What about students we can’t assess because they are on alternate assessment, home school, etc.?
There is no place to mark a reason not assessed in FastBridge or Student Success, but you can keep track of this information locally if desired (it is not required). Here are some issues related to decisions to screen or not screen a student with the default assessment.
- Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities (1%) will participate in screening under ELI using the Early Literacy Alternate Assessment (EL AA). Results of this assessment are available on the students pages, but not yet integrated into the healthy indicator reports.
- English Learners should participate in screening, intervention and weekly progress monitoring K-3. However, during a language acquisition phase, an off-level monitoring measure may be used and may be more sensitive to growth for a limited time.
- Dual-enrolled students with public and private schools are included in the ELI supports and requirements. One of the two sites should screen and offer supports (if applicable) to the student.
- Parents of students in a home-school program should be offered the opportunity for screening and intervention, which they may decline.
- Given the inclusion of all students in screening and early literacy, remember it is acceptable to use another approved measure when there is a good educational reason to do so. For example, you can use aReading instead of CBMR for a student with dyslexia (untimed assessment) or for a student who is nonverbal or dysfluent. Or, you can use earlyReading or CBMR if the student should be assessed 1:1 or needs a measure with discontinue rules, rather than an open ended, independently completed measure such as aReading. (Of course, using another approved measure to get a better score or “the best” score is not permitted.) The literacy status determination process does not have a way to know if a different assessment is used, and there is no place to indicate this in the system. Adapt the literacy status decisions for this individual student outside of the system.