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You might have said this about a young student: They can’t read, but you’re unsure why. Was it the instruction or the program? Were the assessment results not specific enough? Regardless of the cause, the student was falling behind, and solutions seemed limited. Yet, there are effective ways to promote reading growth.

Literacy experts and district leaders in the edLeader Panel “Foundational Literacy Skills: The Power of Ongoing Monitoring” discussed effective strategies and established methods for enhancing early literacy development. They emphasized the importance of skill monitoring that provides real-time data to guide instruction, assist struggling learners, and ensure that every student acquires the essential skills for lasting success.

Start With the Science of Reading

Foundational reading skills often evade young learners, which means they will likely struggle with reading as they advance through school. There is a research-driven field of study that can improve reading instruction.

It’s the Science of Reading—a body of evidence collected over the past 50 years regarding effective strategies for literacy development. It helps educators understand how children read and provides insights into effective instructional practices. It shows what they lack and do correctly and what they should stop doing to effectively teach young learners how to read.

The Simple View of Reading, a model that originated from research, asserts that reading entails both decoding and language comprehension. Consequently, young readers will develop foundational skills if they can decode. The panelists stated that a shift towards the Science of Reading could help students improve their reading skills and achieve necessary literacy benchmarks.

Making the Shift: What Is Needed

A well-designed, well-sequenced program aligned with the Science of Reading—and teachers well-versed in the science—can have a more significant impact on students with varied reading challenges and differences.

To develop programming within this context, schools need leaders committed to allocating resources for teaching and learning success. They must establish designated reading and instructional time, implement various assessments, and provide professional development to shift perspectives about reading. Most importantly, teachers need access to data to monitor in real time.

Real-Time Data Propels Reading Growth

Teachers typically get data from summative year-end assessments, most of which are challenging and often inactionable. They tend to evaluate learners on things they have not even studied in the classroom. The data, therefore, are skewed and don’t necessarily support reading growth. A more precise measure of the foundational literacy skills being taught is necessary.

Using educational software that provides real-time data is best. For example, a teacher might want to assess whether students can decode CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, particularly to determine if they can handle those that start with continuous sounds or if they struggle with stop and vowel sounds.

Monitoring data provides numerous advantages: it enables personalized learning, creates opportunities for intensive small-group instruction, identifies instructional and learning gaps that hinder learners from becoming proficient readers (e.g., lack of sufficient repetition exercises and failing to present skills in a logical sequence), speeds up the tracking and remediation of specific deficiencies, supports formative assessments, and guides teaching strategies.

Data’s Impact

Data monitoring produces positive results. The panelists observed that students moved from Tier 2 and 3 to Tier 1. First graders are reading multi-syllable words; they can decode them even if they don’t fully understand their meaning. However, they are more likely to comprehend these words as they progress.

Low-ranked schools have transformed into commendable institutions. With data-informed support targeting areas of need, students who lack specific reading skills can start reading at their appropriate grade level. And teachers can dedicate more instructional time to the task at hand.

Real-time data also enhance instructional confidence and competence. With immediate assessment, teachers witness growth, leading to a sense of accomplishment. They are driven and motivated by what students can learn quickly and are excited about using data to make actionable and timely instructional decisions.

Engaging teachers in data-informed instruction within a Science-of-Reading framework is essential. Additionally, fostering a culture of immediate action and success is vital for identifying and addressing skill gaps and progressing to the next phase of instruction and growth.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Foundational Literacy Skills: The Power of Ongoing Monitoring, sponsored by ESGI, a Riverside Insights Solution.

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Join the Community

Assessment for Learning is a free professional learning community where educators can learn from top experts about effective assessment practices.

ESGI is a comprehensive solution designed to support early elementary educators in assessing and monitoring foundational skill development. With an intuitive interface, ESGI provides real-time data, empowering teachers, specialists, and administrators to track student performance, intervene early, and tailor instruction to individual needs. ESGI seamlessly integrates with the MTSS framework, offering targeted progress monitoring and common formative assessments aligned with curriculum standards. By simplifying intervention strategies, ESGI helps improve outcomes for students from Pre-K through 2nd grade and beyond, supporting both general and specialized instructional goals.

Article by Michele Israel, based on this edLeader Panel