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 40%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

3%

31%

60%

6%2%

12%

67%

20%

Tool ATool B

While level 3 basically gave the same percentages, the big change comes with students reaching a level 4 .

Here are the results for Reading for Information and Understanding *

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 40%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

0%5%

64%

32%

0% 0%

15%

85%

Tool ATool B

While neither program had students attaining a level 1, the largest gains were with the students reaching a level 4. * = Using both program for 5 months

Reading for Critical Analysis and Evaluation * results after using both programs for 5 months

While both tools have more students attaining a level 4, tool B lessened the amount of students at level 2, the level where most of NYC students are.

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 40%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

0%

18% 18%

64%

0%4%

27%

69%

Tool ATool B

So, what does this all mean????

We had the data, the reading scores from ITA, and acquity