Universal screening is critical in identifying students who are struggling with literacy. By middle school, many students have developed multiple ways to mask their struggles with reading, including memorization and acting out. It is essential that we screen every single student, ensuring that we do not disproportionately stigmatize cultural minorities by lowering expectations for certain groups of students. With universal screening, we ensure that we do not rely on inaccurate observations or biased reporting, and we support every single student who needs help, to ensure that all students become strong readers.
Acadience Reading Assessments
Acadience Reading K-6 is a universal screening and progress monitoring program that assesses early literacy skills in children in kindergarten through grade six. Acadience is designed to identify students at risk for reading difficulties and subsequently inform teacher’s instruction. Acadience uses brief, standardized measures to assess foundational skills and supports the Response to Intervention (RtI) and Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) model.
| Materials and Resources | Acadience includes measures (outlined in Components) that align to benchmarks from kindergarten to grade six, with each grade being broken down into expectations for the beginning, middle, and end of the year. Acadience includes many passages per grade (29-32) to allow for benchmark testing and progress monitoring. The measures can be administered online or with pencil and paper. Acadience includes a robust training manual for educators and a technical manual, which explains the design choices, academic evidence, and reasons for structuring Acadience the way it is. |
| Components | Acadience consists of six measures: First Sound Fluency (FSF): the assessor says words, and the student says the first sound of each word. FSF checks for phonemic awareness.Letter Naming Fluency (LNF): the student is given a sheet of letters and asked to name them.Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF): the assessor says words, and the student breaks out the individual sounds in each word. PSF measures phonemic awareness.Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF): the student reads a list of nonsense words. NWF measures the alphabetic principle and basic phonics.Oral Reading Fluency (ORF): the student reads a passage aloud, then is asked to retell what they just read. ORF measures advanced phonics, word attack skills, accurate and fluent reading of connected text, and reading comprehension.Maze: the student reads a passage silently. Some words are replaced by a multiple choice box with three options. The student selects each words that best fits the meaning of the sentence. Maze measures reading comprehension. Additional measures include the Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) that involves quickly and accurately naming repeated sets of familiar items. The measures are grouped by grade level, and are adapted according to age-level expectations for the beginning, middle, and end of each grade. Acadience identifies benchmark goals and cut points for risk to allow you to identify students at risk of reading challenges or in need of interventions. |
| Validity and Reliability | Acadience was field tested in 90 schools across America. It is verified by an exhaustive series of studies that tested Acadience measures and found them to be valid and reliable. In the Technical Manual available on the website, Acadience explicates why each measure is designed the way it is, citing many academic studies for each component. The benchmark goals and cut points for risk are criterion-referenced and developed through extensive data collection. Benchmark goals are based on research that examines the predictive validity of a score on a measure compared to later measures and external assessments. Cut points for risk identify students who are unlikely to achieve reading proficiency without receiving additional, targeted interventions. Acadience assessments are standardized, meaning they are administered and scored in a consistent manner, ensuring reliable and valid results. Measure items are arranged to increase the reliability of the scores. The reading passages are stratified to ensure that each section includes similar wording. |
| Cultural and Linguistic Sensitivity | Passages were designed so that names represent diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic groups. Diversity (socioeconomic, disability, race, ethnicity, family structure, culture, urban, rural) is incorporated incidentally in passages. Acadience refers to studies around linguistic diversity in the assessment manual. I would say that this is the area in which Acadience is the least robust—it does not seem like it is wildly inclusive. Its systematic, clinical nature (which is beneficial overall) limits its flexibility and openness. |
| Time Allotment | Acadience assessments are designed to be quick and easy to administer, allowing educators to assess a large number of students in a short amount of time. In kindergarten, the assessments take 3-6 minutes. In first and second grade, they take 6-8 minutes per student. In third to sixth grade, they take 6 minutes per student for ORF and 5 minutes for group testing for Maze, plus 1-2 minutes scoring time per worksheet. Overall, the assessments are very quick and can be administered by learner support teachers, literacy teachers, or classroom teachers. |
| Scoring and Data Interpretation Process | Acadience includes clear, concise directions and scoring rules. The percentages for students’ likelihood of meeting later reading goals are identified along with their benchmark status (at, above, below, or significantly below benchmark for their grade). If done online, the scoring is automatically calculated for the educator, meaning that it is simple and quick to use. |
| Overall Ease of Use | Acadience is generally fairly straightforward to use. It includes clear directions and scoring rules. It is very quick and easy when done online, though the paper scoring can be a bit more challenging. Educators are meant to undergo training before administering and scoring Acadience, but it comes with a robust manual to refer back to in order to maintain validity and reliability. |
References
Good, R. H. III, and Kaminski, R. A. (2011). Acadience Reading K-6 Assessment Manual. https://acadiencelearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/AcadienceReading_ALO_Assessment_Manual.pdf
Good, R. H. III, Kaminski, R. A., Dewey, E. N., Wallin, J., Powell-Smith, K. A., and Latimer, R. (2013). Acadience Reading K-6 Technical Manual. https://acadiencelearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Acadience_Reading_K-6_Technical_Manual.pdf