Acadience
®
Reading K–6
Assessment Manual
© 2011 Acadience Learning Inc. All Rights Reserved. Acadience is a registered trademark of Acadience Learning Inc. Revised 7/20/20.
Roland H. Good III
Ruth A. Kaminski
with
Kelli D. Cummings, Chantal Dufour-Martel, Kathleen Petersen,
Kelly A. Powell-Smith, Stephanie Stollar, and Joshua Wallin
Acadience Learning Inc.
www.acadiencelearning.org
For use with Acadience Learning Online
Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual ii
Acadience
®
Reading Educational Use Agreement
Acadience is a proprietary name referring to the work of Roland Good, Ruth Kaminski, and Acadience Learning Inc
(ALI). The intent of ALI is to make the current Acadience Reading assessment tools and materials downloadable
from this website (the “Acadience Reading Materials”) available to schools, school districts, and multi-district
agencies for the limited purposes, and on the terms, described in this Educational Use Agreement. Such use,
however, is not intended to and does not place the Acadience Reading Materials in the public domain.
Photocopy masters of the Acadience Reading Materials are available at a host website designated by ALI solely
for the purposes described in this Educational Use Agreement (www.acadiencelearning.org). Schools, school
districts, and multi-district agencies may themselves make unlimited photocopies of the Acadience Reading
Materials for internal educational use, subject to the terms of this Educational Use Agreement. No outside printing
services or other vendors may make photocopies of the Acadience Reading Materials. No Acadience Reading
Materials may be sold or licensed without the express written consent of ALI. ALI has licensed Voyager Sopris
Learning
®
to sell the print version of the Acadience Reading Materials and to distribute the Acadience Learning
Online progressive web application that incorporates the Acadience Reading materials (www.voyagersopris.
com).
As a part of ALI’s program to provide the photocopy masters and permission to photocopy for free as described
above, ALI requires all users to register on the host website designated by ALI, to evidence their assent to the
terms of this Educational Use Agreement, so that we may document usage as we pursue additional research
and development funding, and so that we may notify users when new and improved materials are available.
Users should not use a prior version of Acadience Reading Materials when a new and improved version of the
Acadience Reading Materials is available.
This Educational Use Agreement also requires that users copy and use the Acadience Reading Materials
without modication (including, without limitation, without removing logos or acknowledgments for contributions
to the Acadience Reading Materials), except as agreed to in advance and in writing by ALI in its sole discretion.
Any uses of the Acadience Reading Materials that are inconsistent with the provisions of this Educational Use
Agreement are strictly prohibited.
Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual iii
Welcome to Acadience
®
Reading K–6
Powerful Indicators for Improving Student Outcomes
Over the last two decades, general outcomes measures like Acadience Reading K–6 have changed the
educational landscape—providing accurate, timely benchmark and progress monitoring information to ensure
students receive targeted instructional support. Acadience Reading is a premier universal assessment system
that has been embraced by educators across the country and used as a tool to help thousands of students reach
their full academic potential.
What is Acadience Reading?
Acadience Reading is a universal screening and progress monitoring assessment that measures the acquisition
of early literacy skills from kindergarten through sixth grade. The assessment is composed of six brief measures
that function as indicators of the essential skills that every child must master to become a procient reader.
These measures are used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy skills in order to provide timely
instructional support and prevent the occurrence of later reading difficulties.
By design, the Acadience Reading measures are brief, powerful indicators of foundational early literacy skills
that:
• are quick and efficient to administer and score;
• serve as universal screening (or benchmark assessment) and progress monitoring measures;
• identify students in need of intervention support;
• evaluate the effectiveness of interventions; and
• support the RtI/Multi-tiered model.
Why use Acadience Reading?
Acadience Reading provides reliable and valid universal screening to nd students who may be at risk for
reading difficulties. These measures also help identify the skills to target for instructional support. Acadience
Reading also provides progress monitoring measures for at-risk students while they receive additional, targeted
instruction to close achievement gaps. Finally, these measures assist educators in examining the effectiveness
of school-wide literacy supports.
The advantages of Acadience Reading are that it:
• directly measures foundational early literacy skills that are responsive to instruction;
• is standardized;
• is thoroughly researched, reliable, and valid;
• is designed for use within a problem-solving, Outcomes-Driven Model of decision-making;
• provides research-based benchmark goals for interpreting results; and
• is efficient and economical.
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual iv
Key features of Acadience Reading include:
• empirically leveled Oral Reading Fluency passages that have been eld-tested with students in school
settings;
• composite score available at each grade and time of year capturing reading for meaning, at an adequate rate,
with a high degree of accuracy;
• user-friendly format with clear, concise directions and scoring rules;
• arrangement of items to increase reliability of scores; and
• checklists of common response patterns to facilitate targeted instruction.
This Acadience Reading Assessment Manual provides:
• an overview of how Acadience Reading measures align with essential early literacy and
reading skills;
• general guidelines on the administration and scoring of the Acadience Reading measures
and how to interpret results;
• specic administration and scoring procedures for each measure; and
• a pronunciation guide, practice scoring sheets and answer keys, assessment accuracy
checklists, and sample statements and parent letters.
Anyone who administers Acadience Reading or uses Acadience Reading scores should read this
manual. The best understanding of the information in this manual will come after the reader attends
training that includes practice in administering and scoring each Acadience Reading measure.
Training in how to interpret the data is also important for the reader who will be interpreting the test
results or using those results to make group- or student-level decisions. For more information about
training, see page 21.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction to Acadience Reading ................................. 1
The Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skills ............................... 1
An Overview of the Acadience Reading Measures ............................. 1
Acadience Reading and the Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skills ........... 2
Acadience Reading and Students With Special Needs .......................... 6
How Acadience Reading Is Used .......................................... 7
Acadience Reading and RtI: The Outcomes-Driven Model ....................... 9
History and Development of Acadience Reading ............................. 10
How Does Acadience Reading Improve on Earlier Versions of These Measures? .....11
Chapter 2: Guidelines for Administering and Scoring Acadience Reading ......... 14
Standard Features of Acadience Reading Measures .......................... 14
Administration Guidelines ............................................... 15
General Scoring Guidelines ............................................. 17
Testing Materials ...................................................... 18
Accommodations ...................................................... 19
Training ............................................................. 21
Appropriate Use of Acadience Reading .................................... 22
Test Security ......................................................... 22
Chapter 3: Interpreting Acadience Reading Data .............................. 23
Criterion-Referenced Interpretations: Understanding Benchmark Goals
and Cut Points for Risk ................................................. 23
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Individually Referenced Interpretations: Analyzing Student Growth and
Progress Over Time .................................................... 27
Local Norm-Referenced Interpretations: Comparing Students Districtwide ......... 27
National Norm-Referenced Interpretations: Comparing
Students in a Larger Context ............................................. 28
The Importance of Response Patterns ..................................... 29
Chapter 4: Implementing Acadience Reading in Your School .................... 30
Conducting Benchmark Assessment ...................................... 30
Conducting Progress Monitoring .......................................... 36
Progress Monitoring Procedures .......................................... 38
Communicating With Students, Parents, and School Personnel .................. 47
Chapter 5: First Sound Fluency (FSF) ....................................... 50
Overview ............................................................ 50
Administration Directions ............................................... 51
Scoring Rules ........................................................ 53
Chapter 6: Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) ..................................... 59
Overview ............................................................ 59
Administration Directions ............................................... 60
Scoring Rules ........................................................ 61
Chapter 7: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) ............................ 66
Overview ............................................................ 66
Administration Directions ............................................... 67
Scoring Rules ........................................................ 68
Chapter 8: Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) ................................... 76
Overview ............................................................ 76
Administration Directions ............................................... 77
Scoring Rules ........................................................ 78
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Chapter 9: Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) ..................................... 89
Overview ............................................................ 89
Administration Directions ............................................... 90
Scoring Rules for ORF ................................................. 93
Scoring Rules for Retell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Chapter 10: Maze ........................................................112
Overview ............................................................112
Administration Directions ...............................................113
Scoring Rules ........................................................114
Chapter 11: Design Specications and Technical Adequacy Summary ............116
Descriptive Information and Design Specications ............................116
Technical Adequacy Summary .......................................... 122
Appendices ........................................................... 126
Appendix A: Assessment Accuracy Checklists .............................. 127
Appendix B: Reading Composite Score and Reading Composite Score
Worksheets ......................................................... 135
Appendix C: Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk ....................... 143
Appendix D: Pronunciation Guide ........................................ 152
Appendix E: Sample Statements and Letters ............................... 153
Appendix F: Practice Scoring Sheets and Answer Keys ....................... 157
Bibliography ........................................................... 165
Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Acknowledgements
The program of research and development that has culminated in Acadience Reading has been a collaborative
effort among many dedicated contributors. The talents and efforts of literally thousands of individuals
contributed to the successful development and completion of these measures, including Acadience Learning
research scientists and staff, research colleagues from across the country, educators and school personnel,
children and parents, and publishing partners.
Throughout a multi-year program of research and focused effort, these individuals provided skill, expertise,
time, and unlimited energy for the research and development of Acadience Reading. Listings of those people
who contributed to the research and development of these measures are included in this manual and in the
Technical Manual. There are, in addition, numerous unnamed children, teachers, and school personnel to
whom we owe our special thanks. These people volunteered their time to participate in the research and
provided invaluable feedback and suggestions on the measures. We are deeply indebted to each and every
individual for his or her contribution.
Ruth Kaminski and Roland H. Good, III
February, 2010
Research Scientists
Kelli D. Cummings, Ph.D.
Chantal Dufour-Martel, Ph.D.
Nancy Knutson, Ph.D.
Kathleen Petersen, Ph.D.
Kelly A. Powell-Smith, Ph.D.
Stephanie Stollar, Ph.D.
Project Manager
Joshua Wallin
Graphic Designer
Karla Wysocki
Research Assistants
Alisa Dorman
Rebecca Freund
Annie Hommel
Douglas Rice
Katherine Bravo Aguayo
Data Analysis Team
Elizabeth Dewey
Rachael Latimer
Maya O’Neil
Support Staff
Daniel Cohn
Laura Collins
Carol Gassman
Jeff Heriot
Sarah Laszlo
Field Site Coordinators
Ann Marie Anderson
Theresa Fletcher
Lana Gerber
Mary Giboney
Allison Hardin
Debra Hawkins
Tammy Hillebrand
Carol Keskeny
Sara Krebs
Kristen MacConnell
Tina McMullen
Amy Murdoch
Kristin Orton
Lori Pinchot
Alecia Rahn-Blakeslee
Karla Reed
Janet Reynolds
Janet Richards
Christina Schmid
Sue Spiker
Lisa Habedank Stewart
Peggy Taylor
Carol Trumbo
Lillian Vardon
Jennifer Watson-Kilgrow
Christi Whitter
1Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Chapter 1: Introduction to Acadience Reading
Acadience Reading is a set of measures used to assess essential early literacy and reading skills for students
from kindergarten through sixth grade.
You can use Acadience Reading to:
• identify students who may be at risk for reading difficulties;
• help teachers identify areas to target instructional support;
• monitor at-risk students while they receive additional, targeted instruction; and
• examine the effectiveness of your school’s system of instructional supports.
Acadience Reading is designed to be an efficient, cost-effective tool to help make decisions about reading
instruction, to help the teacher provide support early, and to prevent the occurrence of later reading difficulties.
Acadience Reading assesses essential early literacy and reading skills, or the skills that every child must
master to become a procient reader (National Reading Panel, 2000; National Research Council, 1998).
The Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skills
• Phonemic Awareness:
Hearing and using sounds in spoken words.
• Phonics:
The system of letter-sound relationships that serves as the foundation for decoding
words in print.
– Alphabetic Principle and Basic Phonics: The concept that printed letters correspond to the
sounds of spoken words. Knowing the most common sounds of consonants and vowels and
sounding out phonetically regular VC and CVC words.
– Advanced Phonics and Word Attack Skills: Knowing all of the sounds for letters and letter
combinations, and sounding out written words.
• Accurate and Fluent Reading of Connected Text:
Reading stories and passages easily and
condently with few mistakes.
• Reading Comprehension:
Understanding what is read.
• Vocabulary and Language Skills:
Understanding and correctly using a variety of words.
An Overview of the Acadience Reading Measures
Acadience Reading comprises six measures.
1. First Sound Fluency (FSF):
The assessor says words, and the student says the rst sound for
each word.
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2. Letter Naming Fluency (LNF):
The student is presented with a sheet of letters and asked to name
the letters.
3. Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF):
The assessor says words, and the student says the
individual sounds in each word.
4. Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF):
The student is presented with a list of VC and CVC nonsense
words (e.g., sig, rav, ov) and asked to read the words.
5. Oral Reading Fluency (ORF):
The student is presented with a reading passage and asked to read
aloud. The student is then asked to retell what he/she just read.
6. Maze:
The student is presented with a reading passage in which some words are replaced by
a multiple choice box that includes the original word and two distractors. The student reads the
passage silently and selects the word in each box that best ts the meaning of the sentence.
The Acadience Reading measures were designed to be economical and efficient indicators of a student’s
essential early literacy and reading skills and include the following features:
• They are standardized assessments, which means they are administered and scored exactly the
same way every time with every student. An assessment must be standardized in order to be able to
compare results across students or across time or to compare student scores to a target goal.
• They include alternate forms of approximately equal difficulty so that student progress can be
measured over time.
• They are brief so that students can be assessed efficiently and frequently.
• They are reliable, which means they provide a relatively stable assessment of skill across time,
different forms, and different assessors.
• They are valid, which means they are measuring the essential early literacy skills they are intended
to measure.
• They are sensitive to student growth over relatively short periods of time.
Acadience Reading and the Essential Early Literacy and
Reading Skills
Assessing student performance on the essential early literacy and reading skills, which are also known as core
components or foundational skills, can help distinguish children who are on track to become successful readers
from children who are likely to struggle. Evidence shows that these skills are the basic building blocks that every
child must master in order to become a procient reader (Adams, 1990; National Reading Panel, 2000; National
Research Council, 1998). Evidence also shows that these skills can be improved with instruction (Kame’enui,
Carnine, Dixon, Simmons, & Coyne, 2002; Simmons & Kame’enui, 1998; Torgesen, et al., 1999).
The Acadience Reading measures are designed to be indicators of the essential early literacy and reading skills.
An indicator is a brief, efficient index that provides a fair degree of certainty about a larger, more complex system
or process. For example, a pediatrician measures a child’s height and weight as a quick and efficient indicator of
that child’s physical development. Similarly, each Acadience Reading measure is a quick and efficient indicator
of how well a child is doing in learning a particular essential early literacy and reading skill (see Table 1.1). As
indicators, Acadience Reading measures are not intended to be comprehensive, in-depth assessments of each
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
and every component of an essential early literacy and reading skill. Instead, they are designed to measure key
components that are representative of that skill area, and predictive of overall reading competence.
Table 1.1 Alignment of Acadience Reading Measures With Essential Early Literacy and
Reading Skills
Essential Early Literacy and
Reading Skills
Acadience Reading Measures
Phonemic Awareness
First Sound Fluency (FSF)
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)
Alphabetic Principle and Basic
Phonics
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)
–Correct Letter Sounds
–Whole Words Read
Advanced Phonics and Word Attack
Skills
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
–Accuracy
Accurate and Fluent Reading of
Connected Text
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
–Words Correct
–Accuracy
Reading Comprehension
Maze
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
–Words Correct
–Retell
Reading Composite Score
Vocabulary and Language Skills
Word Use Fluency-Revised (WUF-R)(Available as an
experimental measure. Email info@acadiencelearning.org
for more infomation.)
Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) is an indicator of risk included in Acadience Reading K–6 that is not directly linked
to any of the essential early literacy and reading skills. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is a task that involves
quickly and accurately naming repeated sets of familiar items. RAN also is not linked directly to the essential early
literacy and reading skills. Acadience RAN measures are offered as optional measures for users of Acadience
Reading K–6 and may be used as an additional risk indicator. Additional information about Acadience RAN is
provided in the Acadience RAN Assessment Manual. Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) is a complex measure that
represents many different skills. In addition to measuring the accurate and uent reading of connected text,
ORF also looks at advanced phonics and word attack skills by examining the student’s accuracy. ORF is a good
indicator of reading comprehension for most students, and the Retell component helps to identify the small
number of students for whom ORF may not be a good indicator of comprehension. ORF and Maze also require
adequate vocabulary and language to comprehend the content of the passages.
The model in Figure 1.1 shows the relationships among the essential early literacy and reading skills, the
Acadience Reading measures, and the timeline for achieving benchmark goals for each measure. The essential
early literacy and reading skills (e.g., phonemic awareness, phonics) are represented by the rounded boxes at
the top of the gure. The arrows connecting the rounded boxes show how the early literacy skills relate to one
another and lead to reading comprehension. The arrows from the rounded boxes to the boxes in the middle level
show the linkage between the essential early literacy and reading skills and the Acadience Reading measures.
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The lines between the Acadience Reading measures and the timeline at the bottom indicate the target time of the
benchmark goals for that measure. In this model, automaticity with the code (i.e., accurate and uent reading of
connected text) in combination with vocabulary and language skills provide a necessary foundation for learning
reading comprehension skills. If the student does not have adequate skills in either area, the development of
reading comprehension skills is likely to be compromised.
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Figure 1.1 Model of Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skills, Acadience Reading Measures, and
Timeline
*
Experimental measure.
Essential Early
Literacy and
Reading
Skills
Phonemic
Awareness
Phonics
Reading
Comprehension
Vocabulary and Language Skills
Accurate and
Fluent Reading of
Connected Text
Advanced
Phonics & Word
Attack Skills
Alphabetic
Principle &
Basic Phonics
Measures
Timeline
Phoneme
Segmentation
Fluency
Oral Reading
Fluency
Nonsense
Word
Fluency
Maze
Third–Sixth Grade
EndMidBeg
Second Grade
EndMidBeg
First Grade
EndMidBeg
Kindergarten
EndMidBeg
Word Use
Fluency–
Revised
*
First Sound
Fluency
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The model is intended to highlight the primary, most powerful, and instructionally relevant relationships. Other,
secondary relations between core components are not included in this gure for clarity. For example, in addition
to the relationship between phonemic awareness and phonics, there is also a reciprocal relationship between
phonics and phonemic awareness. The model emphasizes this set of relationships in a prevention-oriented
framework in which phonemic awareness skills can be developed very early and can provide a foundation for
successful phonics instruction.
Two caveats are important to note with respect to Figure 1.1. First, the gure is intended to assist in organizing the
developmental progression of skills and the linkage to the Acadience Reading measures and timeline. Although
the core components are portrayed as distinct rounded boxes, the skills are tightly intertwined in procient
reading. Phonemic awareness and phonics skills, for example, might be taught and practiced in isolation in a
designed curriculum, but instruction is not complete until the skills are integrated. A complete understanding of
how words are portrayed in written English requires the integration of all core components into a coherent whole.
Second, the role of systematic and explicit instruction is critical throughout this model. Acquisition and mastery
of an earlier skill by itself is unlikely to result in achievement of the subsequent skill. However, a foundation of
an earlier-developed skill, combined with systematic and explicit instruction in the subsequent skill, is likely to
result in successful achievement.
Acadience Reading and Students With Special Needs
Acadience Reading is appropriate for most students for whom an instructional goal is to learn to read in English.
For English language learners who are learning to read in English, Acadience Reading is appropriate for
assessing and monitoring progress in acquisition of early reading skills. Acadience Reading has been used
successfully with English language learners (e.g., Haager & Windmueller, 2001). In addition, research ndings
indicate that children who are English language learners can learn to read as well in English as their English-
speaking peers (Chiappe, Siegel, & Wade-Woolley, 2002; Geva, Yaghoub-Zadeh, & Schuster, 2000) and, in fact,
often outperform their peers in phonemic skills (Lesaux & Siegel, 2003).
Acadience Reading is also appropriate for students in special education for whom learning to read connected
text is an IEP goal. For students receiving special education, it may be necessary to adjust goals and timelines
and use below-grade materials for progress monitoring.
There are a few groups of students for whom Acadience Reading is not appropriate: (a) students who are
learning to read in a language other than English; (b) students who are deaf; (c) students who have uency-
based speech disabilities such as stuttering and oral apraxia; and (d) students with severe disabilities for whom
learning to read connected text is not an IEP goal.
Students who are learning to read in a language other than English.
Acadience Reading is designed to
provide information about the progress of children in acquiring literacy skills for reading in English. For children
who are learning to read in languages other than English, it would be most meaningful and appropriate to assess
their acquisition of reading skills in the language in which they are being instructed.
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Students who are deaf.
Acadience Reading measures were developed based on the research examining the
process of learning to read for students with functional hearing. For most students who are deaf, the ability to
use phonological representations of letters is seriously compromised (Leybaert & Charlier, 1996; Moores, 1996);
therefore, the core competencies assessed by Acadience Reading—phonemic awareness and phonics—may
not apply or may apply differently for students who are deaf and are learning to read. Acadience Reading would
be appropriate for children with mild to moderate hearing impairments who have residual hearing and who are
learning phonemic awareness and phonics skills.
Students who have uency or oral motor speech disabilities.
Speech uency is compromised in students
who stutter or have oral motor speech disabilities such as oral apraxia. Given that the nature of such disabilities
is slow and/or dysuent speech (Paul, 2001), the use of uency-based measures for these students would
not be appropriate. A professional judgment is necessary for students who stutter. Acadience Reading may
be appropriate for a student who stutters if the student does not stutter while reading the Acadience Reading
passages or completing other Acadience Reading activities.
Students with severe disabilities.
There is a small number of students for whom learning to read connected
text is not an IEP goal. For these students, it would be most meaningful and appropriate to use other assessment
strategies to monitor progress toward their individual IEP goals and objectives.
How Acadience Reading Is Used
Benchmark Assessment
Benchmark assessment refers to testing all students within a school or grade three times per year for the purpose
of identing those who may be at risk for reading difficulties. Benchmark assessment is always conducted using
grade-level material. The measures administered for benchmark assessment vary by grade and time of year,
and include those measures that are most relevant for making instructional decisions at that time.
Progress Monitoring
Progress monitoring refers to testing students more frequently who may be at risk for future reading difficulty
on the skill areas in which they are receiving instruction, to ensure that they are making adequate progress.
Progress monitoring can be conducted using grade-level or out-of-grade materials, depending on the student’s
needs. Decisions about the skill areas and levels to monitor are made at the individual student level.
Benchmark assessment and progress monitoring are the types of assessment necessary for use within a
Response-to-Intervention (RtI) model such as the Outcomes-Driven Model. For more information on benchmark
assessment and progress monitoring, see Chapter 4: Implementing Acadience Reading in Your School.
The Acadience Reading Benchmark Administration Timeline (Figure 1.2) shows the measures that are
administered at each benchmark assessment period.
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Maze
Figure 1.2 Acadience Reading Benchmark Administration Timeline
Oral Reading Fluency
Nonsense Word Fluency
Phoneme
Segmentation
Fluency
Letter Naming Fluency
First Sound
Fluency
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade
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Acadience Reading and RtI: The Outcomes-Driven Model
The Acadience Reading measures were developed to provide teachers with information they need to make
decisions about instruction. The authors of Acadience Reading advocate a data-based decision-making model
referred to as the Outcomes-Driven Model, because the data are used to make decisions to improve student
outcomes by matching the amount and type of instructional support with the needs of the individual students.
Figure 1.3 illustrates the ve steps of the Outcomes-Driven Model.
Figure 1.3 The Outcomes-Driven Model
Identify Need for
Support
Validate Need
for Support
Review
Outcomes
Acadience Reading K–6 Benchmark Assessment
Acadience Reading K–6 Progress Monitoring
Plan Support
Evaluate
Effectiveness
of Support
Implement
Support
1
4
5 2
3
These steps repeat each semester as a student progresses through the grades. At the beginning of the semester,
the rst step is to identify students who may need additional support. At the end of the semester, the nal step is
to review outcomes, which also facilitates identifying students who need additional support for the next semester.
In this manner, educators can ensure that students who are on track to become procient readers continue to
make adequate progress, and that those students who are not on track receive the support they need to become
procient readers.
Step 1: Identify need for support early.
This process occurs during benchmark assessment, and is
also referred to as universal screening. The purpose is to identify those students who may need additional
instructional support to achieve benchmark goals. The benchmark assessment also provides information
regarding the performance of all students in the school with respect to benchmark goals. All students within
a school or grade are tested on Acadience Reading three times per year on grade-level material. The testing
occurs at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.
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Step 2: Validate need for support.
The purpose of this step is to be reasonably condent that the student
needs or does not need additional instructional support. Before making individual student decisions, it is
important to consider additional information beyond the initial data obtained during benchmark testing.
Teachers can always use additional assessment information and knowledge about a student to validate a score
before making decisions about instructional support. If there is a discrepancy in the student’s performance
relative to other information available about the student, or if there is a question about the accuracy of a score,
the score can be validated by retesting the student using alternate forms of the Acadience Reading measures
or additional diagnostic assessments as necessary.
Step 3: Plan and implement support.
In general, for students who are meeting the benchmark goals, a
good, research-based core classroom curriculum should meet their instructional needs, and they will continue
to receive benchmark assessment three times per year to ensure they remain on track. Students who are
identied as needing support are likely to require additional instruction or intervention in the skill areas where
they are having difficulties.
Step 4: Evaluate and modify support as needed.
Students who are receiving additional support should
be progress monitored more frequently to ensure that the instructional support being provided is helping them
get back on track. Students should be monitored on the measures that test the skill areas where they are
having difficulties and receiving additional instructional support. Monitoring may occur once per month, once
every two weeks, or as often as once per week. In general, students who need the most intensive instruction
are progress monitored most frequently.
Step 5: Review outcomes.
By looking at the benchmark assessment data for all students, schools can
ensure that their instructional supports—both core curriculum and additional interventions—are working for
all students. If a school identies areas of instructional support that are not working as desired, the school can
use the data to help make decisions on how to improve.
The use of Acadience Reading within the Outcomes-Driven Model is consistent with the most recent
reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), which allows the use of
a Response-to-Intervention (RtI) approach to identify children with learning disabilities. In an RtI approach to
identication, early intervention is provided to students who are at risk for the development of learning difficulties.
Data are gathered to determine which students are responsive to the intervention provided and which students
are in need of more intensive support (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006). The Outcomes-Driven Model described in Figure
1.3 is based on foundational work with a problem-solving model (see Deno, 1989; Shinn, 1995; Tilly, 2008) and
the initial application of the problem-solving model to early literacy skills (Kaminski & Good, 1998). The general
questions addressed by a problem-solving model include: What is the problem? Why is it happening? What
should be done about it? Did it work? (Tilly, 2008). The Outcomes-Driven Model was developed to address
these questions, but within a prevention-oriented framework designed to preempt early reading difficulty and
ensure step-by-step progress toward outcomes that will result in established, adequate reading achievement.
History and Development of Acadience Reading
Initial research and development of Acadience Reading measures
1
was conducted in the late 1980s and early
1990s. The Acadience Reading program of research builds on measurement procedures from Curriculum-
Based Measurement, or CBM (e.g., Deno & Mirkin, 1977; Deno, 1985; Deno & Fuchs, 1987), and General
1
Acadience
®
Reading K–6 is the new name for the DIBELS Next
®
assessment. Acadience is a registered trademark of Acadience Learning Inc. The
DIBELS Next copyrighted content is owned by Acadience Learning Inc. The DIBELS
®
and DIBELS Next registered trademarks were sold by Acadience
Learning Inc. to the University of Oregon (UO) and are now owned by the UO.
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Outcome Measurement, or GOM (Fuchs & Deno, 1991). The Acadience Reading measures were designed to be
economical and efficient indicators of a student’s progress toward achieving a general outcome such as reading
or phonemic awareness, and to be used for both benchmark assessment and progress monitoring.
Initial research on these measures focused on examining their technical adequacy for these primary purposes
(Good & Kaminski, 1996; Kaminski & Good, 1996). The early versions of the measures authored by Roland Good
and Ruth Kaminski were rst published under the name DIBELS
®
in 2002. Since then, the measures have gained
widespread use for monitoring progress in acquisition of early literacy skills. Prior to 2002, these measures
were made available to research partners. An ongoing program of research over the past three decades has
continued to document the reliability and validity of the Acadience Reading measures as well as their sensitivity
in measuring changes in student performance over time.
Acadience Reading is the result of an expanding knowledge base in the elds of reading and assessment,
continuing research and development, and feedback from users of these assessments. From 2006 to 2010,
initial research and eld-testing of the Acadience Reading measures occurred in 90 schools across the United
States. A series of studies over that time period examined the reliability, validity, and utility of the measures. From
2010 to 2018, the measures underwent continued validation and renement. See the Acadience Reading K–6
Technical Manual (available from www.acadiencelearning.org) for a description of the technical adequacy data
on Acadience Reading and a summary of the technical adequacy data on earlier versions of these measures.
Additional technical adequacy data are also available on our website under Publications and Presentations
(www.acadiencelearning.org).
How Does Acadience Reading Improve on Earlier Versions of
These Measures?
Empirically equated oral reading passages. All oral reading passages went through an extensive readability
analysis and eld-testing with actual students. Based on this empirical testing, the best-performing passages
(in terms of reliability and comparability in student results) were selected for inclusion in Acadience Reading
and then organized in triads in such a way as to ensure that student performance was comparable.
Materials designed for ease of use. Measures were explicitly designed and eld-tested such that they can
be administered and scored with ease. Wait rules, discontinue rules, and reminder prompts are embedded
into the administration directions. Scoring booklets are large enough to be easily readable, and an early-
reader font is used for kindergarten through second-grade materials.
Empirically eld-tested directions. All of the directions that are read to the student and the reminder
prompts were designed and tested so that they are explicit and facilitate student understanding of the task.
Stratication. A stratied random sampling procedure was used to improve the equivalence of the forms
and to more evenly distribute items of different difficulty. This procedure increases the consistency of
scores from one form to another. With stratied random sampling, items of similar difficulty appear in the
same places on every form. For example, on NWF there were six difficulty/word-type categories that were
distributed by design identically on each form. For instance, the rst item is always an easier item, a word
with a three-letter CVC pattern where both consonants occur frequently in English. For each form, the actual
test items were then randomly selected from the appropriate category.
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Response patterns. Measures include lists of common response patterns that the assessor can mark to
help in planning instruction. These lists are located within the scoring booklets for better accessibility.
Table 1.2 describes the two new Acadience Reading measures.
Table 1.2 Key Features of Acadience Reading Measures
Measures Description
First Sound
Fluency (FSF)
• FSF provides an early indicator of phonemic awareness. FSF is easy to administer
and eliminates concerns related to the use of pictures when assessing initial
sounds. FSF includes production items with continuous timing.
• Stratication of test items based on whether the word begins with a continuous
sound, a stop sound, or a blend.
• Explicit directions and reminders to facilitate student understanding of the task.
Letter Naming
Fluency (LNF)
• Materials with integrated reminders to enhance the administration of the measure.
• Font that is familiar to younger children.
• Stratication of test items to increase equivalence and consistency of scores from
one form to another.
• Explicit directions and reminders to facilitate student understanding of the task.
• A checklist of common response patterns to facilitate linkages to instruction.
Phoneme
Segmentation
Fluency (PSF)
• Materials with integrated reminders to enhance the administration of the measure.
• Score form layout that facilitates scoring.
• Stratication of test items to increase equivalence and consistency of scores from
one form to another.
• Explicit directions and reminders to facilitate student understanding of the task.
• A checklist of common response patterns to facilitate linkages to instruction.
Nonsense
Word Fluency
(NWF)
• Materials with integrated reminders to enhance the administration of the measure.
• In addition to scoring for Correct Letter Sounds (CLS), scoring for Whole Words
Read (WWR) to measure the critical target skill of reading the words as whole
words.
• Font is familiar to younger children.
• Stratication of test items to increase equivalence and consistency of scores from
one form to another.
• An even distribution of vowels, with each row of ve items including one word with
each vowel.
• Explicit directions and reminders facilitate student understanding of the task and
clarify that the preferred responses are whole words. The student is permitted to
provide individual letter sounds or to sound out the word while learning the skills.
• A checklist of common response patterns to facilitate linkages to instruction.
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Table 1.2 Key Features of Acadience Reading Measures (cont.)
Measures Description
Oral Reading
Fluency
(ORF)
• Field-tested empirically equated passages with consistent difficulty within each
grade level.
• Materials with integrated reminders to enhance the administration of the measure.
• Font is more familiar to younger children in rst- and second-grade passages.
• Explicit directions and reminders to facilitate student understanding of the task.
When administering three passages during benchmark assessment, shortened
directions are provided for the second and third passages to increase efficiency.
• A checklist of common response patterns to facilitate linkages to instruction.
Retell
• Included as a component of the ORF measure to indicate that the end-goal of
reading is to read for meaning.
• Materials with integrated reminders to enhance the administration of the measure.
• Explicit directions and reminders to facilitate student understanding of the task.
• A checklist of common response patterns to facilitate linkages to instruction.
Maze
• Maze provides an added indicator of comprehension in grades 3 through 6.
• Can be administered in groups or individually.
• Explicit directions and reminders to facilitate student understanding of the task.
Word Use
Fluency–
Revised
(WUF-R)
• Available as an experimental measure. (Email info@acadiencelearning.org for
more infomation.)
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Chapter 2: Guidelines for Administering and
Scoring Acadience Reading
The Acadience Reading measures are standardized assessments, which means every assessor, or person
who administers Acadience Reading to students, should administer and score the measures the same way
every time with every student. A standardized assessment allows you to compare results across students or
across time, or to compare student scores to a target goal. A standardized administration also ensures that the
research on the reliability and validity of the measure is applicable to the obtained scores.
This chapter describes the general guidelines for administering and scoring all of the Acadience Reading
measures. Each measure then has its own chapter with specic administration and scoring procedures for
that measure. Since every measure works a bit differently, it is important to follow the correct rules for each
measure.
Standard Features of Acadience Reading Measures
The standard features of the Acadience Reading measures are:
• Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skill:
The core component or foundational early literacy
and reading skill that the measure assesses.
• Administration Time:
The length of time for which the measure is administered, after the assessor
has given directions and started the stopwatch.
• Administration Schedule:
The grades and times of year in which the measure is administered
for benchmark assessment.
• Administration Directions:
The specic procedures to follow when administering the measure,
as well as the script to say to the student.
• When to Start the Stopwatch:
The point at which the stopwatch should be started for the
measure.
• Score:
The description of the reported score.
• Scoring Rules:
Detailed marking and scoring procedures.
• Reminders:
Prompts that may be given under certain circumstances. Some prompts may be
given only once, others may be given as often as needed.
• Wait Rule:
A rule for how long the student is allowed to hesitate on an item before the next item
is presented or the student is directed to proceed.
• Discontinue Rule:
A rule for discontinuing the measure if the student is unable to perform the
task.
Some measures do not include every feature. All of the features are explained in detail in the chapter for each
measure, and the beginning of each chapter includes a chart with a brief summary of main features.
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Administration Guidelines
Equipment
Each assessor will need the following tools to administer Acadience Reading in addition to the testing materials:
• Pen or pencil
• Clipboard
• Stopwatch or timer
The timer used for Acadience Reading testing should: (a) be small enough to hold in the palm of the hand or
attach to the clipboard; (b) track time accurately within one-hundredth of a second; and (c) be simple to operate.
The timer may function as a stopwatch or as a countdown timer. A countdown timer should be one that makes
a quiet, unobtrusive beep at the end of the countdown. A stopwatch should either be silent or make quiet,
unobtrusive beeps when starting or stopping the timing.
Testing Environment
Acadience Reading assessment is best conducted at a small table or student desk in a relatively quiet location
and at a time with minimal disruptions and noise. For example, if Acadience Reading assessment is being
conducted in the classroom, it is best to use a corner of the classroom with partitions to minimize distractions,
and to conduct the assessment at a time when the other students are engaged in seatwork or similar quiet
activities.
The assessor should be positioned so that he/she can see the student’s face and should sit near enough to
the student to clearly hear what the student says. When using a desk or small table, the assessor and student
might sit across from each other, and with a larger table the assessor and student might sit around the corner
from each other. The assessor should hold the clipboard in such a way that the student cannot see what is being
written.
Timing
It is important to time each measure according to the administration and scoring procedures for that measure.
Timing allows the assessor to capture not only a student’s knowledge and ability with the early literacy skills, but
also the student’s uency on and condence with the skills. A student who performs a task uently—that is, both
accurately and quickly—has learned the skill to mastery, is automatic in performing the underlying skills, and is
more able to remember, maintain, and apply the skill than a student who does not. Both accuracy and uency in
early literacy skills are critical to successful reading and comprehension.
Encouragement and Reinforcement
The Acadience Reading measures are standardized assessments. What the assessor can say during testing is
in bold italics in the administration procedures given in this manual. No other comments or prompts should be
provided to the student as part of the testing situation. In particular, the administration scripts do not allow the
assessor to tell the student if he/she is right or wrong on an item during or after the assessment; however, it is
appropriate for the assessor to provide general encouragement to the student between measures (for example,
between the LNF and PSF measures). It is best to reinforce the student’s effort with general, non-specic
statements such as, “You are working really hard.”
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Modeling and Practice Items
Most of the Acadience Reading measures begin with the assessor modeling the activity. Modeling is intended to
clearly communicate to the student what is expected on the task, and must be presented exactly as it is stated
in the administration procedures. After the model, most Acadience Reading measures then have practice items
to let the student try the task, with corrective feedback to ensure he/she understands the task. The practice
items and responses must be delivered exactly as they are stated in the administration procedures. The practice
items and corrective feedback are intended to ensure the student understands the nature of the task and what is
expected. They are not intended to teach the skill to students who have not learned the skill.
Repeating Directions or Items
If you judge that the student did not hear or understand the directions, a practice item, or a test item, you may
repeat the directions or the item. If the timer is already running, the timer should continue to run while you are
repeating the item. It is your responsibility as the assessor to articulate clearly and loudly enough for the student
to hear. You are also responsible for ensuring that the testing environment is not too noisy or distracting, and that
the student is attending adequately to the directions and items. If the student continually asks you to repeat items
even when these issues have been adequately addressed, the student’s hearing may need to be evaluated.
Discontinuing an Assessment
Each of the individually administered Acadience Reading measures includes a discontinue rule, as discussed
previously, for students who are unable to perform the task. When following the discontinue rule, stop the
measure and record a score of zero.
Invalidating an Assessment
If an error was made in administering or scoring a measure, and that error cannot be corrected without retesting
the student, then the score should be discarded as invalid. Reassess the student as soon as possible using
an alternate form from the progress monitoring materials. If all three ORF passages are invalidated during a
benchmark assessment, then three passages from the progress monitoring materials should be used. If only
one or two passages are invalidated, then select that number of progress monitoring passages to administer.
If a student refuses to participate in the testing, do not record a score. Stop the assessment and try again on
another day, perhaps with an assessor who is more familiar to the student.
If you determine that the student is not able to give his/her best performance at that time, then do not test the
student, or if testing has already begun, then stop the assessment. For example, the student may not be wearing
glasses or a hearing aid, seems ill or particularly nervous, or an interruption occurs such as a re drill or an
announcement. Under these circumstances, do not record a score. Reassess the student at another time using
an alternate form from the progress monitoring materials. As stated previously, if all three ORF passages are
invalidated during a benchmark assessment, then three passages from the progress monitoring materials should
be used. If only one or two passages are invalidated, then select that number of progress monitoring passages
to administer.
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General Scoring Guidelines
Articulation and Dialect Differences
For all Acadience Reading measures, students are never penalized for articulation or dialect differences that
are part of their typical speech. For example, a student who typically says /th/ for /s/ would not be penalized
on FSF for saying that the rst sound in the word see is /th/. It is helpful for assessors to be familiar with the
speech patterns of the students they assess. If a student has articulation or dialect differences that are difficult
to understand, consider someone retesting the student who is more familiar with the student’s articulation or
dialect.
Use of the Schwa Sound
The schwa sound is the /u/ sound added to some consonant sounds. In particular, the voiced consonant sounds
such as /b/, /d/, and /g/ are difficult to produce without adding a schwa, i.e., “buh” for /b/. Although teachers are
encouraged to model pure production of sounds in their instruction, there is no penalty for students using the
schwa sound when producing isolated consonant sounds during Acadience Reading assessment.
General Acadience Reading Reminders
Each measure includes specic reminder prompts. In addition to those reminders, there are two general reminders
that apply to all individually administered measures that include written material (LNF, NWF, and ORF):
• If the student stops and it is not a hesitation on a specic item, say Keep going. This reminder may be
used as often as needed.
• If the student loses his/her place, point. This reminder may be used as often as needed.
Response Patterns
At the end of each Acadience Reading administration, it is optional but often valuable to note student response
patterns in the scoring booklet. Making a note of any noticeable or recurring student response patterns provides
information about how the student performed on specic items and what types of errors were made. This
information may be useful for planning instruction. These notes are especially useful if the person testing the
student is different from the person who will be teaching the student.
Recording and Scoring Responses
Acadience Reading measures are designed to be recorded and scored in real time as the student is responding.
At times it will be necessary to make a quick judgment about a student’s response. It is important to use your
best professional judgment and move on. Audio recording is not recommended. The amount of time required to
listen to and score recordings afterward makes the assessment inefficient. Additionally, it is often more difficult
to score from audio recordings than scoring live due to poor sound quality and background noise.
Acadience Reading measures are designed so that most students will not complete a measure within the time
limit. For those few students who do, simply record the score achieved. Do not prorate the scores.
The individual chapters for each measure describe how to mark and score the student responses for that
measure. The following rules apply to most Acadience Reading measures:
• An underline denotes a correct response. This rule applies to PSF and NWF.
• A slash mark denotes an incorrect response.
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• When there is both a slash and an underline, the slash overrides the underline and the response
is counted as incorrect.
• An “sc” written above a slashed response denotes a self-correction, and the response is counted
as correct. The only exception is the Whole Words Read (WWR) score from NWF. The student
receives a point for WWR only if the student’s rst and only response for that word is correct and
complete. For more information, see Chapter 8.
• When a student provides multiple responses for the same item on LNF, ORF, or Correct Letter
Sounds (CLS) from NWF, the responses are treated as self-corrections and the student’s nal
response is scored.
Testing Materials
Acadience Reading materials are available for benchmark assessment and progress monitoring for students in
kindergarten through sixth grade. Materials are available in three ways: (a) a free download version for paper
and pencil users from Acadience Learning (www.acadiencelearning.org), (b) a published version for paper and
pencil users available for purchase from Voyager Sopris Learning (www.voyagersopris.com), and (c) a free
download version for use with Acadience Learning Online (www.acadiencelearning.org). The organization of the
free download version for paper and pencil users is described below.
Benchmark Assessment Materials
Benchmark assessment materials are organized by grade, with one set for each grade from kindergarten through
sixth grade. The benchmark assessment materials include:
• Benchmark Assessment Scoring Booklet. A Benchmark Assessment Scoring Booklet contains
all the scoring forms necessary for conducting benchmark assessment at the beginning, middle,
and end of the school year for that grade, except for Maze worksheets, which are included in a
separate booklet. In addition to the scoring forms, a Benchmark Scoring Booklet includes the
assessor directions for administering the benchmark assessments. It also includes a cover sheet
on which the scores are recorded for all benchmark measures, including Maze. Each student will
need one Benchmark Assessment Scoring Booklet for the year.
• Benchmark Student Materials. The student materials are those that the student needs to look
at during testing. Student materials are used for LNF, NWF, and ORF, but not for FSF or PSF.
• Maze Benchmark Assessment Student Worksheets. The Maze student worksheets are the
stand-alone worksheets to distribute to each student who will receive the Maze assessment.
There are three different worksheets for each grade where Maze is administered (third through
sixth grade) with one worksheet to be administered during each benchmark assessment, at
the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. Maze benchmark assessments can be
administered individually or to an entire class at once.
• Maze Benchmark Assessment Administration Directions and Scoring Keys. Maze directions
are not included in the Scoring Booklets because it can be administered to a group of students at
once, so a separate book is provided that includes the administration directions and the scoring
keys. The scoring keys are used to score the Maze worksheets after collecting those worksheets
from the students.
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Progress Monitoring Assessment Materials
Progress monitoring materials contain alternate forms, of equivalent difficulty, of the same measures administered
during benchmark assessment. Not all students will need progress monitoring. Progress monitoring materials
are organized by measure, since students who need progress monitoring typically will be monitored on specic
measures related to the instruction they are receiving, rather than on every measure for that grade. The progress
monitoring materials include the following:
• Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet. A Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet contains the
scoring forms for 20 alternate forms of a specic measure. A booklet of 20 forms is available
for FSF, PSF, NWF, and each grade level for ORF. Because some students may be monitored
with out-of-grade materials, the
ORF booklets specify
“Levels” rather than grades. In addition to
the scoring forms, a Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet includes the assessor directions for
administering the assessment. It also includes a cover sheet on which the scores are recorded
and may be graphed.
• Progress Monitoring Student Materials. The student materials are the materials that the
student needs to look at during testing. Student materials are used for NWF and ORF, but not
for FSF or PSF.
• Maze Progress Monitoring Student Worksheets. The Maze student worksheets are the stand-
alone worksheets to distribute to each student who will receive progress monitoring on the Maze
assessment. There are 20 different progress monitoring worksheets for each grade where Maze
is administered (third through sixth grade). Because some students may be monitored with
out-of-grade materials, these are referred to as “Levels” rather than grades. Maze progress
monitoring assessments can be administered individually or to a group of students who are
all being monitored on Maze. A separate Maze Progress Monitoring Graph is also available to
record and graph the scores.
• Maze Progress Monitoring Administration Directions and Scoring Keys. Maze directions
are not included in the Scoring Booklets because it can be administered to a group of students
at once. A separate book is provided that includes the Maze administration directions and the
scoring keys. The scoring keys are used to score the Maze worksheets after collecting those
worksheets from the students. One book is provided for each Level, 3 through 6.
Accommodations
Assessment accommodations are used for those students for whom the standard administration conditions
would not produce accurate results.
Approved Accommodations for Acadience Reading
Approved accommodations are those accommodations that are unlikely to change how the assessment
functions. When approved accommodations are used, the scores can be reported and interpreted as official
Acadience Reading scores (see Table 2.1). Approved accommodations should be used only for students for
whom the accommodations are necessary to provide an accurate assessment of student skills.
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Table 2.1 Accommodations Approved for Use With Acadience Reading
Approved Accommodations Appropriate Measures
The use of student materials that have been enlarged or with larger
print for students with visual impairments.
LNF, NWF, O RF, Maze
The use of colored overlays, lters, or lighting adjustments for students
with visual impairments.
LNF, NWF, ORF, Maze
The use of assistive technology, such as hearing aids and assistive
listening devices (ALDs), for students with hearing impairments.
All
The use of a marker or ruler to focus student attention on the materials
for students who are not able to demonstrate their skills adequately
without one. It is good practice to attempt the assessment rst
without a marker or ruler and then retest with an alternate form of the
assessment using a marker or ruler if needed.
LNF, NWF, ORF, Maze
Unapproved Accommodations for Acadience Reading
Unapproved accommodations are accommodations that are likely to change how the assessment functions.
Scores from measures administered with unapproved accommodations should not be treated or reported as official
Acadience Reading scores, and cannot be compared to other Acadience Reading scores or benchmark goals.
An unapproved accommodation may be used when: (a) a student cannot be tested accurately using the
standardized rules or approved accommodations, but the school would still like to measure progress for
that student; or (b) a student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) requires testing with an unapproved
accommodation. Scores for a student using an unapproved accommodation can be used to measure individual
growth for that student.
Examples of Unapproved Accommodations
• A student with limited English prociency may be given the directions in his/her primary language.
• A student whose IEP requires assessments to be given untimed may be administered the Acadience
Reading measures without the timing component. This would measure only accuracy, not uency.
Acadience Reading in Braille
A special type of accommodation for students with visual impairments is to administer Acadience Reading in braille.
When using an Acadience Reading measure with braille materials, the measurement of the skill being assessed
would be affected by the student’s uency with braille as well as the differences between printed text and braille
text. Scores for a student being tested with Acadience Reading in braille can be used to measure individual growth
for that student, and can be compared to other students who are also being tested with braille Acadience Reading
materials, but should not be reported as scores that are directly comparable to the print version of Acadience
Reading. For information about Acadience Reading in braille, visit www.acadiencelearning.org.
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Training
Acadience Reading was designed to be administered by educational professionals and other school-approved
personnel, provided they have received sufficient training on Acadience Reading administration and scoring
rules. Educational professionals and school personnel who will be interpreting Acadience Reading test results or
using those results to make group- or student-level decisions should receive training in how to interpret that data.
It is the responsibility of the school-based administrator or other appropriate school leader to ensure that ample
time is available for assessors to be trained prior to administering Acadience Reading, and the responsibility of
each assessor to ensure that he/she is adequately trained and can administer and score Acadience Reading
reliably, according to the standardized procedures.
A variety of training opportunities exist, provided by the authors of Acadience Reading at Acadience
Learning Inc. (www.acadiencelearning.org).
Training on Acadience Reading should cover the following topics:
• Research on learning to read and the essential early literacy and reading skills
• Foundations of
Acadience Reading
, including the purposes, design, and uses
• Administration and scoring of each measure
• Framework and procedures for data-based decision-making
Practice opportunities should take place during and after the training. Scores from practice administrations
should not be used to make decisions about students. When practicing with students, use materials that those
students will not receive during actual test administration.
In order to use scores for educational decisions, the assessor must reliably administer the measures according
to the rules given in this Assessment Manual. An Assessment Accuracy Checklist for each measure is available
in Appendix A.
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Appropriate Use of Acadience Reading
The Acadience Reading measures were designed for formative assessment, or assessment that is used to
adapt teaching to meet student needs (see Table 2.2). Unlike high-stakes testing, which is used for decisions
that have substantial consequences for students, such as retention or placement in special education, formative
assessment is considered low-stakes testing because the results are used for making modications to instruction
to enhance student learning (Kaminski & Cummings, 2007).
Table 2.2 Uses of Acadience Reading
Appropriate Uses Inappropriate Uses
Student Level
• Identify students who may be at risk for
reading difficulties
• Help identify areas to target instructional
support
• Monitor at-risk students while they
receive additional, targeted instruction
• Label, track, or grade students
• Make decisions regarding
retention and promotion
Systems Level
• Examine the effectiveness of a school’s
system of instructional supports
• Evaluate teachers
• Make decisions about funding
• Make decisions about rewards
for improved performance or
sanctions for low performance
Test Security
Test items or copies of the Acadience Reading assessments should never be used for student instruction or
practice in the classroom or at home. Such practices compromise the validity and value of Acadience Reading
as measurement tools. Having students practice the tests may result in articially high scores, which could
prevent those students from receiving the instruction they need.
For further information on the appropriate use of Acadience Reading, please see the position papers from the
Acadience Reading authors on Acadience Learning’s website (www.acadiencelearning.org).
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Chapter 3: Interpreting Acadience Reading Data
There are four frames of reference in providing meaning for Acadience Reading scores: (a) criterion-referenced
benchmark goals and cut points for risk; (b) individually referenced interpretations; (c) local norm-referenced
interpretations; and (d) national norm-referenced interpretations. While all frames of reference provide valuable
information about a student, the authors of Acadience Reading generally regard the criterion-referenced
information as most important, followed by the individually referenced information, and then the local norm-
referenced information.
These four frames of reference can be used to interpret results on individual scores and on the Reading
Composite Score. The Reading Composite Score is a combination of multiple Acadience Reading scores and
provides the best overall estimate of the student’s reading prociency. Because the Reading Composite Score
provides the best overall estimate of a student’s skills, it should generally be interpreted rst. If a student earns
a Reading Composite Score that is at or above the benchmark goal, the odds are in the student’s favor of
reaching later important reading outcomes. Some students who score At or Above Benchmark on the Reading
Composite Score may still need additional support in one of the essential early literacy and reading skills, as
indicated by a Below Benchmark score on an individual Acadience Reading measure (FSF, PSF, NWF, ORF,
or Maze). This potential need for additional support is especially true for a student whose Reading Composite
Score is close to the benchmark goal. For more information about the Reading Composite Score as well as
worksheets to calculate it, see Chapter 11 and Appendix B.
Criterion-Referenced Interpretations: Understanding
Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
Acadience Reading provides two types of scores at each benchmark assessment period: (a) a raw score for
each individual measure and (b) a composite score (the Reading Composite Score). Each of the scores is
interpreted relative to benchmark goals and cut points for risk to determine if a student’s score is at or above
the benchmark, below the benchmark, or below the cut point for risk (well below the benchmark). Acadience
Reading benchmark goals are empirically derived, criterion-referenced target scores that represent adequate
reading skill for a particular grade and time of year. Benchmark goals and cut points for risk are provided for the
Reading Composite Score as well as for the individual Acadience Reading measures. Benchmark goals and
cut points for Acadience Reading are based on research that examines the predictive validity of a score on a
measure at a particular point in time, compared to later Acadience Reading measures and external outcome
assessments. A benchmark goal indicates a level of skill at which students are likely to achieve the next
Acadience Reading benchmark goal or reading outcome. Thus, for students who achieve a benchmark goal,
the odds are in their favor of achieving later reading outcomes if they receive effective core reading instruction.
24Interpreting Acadience
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Reading Data Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Conversely, the cut points for risk indicate a level of skill below which students are unlikely to achieve subsequent
reading goals without receiving additional, targeted instructional support. For students who have scores below
the cut point for risk, the probability of achieving later reading goals is low unless intensive support is provided.
The Acadience Reading benchmark goals and cut points for risk provide three primary benchmark status
levels that describe students’ performance: (a) At or Above Benchmark, (b) Below Benchmark, and (c) Well
Below Benchmark. These levels are based on the overall likelihood of achieving specied goals on subsequent
Acadience Reading assessments or external measures of reading achievement.
At or Above Benchmark. For students who score at or above the benchmark goal, the overall likelihood of
achieving subsequent reading goals is approximately 80% to 90%. These students are likely to need effective
core instruction to meet subsequent early literacy and/or reading goals. Within this range, the likelihood of
achieving subsequent goals is lower for students whose scores are right at the benchmark goal and increases
as scores increase above the benchmark (see Table 3.1). A score at or above the benchmark goal indicates that
the odds are in the student’s favor of achieving the next goal, but it is not a guarantee. For example, if students at
or above the benchmark goal have an 85% chance of meeting the next goal, that means that 15% of students in
the benchmark range may not achieve that goal. Some students who achieve scores at or above the benchmark
goal may still need supplemental support to achieve the next goal. It is important to attend to other indicators
of risk when planning support for students, such as attendance, behavior, motivation, vocabulary and language
skills, and other related skill areas.
To assist in setting ambitious goals for students, the At or Above Benchmark level is subdivided into At Benchmark
and Above Benchmark levels.
• At Benchmark. In the At Benchmark range, the overall likelihood of achieving subsequent early
literacy and/or reading goals is 70% to 85%. Some of these students, especially those with scores
near the benchmark, may require monitoring and/or strategic support on specic component skills.
• Above Benchmark. In the Above Benchmark range, the overall likelihood of achieving subsequent
early literacy and/or reading goals is 90% to 99%. While all students with scores in this range will likely
benet from core support, some students with scores in this range may benet from instruction on
more advanced skills.
Below Benchmark. Between the benchmark goal and cut point for risk is a range of scores where students’
future performance is more difficult to predict. For students with scores in this range, the overall likelihood of
achieving subsequent early literacy and/or reading goals is approximately 40% to 60%. In this range, a student’s
future performance is harder to predict. These students are likely to need strategic support to ensure their
achievement of future goals. Strategic support generally consists of carefully targeted supplemental support in
specic skill areas in which students are having difficulty. To ensure that the greatest number of students achieve
later reading success, it is best for students with scores in this range to be monitored regularly to ensure that they
are making adequate progress and to receive increased or modied support if necessary to achieve subsequent
reading goals.
Well Below Benchmark. For students who score below the cut point for risk, the overall likelihood of achieving
subsequent early literacy and/or reading goals is low, approximately 10% to 20%. These students are identied
25Interpreting Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
as likely to need intensive support. Intensive support refers to interventions that incorporate something more or
something different from the core curriculum or supplemental support.
Intensive support might entail:
• delivering instruction in a smaller group or individually,
• providing more instructional time or more practice,
• presenting smaller skill steps in the instructional hierarchy,
• providing more explicit modeling and instruction, and/or
• providing greater scaffolding and practice.
Because students who need intensive support are likely to have individual needs, we recommend that their
progress be monitored frequently and their intervention modied dynamically to ensure adequate progress (see
Figure 3.1).
Figure 3.1 Plan, Implement, and Evaluate Support Cycle from the
Outcomes-Driven Model
Plan Support
Evaluate
Effectiveness
of Support
Implement
Support
These progress monitoring steps from the Outcomes-Driven Model (see Figure
1. 3 , page 9) provide an intervention feedback loop. By planning, implementing, and
evaluating the effectiveness of support in an ongoing loop, the intervention can be
modied dynamically to meet the student’s needs.
To gain a better understanding of what Acadience Reading results mean in a local context, districts and
schools can examine the linkages between the Acadience Reading benchmark goals and cut points for risk
and their own outcome assessments, such as state-level criterion-referenced tests. By comparing Acadience
Reading measures to an outcomes assessment (e.g., Buck & Torgesen, 2003; Wilson, 2005), and by calculating
conditional probabilities (e.g., “80% of students at benchmark on Acadience Reading ORF at the end of third
grade met the Procient level on the state criterion-referenced test”), schools can determine how the Acadience
Reading benchmark goals compare to their own external criteria. The Acadience Reading benchmark and cut
points for risk, along with a brief description of the Benchmark Goals Study, can be found in Appendix C.
Table 3.1 summarizes the design specications for achieving later reading outcomes and provides descriptions
for the likely need for support for each of the benchmark status levels. It is important to note that while there is
an overall likelihood for each benchmark status level, within each level the likelihood of achieving later reading
outcomes increases as students’ scores increase. This is illustrated in the rst column of Table 3.1.
26Interpreting Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Table 3.1 Student Performance Interpretations
Likelihood
of Meeting
Later
Reading
Goals
Benchmark
Status
Benchmark Status
Including Above
Benchmark What It Means
>99%
95%
90%
80%
70%
60%
55%
50%
45%
40%
30%
20%
10%
<5%
At or Above
Benchmark
overall
likelihood of
achieving
subsequent
early literacy
goals: 80% to
90%
Above Benchmark
overall likelihood
of achieving
subsequent early
literacy goals: 90%
to 99%
For students with scores in this range, the odds of achieving
subsequent early literacy/reading goals are very good.
These students likely need effective core instruction to meet
subsequent early literacy/reading goals. Some students may
benet from instruction on more advanced skills.
At Benchmark
overall likelihood
of achieving
subsequent early
literacy goals: 70%
to 85%
For students with scores in this range, the odds are in favor of
achieving subsequent early literacy/reading goals. The higher
above the benchmark goal, the better the odds.
These students likely need effective core instruction to meet
subsequent early literacy/reading goals. Some students may
require monitoring and strategic support on specic component
skills as needed.
Below
Benchmark
overall
likelihood of
achieving
subsequent
early literacy
goals: 40% to
60%
Below Benchmark
overall likelihood
of achieving
subsequent early
literacy goals: 40%
to 60%
For students with scores in this range, the overall odds
of achieving subsequent early literacy/reading goals are
approximately even, and hard to predict. Within this range, the
closer students’ scores are to the benchmark goal, the better
the odds; the closer students’ scores are to the cut point, the
lower the odds.
These students likely need core instruction coupled with
strategic support, targeted to their individual needs, to meet
subsequent early literacy/reading goals. For some students
whose scores are close to the benchmark goal, effective core
instruction may be sufficient; students whose scores are close
to the cut point may require more intensive support.
Well Below
Benchmark
overall
likelihood of
achieving
subsequent
early literacy
goals: 10% to
20%
Well Below
Benchmark
overall likelihood
of achieving
subsequent early
literacy goals: 10%
to 20%
For students with scores in this range, the overall odds of
achieving subsequent early literacy/reading goals are low.
These students likely need intensive support in addition
to effective core instruction. These students may also
need support on prerequisite skills (i.e., below grade level)
depending upon the grade level and how far below the
benchmark their skills are.
The addition of the Above Benchmark status level has not changed the benchmark goals. A benchmark goal is still the point at which the odds are in
the student’s favor of meeting later reading goals (approximately 60% likelihood or higher). The higher above the benchmark goal the student scores,
the better the odds. For students who are already at benchmark, the Above Benchmark status level also provides a higher goal to aim for. “Overall
likelihood” refers to the approximate percentage of students within the category who achieve later goals, although the exact percentage varies by
grade, year, and measure (see Appendix C). Instructional decisions should be made based on students’ patterns of performance across all measures,
in addition to other available information on student skills, such as diagnostic assessment or in-class work.
27Interpreting Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Individually Referenced Interpretations: Analyzing Student
Growth and Progress Over Time
In addition to information on where a student is performing relative to the benchmark goals and cut points for risk,
Acadience Reading also allows interpretations based on where the student’s skills are relative to the student’s
past performance. For example, even though a student’s ORF score of 45 words correct per minute might be
below the cut point for risk, the score of 45 might represent substantial progress compared to previous scores.
For individually referenced interpretations, Acadience Reading results are used to examine individual student
performance over time. Evaluating student growth is essential in determining whether the student is making
adequate progress toward later goals. Examining student growth (i.e., progress monitoring) is also essential in
Response-to-Intervention (RtI) models of service delivery and educational decision-making. Progress monitoring
helps the teacher decide whether the instructional support the student is receiving is adequately addressing the
student’s needs, or whether changes should be made to that support.
Local Norm-Referenced Interpretations: Comparing Students
Districtwide
Local norms allow a school or district to compare an individual student’s performance to other students in the
district. Local norms have the important advantage of being representative of the student’s district. Another
important advantage is that local norms can be updated yearly. If a district’s population changes over time,
local norms from the current year will continue to be representative of that population. Although local norms are
representative of the district, they are not necessarily representative of the national population. If the average
achievement in a given school is below the national average achievement score, all percentile ranks would be
affected. For example, the score at the 40th percentile in a low-performing district may be at the 20th percentile
in a high-performing district. Local normative comparisons also can be problematic when a small number of
students are included. All students in the district should be included when determining local norms, but small
districts may not have enough students for stable local normative comparisons. Most data management services
for Acadience Reading data will provide local norms.
Local norms can be valuable for a district when making decisions about providing additional support for students.
Districts have the exibility of choosing a level, based on local norms, below which students are provided with
additional instructional support. Districts can make this choice based on any pertinent considerations, including
nancial and staff resources. If a district is able to provide support to 50% of students, students may be selected
for support who are at the 50th percentile or lower on Acadience Reading. If a district is able to provide additional
support to only 15% of students, students can be selected who are at the 15th percentile or lower on Acadience
Reading. By using districtwide local norms, students with equivalent needs in different schools can be provided
with support.
For norm-referenced interpretations with Acadience Reading, descriptors for levels of performance are provided
in Table 3.2. The performance descriptors are intended to describe the current level of skill for the student in
comparison to other students in the district. They are not intended as statements about what the student is
capable of learning with appropriate effective instruction.
28Interpreting Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Table 3.2 Levels of Performance
Percentile Ranges
Performance Descriptors.
Compared to other students in the school or district, the
student’s performance is:
98th percentile and above Upper Extreme
91st to 97th percentile Well-Above Average
76th to 90th percentile Above Average
25th to 75th percentile Average
9th to 24th percentile Below Average
3rd to 8th percentile Well-Below Average
2nd percentile and below Lower Extreme
National Norm-Referenced Interpretations: Comparing
Students in a Larger Context
National norms allow a school or district to compare a student’s performance to other students across the
nation. The primary value of national normative information is to provide an alternative perspective on student
performance. When the national norms are based on a large and nationally representative sample of students,
they can provide an indication of national student achievement in early reading. For instance, if 120 words correct
on ORF at the end of third grade is at the 50th percentile in local district norms and is at the 60th percentile
on national norms, then the average achievement in the district is above the national average. Similarly, at an
individual student level, a student might be at the 55th percentile compared to local norms but might be at the
5th percentile compared to national norms. In this context, the student might appear to be making adequate
progress, but the national normative information claries that the student is still of concern in a larger context.
Considering local norms and national norms can provide a balanced perspective on the student’s skills and
needs.
A disadvantage of national norms is that they may not be representative of the characteristics of students in a
particular district. For example, a local district may have a very high proportion of English language learners.
While the national norms may include English language learners, the proportion may or may not be representative
of the local district. It is important for district and school leaders to obtain information about the norm sample and
assess its relevance to their particular demographic prior to making decisions about students or overall district
performance.
National norms are reported in Acadience Data Management. For more information about them, see Acadience
Reading National Norms 2014−2015 (Technical Report No. 23), available at www.acadiencelearning.org.
29Interpreting Acadience
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Reading Data Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
The Importance of Response Patterns
In addition to interpreting scores from a criterion-
referenced, individually referenced, local norm-
referenced, or nationwide norm-referenced
perspective, the pattern of behavior that the
student displays on the assessment is also
important (see Figure 3.2). Acadience Reading
measures are designed to be indicators of
essential early literacy and reading skills. If the
student achieves a score above the benchmark
goal but does so in a way that indicates that
the early literacy and reading skill has not been
mastered, the student may still need additional
support to be on track. For example, if a student
reaches the benchmark goal on PSF but does
so by rapidly segmenting words in an onset-rime
pattern (/m/ /ap/, /str/ /eat/), that student may not
be as likely to reach the next goal as a student
who achieves the benchmark goal by correctly
segmenting phonemes (/m/ /a/ /p/, /s/ /t/ /r/ /ea/ /t/). (See Appendix D for a pronunciation guide that shows how
individual phonemes are represented on PSF). For this reason, each measure includes a checklist of common,
instructionally relevant response patterns. Teachers and other specialists who interpret Acadience Reading
results to provide instruction for students should review the types of responses for students in their classes. This
information, in addition to the raw scores, can dramatically guide instructional strategies.
Figure 3.2 Phoneme Segmentation Fluency
Response Patterns
PSF Response Patterns:
Repeats word
Makes random errors
Says initial sound only
Says onset rime
Does not segment blends
Adds sounds
Other
An example of PSF response patterns for a student who
responds with an onset-rime pattern rather than correctly
segmenting phonemes.
30Acadience
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Chapter 4: Implementing Acadience Reading
in Your School
Acadience Reading assessment is conducted in two ways: benchmark assessment and progress monitoring.
Benchmark assessment is the process of universally screening all students in a grade, school, or district
three times per year. There are two primary purposes for conducting benchmark assessment: (a) identifying
students who may not be on track to reach important reading outcomes; and (b) providing school-wide indices
of status and progress. Students who are identied as not being on track during benchmark assessment are
likely to need additional instructional assistance to reach future benchmark goals. Progress monitoring is the
more frequent, ongoing measurement of individual student growth for students who are receiving additional
instructional assistance, to ensure that those students are making adequate progress.
Conducting Benchmark Assessment
When to Test
Benchmark assessment is conducted three times per school year, at the beginning, middle, and end of the
year. Recommended testing windows are shown in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1 Benchmark Assessment Yearly Schedule
Time of Year
Beginning of Year
Benchmark 1
Middle of Year
Benchmark 2
End of Year
Benchmark 3
Recommended
testing windows
Months 1 to 3 of the
school year
Months 4 to 6 of the
school year
Months 7 to 9 of the
school year
Most frequent
benchmark month
Month 1 Month 5 Month 9
Example
benchmark
schedule for a
district with a
September to June
school calendar
September January May
Benchmark assessment can take place any time within the recommended testing windows. However, the
times provided as examples are most closely aligned with the timing of the Acadience Reading benchmark
goals.
31Implementing Acadience
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When a school district schedules the time within that window when testing will actually take place, all testing
should occur within a two- to three-week timeframe so that students have had roughly the same amount of
instructional time. When scheduling benchmark assessments, it may be helpful to use the school calendar to
avoid other assessments, holidays, and important school events. There should be a roughly equal amount of
time between benchmark assessments, and one to two weeks after the start of school or a major break should
be allowed to give students time to adjust.
Who Administers Benchmark Assessment
Any educator who has been trained on Acadience Reading administration and scoring can conduct Acadience
Reading benchmark assessments. This might include classroom teachers, special educators, reading specialists,
instructional assistants, principals, related service personnel such as speech/language therapists and school
psychologists, counselors, central office administrators, and librarians. It is important that the data are shared
with those who teach the student, regardless of who administers the testing.
Testing Approaches
Multiple approaches to conducting Acadience Reading benchmark assessment are possible. Each approach
has advantages and disadvantages. Selecting an approach will depend on the resources and characteristics of
a particular school or district. Three common approaches are detailed below.
Within Classroom.
The within-classroom approach involves classroom teachers, and their assistants when
available, conducting benchmark assessment on all of their students. Typically this approach consists of using
a portion of class time each day over the designated testing window to assess students. For example, in a
classroom with 25 students, the assessment could be completed in one week by assessing 5 students per day.
An advantage of this approach is that classroom teachers can participate in assessing all of their students.
A disadvantage is that this approach takes time away from instruction. In addition, it may promote a within-
classroom as opposed to a school-wide approach to providing support to change literacy outcomes.
School-wide: One Day.
The school-wide approach to conducting benchmark assessment in one day involves
a large team of trained assessors. In this approach, the team assesses a class at a time, typically completing an
entire class within 30 minutes. If classroom teachers participate in testing their own students, a substitute teacher
or assistant may cover the classroom during that block of time. Assessors may be stationed in a central location,
such as the library, or may be stationed around the school in designated assessment locations. To complete the
benchmark assessment in one day, the team needs to be large enough to cycle through the school. Advantages
of this approach include efficient testing and minimal disruption to instruction in each classroom. Disadvantages
include the need for a large team of trained assessors, the potential for disruption to special services for the day
if support staff are involved, and, if needed, funding for substitute teachers and/or additional assessors.
School-wide: Multiple Days.
The multi-day school-wide approach uses a smaller team to cycle through all
of the classrooms in a school. An advantage of this approach is that it requires a smaller assessment team. A
disadvantage is that it takes longer overall to collect the benchmark data.
Time Required for Testing
The amount of time it will take to complete the benchmark assessment for each student will vary by grade and
time of year. Table 4.2 provides an estimate of the time required per student.
32Implementing Acadience
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Table 4.2 Estimated Time Requirements for Benchmark Assessment
Grade
Level(s)
Beginning of Year Middle of Year End of Year
Measures Time Measures Time Measures Time
Kindergarten
FSF, LNF 3 minutes
FSF, PSF,
LNF, NWF
6.5 minutes
LNF, PSF,
NWF
5 minutes
First
LNF, PSF,
NWF
5 minutes
NWF,
ORF
8 minutes
NWF,
ORF
8 minutes
Second
NWF,
ORF
8 minutes ORF 6 minutes ORF 6 minutes
Third to Sixth
ORF 6 minutes per
student
ORF 6 minutes
per student
ORF 6 minutes
per student
Maze
5 minutes for
group testing,
1–2 minutes
scoring time
per worksheet
Maze 5 minutes for
group testing,
1–2 minutes
scoring
time per
worksheet
Maze 5 minutes for
group testing,
1–2 minutes
scoring
time per
worksheet
Managing Materials
The benchmark assessment will go more smoothly if the materials are prepared ahead of time. It may be helpful
to assign one person in the district and at each school to manage the materials. In addition to the assessment
materials listed in Chapter 2, each assessor will need a pen or pencil, stopwatch or timer, and a clipboard.
It is helpful to have the scoring booklets prepared ahead of time. Labels can be printed with the student name
and ID number, teacher name, school, and school year ahead of time and attached to the scoring booklets. Then
the booklets can be grouped by classroom for efficient use on the day of assessment.
Ensuring Accurate Results
In order to interpret the results of testing and use that data to make decisions about instruction, it is important
that the measures are administered and scored correctly. To ensure the accuracy of the data, the following steps
can be taken:
• All assessors must be trained as detailed on page 21 of Chapter 2, and should practice until
they can reliably administer the measures according to the rules given in this manual. Appendix
A includes Assessment Accuracy Checklists that can be used during practice to check the
assessor’s accuracy.
• The administration and scoring procedures detailed in this manual should be reviewed before
each benchmark period, with periodic accuracy checks for all assessors.
• Shadow-scoring is one way to be sure that each assessor is giving and scoring
Acadience Reading
according to the standardized procedures. Shadow-scoring involves two assessors working
with a student at the same time. One assessor interacts with the student and administers the
measures while the other is simultaneously timing and scoring, using the Assessment Accuracy
Checklists to provide constructive feedback. At the end of the assessment, the two assessors
compare timing and scores. A general guideline is that both assessors should be within 2 points
of each other on each score. This manual serves as a reference to resolve any disagreement.
33Implementing Acadience
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• To ensure that the scores used for decision-making are the scores that students actually received,
check that the scores were calculated correctly and entered into the data management system
correctly. It is recommended that approximately 10% of student booklets be rescored to check
for accuracy, and that 10% of the scores on the booklets are checked against the scores entered
in the system.
Establishing Rapport
An assessor who is unfamiliar to the student being tested may engage the student in a brief conversation prior
to the assessment. This helps put the student at ease and provides a brief sample of language to identify
articulation errors. The assessor should also make eye contact with the student during the assessment. Although
the directions must be read verbatim, they should be read in a friendly tone of voice, and not a monotone. The
priority is to follow standard procedures while still getting the best possible performance from the child. Be
sensitive to any needs or issues that may come up for the student during the assessment.
Measures Used in Benchmark Assessment
Benchmark assessment includes a number of different measures based on the grade and time of year, and is
always administered using grade-level materials. The measures to administer are identied on the cover page
of the benchmark scoring booklet (see Figures 4.1 and 4.2). For all measures except Maze, scoring forms are
included in the scoring booklet for that grade, and student materials are available as separate sheets. For Maze,
students ll out separate worksheets. The benchmark time periods are identied by a number and a label.
Benchmark 1 is used at the beginning of the school year and is identied as Beginning; Benchmark 2 is used in
the middle of the school year, and is identied as Middle; and Benchmark 3 is used at the end of the school year,
and is identied as End. Note that for ORF, three passages are administered for each benchmark assessment,
and the median (middle) score is recorded. Using the median score from three passages gives the best indicator
of student performance over a range of different text and content.
In most cases, the Acadience Reading benchmark measures that are individually administered should be given
to a student in a single sitting in the order in which they appear in the scoring booklet. If a student has difficulty
focusing for the amount of time necessary to complete all measures, it may be necessary to assess the student
in multiple sessions. Maze can be administered to an entire class at once, and can be given before or after the
students have been tested on the other measures.
Data Management and Reporting
After the benchmark testing is complete, the data should be organized so that educators can access and use
the results easily. It is useful to collect benchmark data only if they are then used for planning instruction. The
rst step is to record the scores on the cover page of the scoring booklet for easy access. The next two pages
show examples of how to record student information and scores on the cover pages of the benchmark scoring
booklets.
34Implementing Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Figure 4.1 Example of a First Grade Benchmark Scoring Booklet Cover Sheet
Benchmark Assessment
Name: _________________________________________________________
Student ID: ______________________ School Year: ________________
Teacher: _______________________________________________________
School: ________________________________________________________
First Grade Scoring Booklet
grade 1
reading k–6
Beginning Middle End
Date
LNF
PSF
NWF
CLS CLS CLS
WWR WWR WWR
ORF
(Circle the
median
score)
Passage
1 2 3 1 2 3
Words
Correct
Errors
Accuracy
Retell
Retell
Quality
1 2 3
© 2011 Acadience Learning Inc. All Rights Reserved. Acadience is a registered trademark of Acadience Learning Inc.
Revised 10/15/18
®
Samantha
2018-2019447523
9/14/18 1/21/19 5/15/19
Smith
Glenoaks Elementary
54
33
24
0 7 13
6548
57%
89%
13 15 12 42 40 64
10 8 11 6 4 5
20 32 47
2 2 3
35Implementing Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Figure 4.2 Example of a Fourth Grade Benchmark Ccoring Booklet Cover Sheet
Benchmark Assessment
Name: _________________________________________________________
Student ID: ______________________ School Year: ________________
Teacher: _______________________________________________________
School: ________________________________________________________
Fourth Grade Scoring Booklet
grade 4
Beginning Middle End
Date
ORF
(Circle the
median
score)
Passage
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Words
Correct
Errors
Accuracy
Retell
Retell
Quality
Maze
Correct Correct Correct
Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect
Adjusted Score Adjusted Score Adjusted Score
1 2 3
reading k–6
®
© 2011 Acadience Learning Inc. All Rights Reserved. Acadience is a registered trademark of Acadience Learning Inc.
Revised 10/15/18
Max
2018-2019447126
Johnson
Glenoaks Elementary
9/12/18 1/19/19 5/13/19
112
3 4 2 0 4 2 1 0 2
97 101 118 106 117 136 129 120
20
19 24 27
2 1 0
2724
97% 98% 99%
35 30 21 32 24 37 35 40 30
3 4 33 3 43 3 2
The next step is to record the results in a data management system that can then summarize and report the data
in way that is useful for teachers and administrators. Options include organizing results in a table or spreadsheet,
or using a web-based data management service that allows for entry and reporting of Acadience Reading scores.
An advantage of a data management service is that, once the student scores are entered, reports are available
immediately at the district, school, grade, classroom, and individual student levels. It is important to use a data
management system that provides results quickly and presents those results in ways that help teachers and
administrators make decisions about instruction. Data management can be accomplished through two data
management services from the authors of Acadience Reading. Acadience Data Management, the legacy data
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system for paper and pencil administration, provides educators the option to manually enter data and generate
reports. Acadience Learning Online, a new online test administration and data system, allows educators the ability
to assess students and immediately see results in an intuitive dashboard interface. Learn more about these data
management options at www.acadiencelearning.org.
Conducting Progress Monitoring
Progress monitoring is the practice of testing students briey but frequently on the skill areas in which they are
receiving instruction, to ensure that they are making adequate progress. Progress monitoring is conducted with
students who are not on track with the essential early literacy and reading skills at the time of the Acadience
Reading benchmark assessment. Progress monitoring is designed to ensure that the instruction students are
receiving is helping them make adequate progress to attain the benchmark and/or their reading goals. The
purposes of progress monitoring are to:
• provide ongoing feedback about the effectiveness of instruction,
• determine students’ progress toward important and meaningful goals, and
• make ti
mely decisions about changes to instruction so that students will meet those goals.
Monitoring student progress toward instructional objectives is an effective and efficient way to determine if the
instructional plan is working. Ongoing progress monitoring allows teachers to make data-based decisions about
the effectiveness of their instruction. Instruction can be modied or changed in a timely manner instead of waiting
months to nd out whether the student reached the goal. When teachers use student progress monitoring data
to inform instruction, students’ learning improves (Fuchs, Deno, & Mirkin, 1984).
The standardized procedures for administering an Acadience Reading measure apply when using Acadience
Reading for progress monitoring.
Acadience Reading and Progress Monitoring
Acadience Reading was designed specically for screening and progress monitoring. The Acadience Reading
measures are designed to be used frequently and are sensitive enough to detect student learning and growth
over time. The skills that are measured by Acadience Reading are the essential early literacy and reading
skills—those skills that should be the emphasis of reading instruction. Essential early literacy and readings skills
are predictive of future reading outcomes, are teachable, and when students acquire these skills their reading
outcomes improve.
Using Acadience Reading for progress monitoring is efficient because the same assessment can be used for both
progress monitoring and benchmark assessment. After conducting a benchmark assessment with Acadience
Reading, a great deal is known about the skills on which a student may need instructional support. Progress
monitoring on the skills that are the focus of instruction provides teachers with an indicator of the effectiveness
of that instruction.
Progress monitoring is an important component of a Response-to-Intervention (RtI) or Multi-Tiered System
of Support (MTSS) databased decision-making model. RtI and MTSS models, such as the Outcomes-Driven
Model described in this manual, are used to improve student outcomes by matching the amount and type of
instructional support with the needs of the individual students.
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Acadience Reading Progress Monitoring Materials
When conducting progress monitoring with an Acadience Reading measure, the same administration and
scoring procedures that are used for benchmark assessment are followed.
Unlike the benchmark assessment materials, which are arranged by grade, the progress monitoring materials
are arranged by skill and measure. A Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet contains 20 alternate scoring forms
for a measure, as well as a cover sheet on which the scores may be recorded and graphed. Progress Monitoring
Scoring Booklets are available for:
•
First Sound Fluency (FSF)
•
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)
•
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)
•
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Level 1
•
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Level 2
•
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Level 3
•
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Level 4
•
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Level 5
•
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) Level 6
Maze progress monitoring materials are organized similarly, with the exception that students ll out the Maze
worksheets themselves, rather than the assessor marking a scoring form. In the download version of Acadience
Reading, 20 alternate Maze worksheets are available per grade and can be produced as individual worksheets
or in a booklet. In the published version of Acadience Reading, the rst 10 Maze progress monitoring worksheets
are provided in a Maze Progress Monitoring Student Booklet. The other 10 worksheets per grade are available
for download from Acadience Learning at www.acadiencelearning.org. Maze progress monitoring materials are
available for:
•
Maze Level 3
•
Maze Level 4
•
Maze Level 5
•
Maze Level 6
ORF and Maze “levels” correspond to the grade level of the passages. The ORF and Maze progress monitoring
materials use the term “level” rather than “grade” because some students may be monitored with out-of-level or
out-of-grade materials.
Note that for ORF, while three passages are administered during benchmark assessment, a single passage is
sufficient for progress monitoring, given that instructional decisions are based on the pattern of performance
over at least three test administrations over time.
Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) does not include progress monitoring materials because letter naming is not
considered an essential early literacy and reading skill. While letter naming uency in preschool and kindergarten
is a strong predictor of future reading skills, for students who are struggling to learn to read, it is their knowledge
of letter sounds and the ability to apply that letter-sound knowledge to decode words that is most highly related
to reading outcomes.
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Progress Monitoring Procedures
Selecting Students for Progress Monitoring
We recommend that students who score below the benchmark goal on one or more measures and who are
determined to need additional instructional support to achieve early literacy and reading goals receive progress
monitoring assessment in the targeted areas that are the focus of instruction or intervention. Teachers may
also choose to monitor other students if there are concerns regarding their skills and/or progress. For example,
if a student has met the benchmark goal but has highly variable performance, poor attendance, or behavioral
issues, the teacher may choose to monitor that student, particularly if the student’s score is just barely above the
benchmark goal.
Any student whose essential early literacy and reading skills are not on track for attaining future reading outcomes
is a potential candidate for focused, differentiated small-group instruction, the intensity of which should match the
need for support. When teachers provide additional targeted instructional support on essential early literacy and
reading skills, we recommend that they use progress monitoring to gauge the effectiveness of the instructional
supports provided.
If many students within a classroom or grade score below or well below the benchmark goal, it may be more
benecial to focus rst on analyzing and improving the core reading instruction that all students receive rather
than expending resources on progress monitoring all those students.
Decisions about the number of students to monitor at one time are based on local needs, resources, and
priorities.
Selecting Acadience Reading Measures for Progress Monitoring
In most cases, progress monitoring will be conducted using one measure at a time, which should represent
the student’s instructional level of the skill area targeted for instruction. In some cases, it may be appropriate
to monitor a student using more than one Acadience Reading measure, in particular for students who are
monitored in out-of-grade materials. For example, a second-grade student might be monitored once per week
with NWF and once per month with rst grade ORF as a way to track acquisition of the alphabetic principle and
the application of those skills to connected text.
Students should be monitored in material that matches the skill area targeted for instruction. For example,
students with low scores on NWF CLS should receive instruction focused on becoming accurate and automatic
with basic phonics skills (e.g., matching sounds to letters) and should be monitored with NWF CLS. As another
example, when a student has sufficient accuracy and uency, but that student’s Maze score suggests difficulty
with reading silently for meaning, monitor with Maze. Kindergarten and rst-grade students typically would be
monitored on grade-level materials unless they are not producing measurable behavior on those materials.
Grade-level materials for kindergarten include FSF, PSF, and NWF and for rst grade include PSF, NWF, and
ORF. Students in grades two through six may be monitored in grade-level or out-of-grade-level materials.
Progress monitoring forms should be administered in the order they appear in the booklet for each individual
child.
Out-of-grade monitoring. Careful consideration should be given to selecting an optimum level of progress
monitoring material for each student. The optimum level should simultaneously illustrate:
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
•
the student’s current level of skills,
•
an instructional goal that the student needs to attain, and
•
progress toward the goal.
To be able to illustrate progress, the material must be at a level in which changes in student skills will be
apparent. In particular, if the measurement material is too difficult, progress will not be apparent, and the student
and teacher or interventionist may become discouraged. Material that is too difficult may also result in inaccurate
decisions about student progress. The progress monitoring level may be the same as the instructional level.
However, when monitoring progress in out-of-grade materials, use the highest level of material in which change
can be shown in skills targeted for instruction. For example, when targeting phonemic awareness for instruction
any time after the rst half of kindergarten, PSF should be used for progress monitoring instead of FSF. If PSF
is too difficult or frustrating for the student, then FSF should be used. For ORF, the optimal progress monitoring
material is the highest level of material where the student reads with at least 90% accuracy and has an ORF
Words Correct score above 20 in rst-grade material, 40 in second-grade material, or 50 in third- through sixth-
grade materials.
If grade-level material does not fall within these optimal progress monitoring levels, consider “back-testing”
to identify the student’s appropriate progress monitoring level. Acadience Reading Survey provides testing
materials and procedures for this process. For more information on Acadience Reading Survey, visit
www.acadiencelearning.org.
Testing forms. Progress monitoring forms should be administered in the order they appear in the booklet, starting
from the rst form. Note that for ORF, while three passages are administered during benchmark assessment,
a single passage is administered each time for progress monitoring. The progress monitoring forms for one
measure or level are of approximately equal difficulty. Instructional decisions are based on at least three test
administrations. For example, if a student is being monitored weekly, instructional decisions would be based on
three assessments given over three weeks.
Setting Progress Monitoring Goals
A progress monitoring goal must include the score to aim for in the selected material, as well as the timeframe
for achieving the selected goal. We recommend setting meaningful, ambitious, and attainable goals. There are
two frames of reference that may be considered when monitoring a student in grade-level materials: (a) the
Acadience Reading benchmark goals and (b) Pathways of Progress.
First, consider the Acadience Reading benchmark goals and the standard timeframe in which those goals should
be reached, illustrated in Figure 4.3. The benchmark goals are the same for all students in a grade, regardless
of their starting skill level and represent the lowest score for which a student is likely to still be on track to
reach future reading outcomes (e.g., to be on track for fourth grade, every third-grade student should reach a
Reading Composite Score of 330 by the end of the year). Some students with scores in this range, especially
those with scores near the benchmark, may require monitoring and/or strategic support on specic component
skills. Alternatively, the Above Benchmark level represents a higher level of performance. While all students with
scores in this range will likely benet from core support, some students with scores in this range may benet
from instruction on more advanced skills. Additional information about the benchmark goals is found in Chapter
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3 and Appendix C of this manual.
Figure 4.3 Sample Student Graph Showing Initial Performance, Aimline, Goal, in Reference to
Benchmark Goal and Cut Point for Risk at End-of-Year
ORF/ Level 2 Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet
Name: _________________________________________________________
Student ID: ______________________ School Year: ________________
Teacher: _______________________________________________________
School: ________________________________________________________
reading k−6
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Month
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Scores
Week 1
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 2
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 3
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 4
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Michelle
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
43
Mar Apr May
End-of-Year
Benchmark Goal
End-of-Year
Cut Point for Risk
A second frame of reference to consider along with the benchmark goals is Pathways of Progress. When used
in conjunction with the benchmark goals, Pathways of Progress further empowers educators to set individual
student goals that are meaningful, ambitious, and attainable. Pathways of Progress allows teachers to use a
normative context, in addition to the benchmark goals, when setting goals and evaluating progress. Pathways
of Progress claries what rate of progress is Typical, Above Typical, or Well Above Typical for students with
the same beginning Reading Composite Score. Pathways of Progress also informs educators when the rate of
progress is Below Typical or Well Below Typical compared to students who have the same beginning Reading
Composite Score.
Figure 4.4 shows how the Pathways of Progress can contribute important information in addition to the Acadience
Reading benchmark goal for a sample second-grade student, Josh. As illustrated in Figure 4.4, Pathways
of Progress can be helpful for determining if reaching the grade-level end-of-year benchmark goal might be
unrealistically ambitious. Teachers can use the Pathways of Progress goal-setting utility available in Acadience
Data Management (www.acadiencelearning.net) to see the target scores for each pathway and set end-of-
year grade-level goals for students. A sample graph showing the goal, aimline, and Pathways for a third-grade
student, Tabitha, is shown in Figure 4.5.
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Figure 4.4 How Pathways of Progress Relate to the Benchmark Goals for a Sample Student, Josh
ORF/ Level 2 Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet
Name: _________________________________________________________
Student ID: ______________________ ______________________
Teacher: _______________________________________________________
School: ________________________________________________________
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Month
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Scores
Week 1
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 2
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 3
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 4
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Josh
Sep Oct
10
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May
Cut Point for Risk:
Students scoring below
the cut point for risk are
unlikely to achieve
subsequent goals
without receiving
additional, targeted
instructional support.
These scores are
identified as Well Below
Benchmark and the
students are likely to
need Intensive Support.
Benchmark Goal:
Students scoring at or
above the benchmark
goal have the odds in
their favor
(approximately
80%–90%) of achieving
later important reading
outcomes. These scores
are identified as At or
Above Benchmark and
the students are likely to
need Core Support.
Benchmark Goal
Benchmark Goal
Benchmark Goal
Cut Point for Risk
Cut Point for Risk
Cut Point for Risk
Well Above Typical
Above Typical
Typical
Below Typical
Well Below Typical
reading k−6
When monitoring a student in below-grade materials, the following steps are recommended:
Step 1: Determine the student’s current level of performance.
Step 2: Determine the score to aim for based on the end-of-year goal for the level of materials
selected for monitoring.
Step 3: Set the timeframe so that the goal is achieved in half the time in which it would normally be
achieved (e.g., move the end-of-year benchmark goal to be achieved by the mid-year benchmark
date). The intent is to establish a goal that will accelerate progress and support a student to close the
achievement gap between them and their grade-level peers.
Step 4: Draw an aimline connecting the current performance to the goal.
A sample graph illustrating this kind of goal is provided in Figure 4.6. Acadience Reading Survey was used to
develop this goal.
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Figure 4.5 Aimline, Goal, and Pathways of Progress for a Sample Student, Tabitha
ORF/ Level 3 Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet
Name: _________________________________________________________
Student ID: ______________________ School Year: ________________
Teacher: _______________________________________________________
School: ________________________________________________________
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Month
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Scores
Week 1
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 2
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 3
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 4
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Tabitha
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
65
Mar Apr May
Well Above Typical
Pathways of Progress
Above Typical
Typical
Below Typical
Well Below Typical
reading k−6
Figure 4.6 Sample Out-of-Grade Level Goal Informed by Survey for a Sample Student, Alistair
NWF Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Month
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Scores
Week 1
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 2
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 3
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 4
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Name: _________________________________________________________
Student ID: ______________________ School Year: ________________
Teacher: _______________________________________________________
School: ________________________________________________________
reading k–6
Accelerate progress
because out of level
and catching up
Grade 1 end-of-year
benchmark goals for
CLS and WWR
NWF Out-of-Level progress monitoring for frequent
assessment with instructional level material
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
38/2
Mar Apr May
Alistair
Out-of-Level Goal:
When presented with
an NWF form, Alistair
will use basic phonics
skills and understanding
of the alphabetic
principle to identify at
least 65 correct letter
sounds and read at
least 18 whole words in
1 minute by the middle
of the year.
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Determining the Frequency of Progress Monitoring
Students receiving progress monitoring should be monitored as frequently as needed to make timely decisions
about the effectiveness of the instructional support. The frequency of progress monitoring should match the level
of concern about the student’s skill development and need for support. Students who need more support should
be monitored more frequently. As such, the frequency of monitoring should match the level of concern for the
student and the intensity of intervention support needed.
For students whose scores fall into the Below Benchmark level in grade-level materials, monitoring one or two
times per month is likely sufficient. Of the students who have scores at this level, those who are closer to the
benchmark goal would likely be monitored less frequently (e.g., once per month), while those who are closer to
the cut point for risk would likely be monitored more frequently.
For students whose scores fall into the Well Below Benchmark level in grade-level materials, progress monitoring
once per week is ideal, though once every other week may be sufficient.
Any time you are monitoring a student in out-of-grade materials, progress monitoring once per week is ideal,
though every other week may be sufficient.
A note about the Maze measure: Scores for Maze increase more slowly than they do for other Acadience Reading
measures, so more frequent monitoring may not be as informative. For students who need to be monitored on
Maze, we recommend monitoring once per month.
Conducting Progress Monitoring Assessment
Who should collect progress monitoring data?
Any educator who has been trained on the administra-
tion and scoring procedures for Acadience Reading can collect progress monitoring data. The person who is
providing the instruction is the one who needs the progress monitoring information and is the most likely person
to collect the data. However, it can be just as effective for someone other than the instructor to collect the data, as
long as the data are shared in a timely fashion. For example, students who are receiving speech therapy might
have their progress monitored by the speech therapist. Special educators and reading specialists might monitor
progress of the students on their caseload and share the results with the classroom teacher. Classroom teachers
might progress monitor the small group of students with whom they are meeting daily because they are the ones
who are most in need of support. It can be helpful to share the task of collecting progress monitoring data. It is
important that the data be easily and frequently accessed by the student’s instructor(s).
When should progress monitoring assessment be conducted?
Progress monitoring should be conducted
so as to minimize time taken from reading instruction. Consider the amount of assessment time needed based
on the number of students, frequency of monitoring, and the materials on which students are being monitored.
For example, if the decision is to monitor progress weekly for a small group of ve students on ORF, one student
could be assessed on Monday for 2 minutes at the end of small group time. The second student could be
assessed on Tuesday, and so on for the remaining students. Each student would then be monitored weekly,
but only a single student per day. Decisions such as these will be based in part on available resources and
personnel.
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Data Management and Reporting
Progress monitoring data should be graphed and readily available to those who teach the student. The scoring
forms themselves should also be available, in order to examine the student’s response patterns.
The front cover of each Acadience Reading Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet includes a graph to record the
scores (see Figure 4.3). Components of an effective progress monitoring graph include:
• current level of performance,
• a target goal at a future point in time,
• a place to record ongoing progress monitoring scores, and
• an aimline.
An aimline provides a visual target for the rate of progress the student needs to make to meet the goal on time.
The aimline is drawn from the student’s current or initial skill level (which is often the most recent benchmark
assessment score) to the goal. Progress monitoring scores can then be plotted over time and examined to
determine whether the student is making adequate progress in reference to the aimline. An electronic data
management system can store and report Acadience Reading progress monitoring data for you. One such
system is Acadience Data Management (www.acadiencelearning.net) from the authors at Acadience Learning.
A sample progress monitoring graph from Acadience Data Management for Tabitha is shown in Figure 4.7.
Figure 4.7 Sample Acadience Data Management Progress Monitoring Graph for Tabitha
Student Progress Monitoring Graphs
Acadience Reading K-6
Name: Tabitha S.
StudentID: 2017-3001
School: Bright Spring
Class: demo path 3
Grade: Third Grade
Year: 2017-2018
Benchmark Score Above Benchmark Goal
Progress Monitoring Score Benchmark Goal
Score Above Graph Boundary Cut Point for Risk
Instructional Support
Change Line
Pathways of Progress
Individual Goal
ORF Words Correct Level 3
Score
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
August September October November December January February March April May
B. Accuracy % 96
PM Accuracy % 97 95 97 98 97 99 96 99
Notes #1
#1: Implement repeated reading strategy from Reading Rockets, extra practice with peer
For any week of the
school year, and for any
component, we can tell if
Tabitha is making
adequate progress to
achieve her goal.
64
62
64
63
62
67
70
69
65
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Making Decisions With Progress Monitoring Data: Evaluating Progress and
Modifying Instruction
Progress monitoring data should be reviewed at regular intervals. This review can be done by a classroom teacher
and/or a team of educators working with a student. In general, if three consecutive data points fall below the
aimline, the team should meet and make a considered decision about maintaining or modifying the instruction.
If the student’s progress is not likely to result in meeting the goal, then instruction should be modied. Before
increasing the intensity of instruction, easy explanations for lack of progress should be considered and ruled out
or changed, such as student or instructor absence or lack of instructional delity. Additionally, interventions and
the frequency of monitoring can be faded once student performance improves The overarching goal is to make
ongoing, data-based decisions regarding instruction to improve student outcomes. Illustrations of this process
are shown in Figures 4.8 and 4.9.
Figure 4.8 Ongoing Decision Making With Graphed Progress Monitoring Data for Tabitha
ORF/ Level 3 Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet
Name: _________________________________________________________
Student ID: ______________________ School Year: ________________
Teacher: _______________________________________________________
School: ________________________________________________________
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Month
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Scores
Week 1
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 2
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 3
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 4
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Tabitha
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
65
Mar Apr May
The vertical line indicates a
change in instructional support.
Make a decision using a
Moving Median of the three
most recent Progress
Monitoring Points.
71,(2)
74,(3)
68,(1)
72,(2)
X
X
X
X
reading k−6
46Implementing Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
ORF/ Level 3 Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet
Name: _________________________________________________________
Student ID: ______________________ School Year: ________________
Teacher: _______________________________________________________
School: ________________________________________________________
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Month
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Scores
Week 1
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 2
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 3
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 4
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Tabitha
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
65
Mar Apr May
The vertical line indicates a
change in instructional support.
Moving Median of the three
most recent Progress
Monitoring Points provides
a good balance of
timeliness, confidence, and
resources for instructional
decisions. It also enables
decisions about progress
based on how the student is
doing now.
71,(2)
74,(3)
68,(1)
88,(5)
84,(4)
72,(2)
81,(4)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
reading k−6
Figure 4.9 Ongoing Decision Making With Graphed Progress Monitoring Data for Bradley
NWF Progress Monitoring Scoring Booklet
Name: _________________________________________________________
Student ID: ______________________ School Year: ________________
Teacher: _______________________________________________________
School: ________________________________________________________
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Month
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Scores
Week 1
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 2
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 3
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
Week 4
________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________ ____________
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Small-Group
Intervention: Foxes
Core Group: Bees
X
X
X
X
OOO OOOOOOO
O
O O
OO
O
O
O
O
O
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
48,(7)42,(3)25,(0)22,(0)8,(0)
12,(0)6
5,6
7
18,(0)
17,(0)
19,(0)
22,(0)
28,(0)
35,(0)
38,(2)
35,(4)
45,(4)
43,(6)
49,(7)
51,(10) 59,(12) 61,(14)
Mar Apr May
X
X
X
X
X
X
Bradley
reading k−6
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Sharing Progress Monitoring Data With Parents and Students
Parents and students are important partners in any educator’s efforts to improve reading outcomes. A basic
progress monitoring graph conveys much of the information parents want to know about their children:
• What is my child’s current level of skill?
• How different is my child’s performance from the expectation?
• What is the goal for my child?
• When do we expect the goal to be achieved?
• Is my child making adequate progress toward the goal?
When progress monitoring occurs in the context of general education support, the procedures may be discussed
with parents, including the educational concerns, the instructional support that is being provided, who will be
collecting progress monitoring data, and how often the data will be shared. When progress monitoring is part
of an evaluation for special education eligibility, appropriate informed consent procedures should be followed.
Under some conditions, sharing graphed data with a student may be appropriate if it would help to motivate the
student. If the student is prone to speed-reading or is too far below the target and may be discouraged, then it
may not be appropriate to share the graphed data.
Communicating With Students, Parents, and School Personnel
Preparing Students for Benchmark Assessment
Before each of the three benchmark assessments, teachers may make a statement to the class about the testing
and about what students can expect to experience. The goal of the statement is to inform students and put them
at ease, while encouraging them to do their best. It may be helpful to introduce the adults who will participate in
the assessment and announce the locations where it will take place. A Sample Student Statement is included in
Appendix E.
Informing Parents About Reading Assessment
Parents and guardians are important partners in improving reading outcomes. It is good policy to communicate
to parents about the assessment tools used at school. Information to communicate might include:
• an explanation of the skills that are measured by
Acadience Reading
and why those skills are
important;
• who will see the results;
• how and when parents will receive information about their child’s performance;
• how the results will be used; and
• who to contact for more information.
A Sample Parent Announcement Letter and a Sample Results Letter are included in Appendix E.
Sharing Results with Parents
Following each benchmark assessment, Acadience Reading results may be communicated to each student’s
parents or guardians. The communication might include what the expectation for adequate progress is for that
grade and time of year, how the student performed relative to that expectation, and any appropriate next steps. A
48Implementing Acadience
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Reading in Your SchoolAcadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Sample Results letter is included in Appendix E. Acadience Reading results also may be shared and discussed
at parent-teacher conferences.
Acadience Reading progress monitoring information may also be communicated to parents or guardians. When
progress monitoring occurs in the context of general education support, the procedures may be discussed with
parents, including the educational concerns, the instructional support that is being provided, who will be collecting
progress monitoring data, and how often the data will be shared. Engaging parents as partners in working toward
important literacy goals can be a powerful strategy for improving student outcomes. When progress monitoring
is part of an evaluation for special education eligibility, appropriate informed consent procedures should be
followed.
Sharing Results With School Personnel
Following each benchmark assessment, schedule time to discuss and analyze the Acadience Reading data with
classroom teachers and other appropriate support staff who teach those students. An efficient way to review
the results is during a grade-level meeting that includes resource staff who support that grade. In addition to
reviewing the results in a meeting, the data should be made readily accessible to the classroom teachers and
support staff who need to use it for making ongoing decisions about instruction.
49First Sound FluencyAcadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
What is phonemic awareness?
Phonemic awareness is the explicit awareness that spoken words
are made up of individual sounds or phonemes. A phoneme is the
smallest sound unit into which speech can be divided that makes a
difference to the meaning of the word (National Reading Panel, 2000).
Phonemic awareness involves the ability to attend to and manipulate
these phonemes in spoken words. For example, the knowledge that the
word dog begins with the sound /d/ is phonemic awareness. The ability
to replace the /d/ sound at the beginning of dog with the /h/ sound to
make the word hog is also phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness
is an auditory skill that does not require knowledge of the letters of the
alphabet or letter-sound knowledge, thus it is not the same as phonics.
A convergence of research on the acquisition of reading skills has
demonstrated that phonemic awareness is highly predictive of success
in learning to read (Gillon, 2004; Stahl & Murray, 2006). Additionally,
effective instruction in phonemic awareness leads to signicant
differences in reading achievement (Ehri, 2004; National Reading Panel,
2000). Most reading researchers advocate that phonemic awareness
be purposefully and explicitly taught as part of a comprehensive
instructional program in reading and writing.
Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skill Acadience Reading Measure
Phonemic Awareness
First Sound Fluency
50Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Chapter 5: First Sound Fluency (FSF)
Overview
Essential Early Literacy
and Reading Skill
Phonemic Awareness
Administration
Time
1 minute
Administration
Schedule
Beginning of kindergarten to middle of kindergarten
Score
2 points for each correct initial phoneme and 1 point for each correct
initial consonant blend, consonant plus vowel, or consonant blend plus
vowel said by the student in 1 minute
Wait Rule
If the student does not respond within 3 seconds on a word, mark a
slash (/) through the zero and say the next word.
Discontinue
Rule
Zero points in the rst ve words
What is FSF?
First Sound Fluency (FSF) is a brief, direct measure of a student’s uency in identifying the initial sounds in
words. The ability to isolate the rst sound in a word is an important phonemic awareness skill that is highly
related to reading acquisition and reading achievement (Yopp, 1988). The ability to isolate and identify the rst
phoneme in a word is an easier skill than segmenting words or manipulating phonemes in words, thus FSF is
used as a measure of developing phonemic awareness at the beginning and middle of kindergarten.
Using standardized directions, the assessor says a series of words one at a time to the student and asks the
student to say the rst sound in the word. On the scoring page, the assessor circles the corresponding sound
or group of sounds the student says. Appendix D provides a pronunciation guide for how individual sounds
are represented on the FSF measure. Students receive either 2 points for saying the initial phoneme of a word
(e.g., saying the /s/ sound as the rst sound in the word street) or 1 point for saying the initial consonant blend
(e.g., /st/, /str/ in street), consonant plus vowel (e.g., /si/ in sit), or consonant blend plus vowel (e.g., /strea/ in street).
A response is scored as correct as long as the student provides any of the correct responses listed for the word.
The total score is based on the number of correct 1- and 2-point responses the student says in 1 minute.
Differential scoring for student responses allows young students to receive partial credit for demonstrating
beginning skills in phonemic awareness. A student who may not be able to isolate an initial phoneme
(e.g., /s/, /t/) would still receive partial credit for providing the rst group of sounds in the word, showing
51First Sound Fluency (FSF)Acadience
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emerging understanding that words are made up of sounds. Although partial credit is given, the goal is for the
student to be able to correctly say the rst phoneme of each word.
To ensure that students understand the task and to maximize the performance of young students who may not
have had any prior exposure to instruction in phonemic awareness, three practice items are included. The practice
items provide increasing levels of support, including modeling (e.g., “listen to me say...”) and leading the correct
response (e.g., “say it with me”). By design, the rst two practice items start with the same sound, /m/. In the rst
practice item, isolation of the /m/ sound at the beginning of a word is modeled. In the second practice item, the
student is asked to isolate the beginning sound in a word that also starts with /m/. In the third practice item, the
student is asked to generalize the skill of isolating beginning sounds to a word that does not start with /m/.
Materials
• Scoring Booklet
• Pen/pencil
• Clipboard
• Stopwatch
Administration Directions
Follow these directions exactly each time with each student. Say the words in bold italic type verbatim. Begin
with the modeling and practice activities. The practice activities are designed to introduce the assessment task
to the student. They are untimed and include correction procedures. The correction procedures are not used
once the timing begins.
Practice item #1) Listen to me say this word, “man.” The rst sound that you hear in the word “man”
is /mmm/. Listen. /mmm/. “Man.” What is the rst sound you hear in the word “man”?
Correct
response
/mmm/ or /ma/
Good. /mmm/ is the rst sound in “man.”
(Present practice item #2.)
Incorrect
response
Student does not
respond within
3 seconds or
responds
incorrectly
/mmm/ is the rst sound
you hear in the word
“man.” Listen. /mmm/.
“Man.” Say it with me.
/mmm/. Let’s try it again.
What is the rst sound
you hear in the word
“man”?
Correct
response
Good.
(Present practice item #2.)
Incorrect
response
/mmm/.
Say
/mmm/.
Correct Good.
(Present
practice
item #2.)
Incorrect Okay.
(Present
practice
item #2.)
Practice item #2) Listen to me say another word, “moon.” What is the rst sound you hear in the
word “moon”?
52First Sound Fluency (FSF)Acadience
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Correct
response
/mmm/ or /moo/
Good. /mmm/ is the rst sound in “moon.”
(Present practice item #3.)
Incorrect
response
Student does not
respond within
3 seconds or
responds
incorrectly
/mmm/ is the rst sound
you hear in the word
“moon.” Listen. /mmm/.
“Moon.” Say it with me.
/mmm/. Let’s try it again.
What is the rst sound
you hear in the word
“moon”?
Correct
response
Good.
(Present practice item #3.)
Incorrect
response
/mmm/.
Say
/mmm/.
Correct Good.
(Present
practice
item #3.)
Incorrect Okay.
(Present
practice
item #3.)
Go to the next page.
Practice item #3) Let’s try another word, “sun.” (Wait up to 3 seconds for student to respond.) If the
student does not respond, ask, What is the rst sound you hear in the word “sun”?
Correct
response
/sss/ or /su/
Good. /sss/ is the rst sound in “sun.”
(Begin testing.)
Incorrect
response
Student does not
respond within
3 seconds or
responds
incorrectly
/sss/ is the rst sound
you hear in the word
“sun.” Listen. /sss/.
“Sun.” Say it with me.
/sss/. Let’s try it again.
What is the rst sound
you hear in the word
“sun”?
Correct
response
Good.
(Begin testing.)
Incorrect
response
/sss/.
Say
/sss/.
Correct Good.
(Begin
testing.)
Incorrect Okay.
(Begin
testing.)
Begin testing. Now I am going to say more words. You tell me the rst sound you hear in the word.
1. Say the rst word and start your stopwatch.
2. During the testing:
• Present the words to the student one at a time by reading down the column of words.
• Score the student’s responses by circling the corresponding sound or group of sounds on the scoring
page. Mark a slash ( ) through the zero for no response or for an incorrect response.
• As soon as the student nishes saying the initial sound/sounds in the word, say the next word
promptly and clearly.
• Continue to say the words one at a time and score the student’s responses for 1 minute.
• At the end of 1 minute, stop presenting the words. Do not score any student responses after 1
minute. If the student completes the assessment before 1 minute, stop testing and record the score
obtained. Scores are not prorated.
53First Sound Fluency (FSF)Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
3. Immediately after testing:
• Reset the stopwatch for the next measure.
• Make a note in the scoring booklet about any patterns in student responses that were not captured by the
marking procedures.
4. At a later time (i.e., shortly after the testing when you are no longer with the student) compute the nal score:
• Add the correct responses in the 2-point column. Multiply the number of responses from the 2-point
column by two and record the total in the space provided.
• Add the correct responses in the 1-point column and record the total in the space provided.
• Add the two totals from each column together and record the total score in the space provided.
• Record the score on the front of the scoring booklet.
Scoring Rules
The student receives 2 points for correctly identifying the initial phoneme in isolation and 1 point
for identifying the correct initial sounds (consonant blend, consonant plus vowel, or consonant
blend plus vowel).
1. Circle the corresponding sound or sounds that a student says for a word. A response is scored as
correct if the student says any of the responses listed for the word.
• A student receives 2 points by correctly identifying the initial phoneme in a word.
• A student receives 1 point for identifying the correct initial consonant blend, consonant
blend plus vowel, or consonant plus vowel in a word.
2. Mark a slash ( ) through the zero on the scoring page for an incorrect response or no response
within 3 seconds.
3. Write “sc” over the slash and circle the corresponding sounds or group of sounds in the student’s
response if the student self-corrects an error within 3 seconds.
Discontinue Rule
Discontinue administering FSF if the student has not said any correct initial sounds in the rst ve words. Record a
score of 0 on the Total line on the scoring page and in the FSF score box on the cover page of the student booklet.
Wait Rule
Wait 3 seconds for the student to respond. If the student does not respond within 3 seconds on a word, mark a
slash ( ) through the zero and say the next word.
Reminders
If you think the student may have forgotten the task (e.g., the student stops responding because he or she has
clearly forgotten the task, repeats the word, claps the sounds, or says a rhyming word), say Remember to tell
me the rst sound that you hear in the word. Immediately say the next word. This reminder may be given as
often as needed.
54First Sound Fluency (FSF)Acadience
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If the student says the name of the letter, say Remember to tell me the rst sound in the word, not the letter
name. Immediately say the next word. This reminder may be given only once.
Notes:
1. Schwa sounds (/u/) added to consonants are not counted as errors. Some phonemes (e.g., voiced phonemes
such as /g/ or /b/) cannot be pronounced in isolation without a vowel, and some early learning of sounds
includes the schwa.
2. Students are not penalized for differences in pronunciation due to dialect, articulation delays or impairments,
or for speaking a rst language other than English. It is common for preschool and kindergarten children to
say /ch/ for /tr/ and /j/ for /dr/. On FSF, these substitutions are considered articulation errors and are scored
as correct.
Examples of Scoring Rules
The following are examples of how to score commonly occurring responses on FSF. Please pay attention to
the notes included with the examples as they provide scoring explanations and indicate variations and nuances
related to the scoring. The examples do not encompass all possible responses. If in doubt about how to score a
student response, refer to the scoring rules above.
Scoring Rule 1: Circle the corresponding sound or sounds that a student says for a word. A response is
scored as correct if the student says any of the responses listed for the word.
Examples:
Words
sh
drop
Student response
/f/ or /fu/
/d/ or /du/
How to
score
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
/f/ 0
2. drop /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
Note: Schwa sounds (/u/) added to consonants are not counted as errors.
Words
sh
drop
Student response
//
/dr/ or /dru/
How to
score
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
/f/ 0
2. drop /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
Note: Schwa sounds (/u/) added to consonants are not counted as errors.
55First Sound Fluency (FSF)Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Words
drop
trap
Student response
/j/
/ch/
How to
score
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
1. drop /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
2. trap /t/ /tr/ /tra/ 0
Note: A common articulation error for students is to say /j/ for the /dr/ blend or /ch/ for the /tr/ blend.
Words
sh
drop
Student response
/f/.../i/.../sh/
/dr/.../o/.../p/
How to
score
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
/f/ 0
2. drop /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
Words
sh
drop
Student response
/f/...sh
/dr/...drop
How to
score
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
/f/ 0
2. drop /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
Scoring Rule 2: Mark a slash ( ) through the zero for no response or for any other response not
included on the score sheet (e.g., incorrect sound, letter name, repeat the word).
Examples:
Words
sh
drop
Student
response
/m/
drop
How to
score
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
/f/ 0
2. drop /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
56First Sound Fluency (FSF)Acadience
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Words
sh
drop
Student
response
eff...(assessor says, “Remember to tell me the rst
sound in the word, not the letter name. Drop.”)...dee...
How to
score
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
/f/ 0
2. drop /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
Note: This reminder may be used only once.
Words
sh
drop
Student
response
no response...(3 seconds)...(assessor says, “drop”)
/dr/
How to
score
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
/f/ 0
2. drop /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
Note: Slash the zero if the student gives no response after 3 seconds.
Scoring Rule 3: Write “sc” over the slashed zero if the student self-corrects. Circle the appropriate score
for the student’s response.
Example:
Words
sh
drop
Student
response
/m/...I mean /f/
drop...I mean /d/
How to
score
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
/f/ 0
2. drop /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
sc
sc
See Appendix F for Practice Scoring Sheet and Answer Key.
57First Sound Fluency (FSF)Acadience
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Model FSF Scoring Sheet
The following is an example of a completed scoring sheet. The scoring rules and scoring calculation are
shown. This scoring sheet serves as a model and can be used during training and practice to support accurate
administration and scoring of Acadience Reading.
Test Items Correct/2 points Correct/1 point Incorrect
2-pt responses:
_____
x 2:
_____
+ 1-pt responses:
_____
= Total:
_______
1
Probe 4
DIBELS 7th Edition Draft First Sound Fluency
1. knob /n/ /no/ 0
2. jam /j/ /ja/ 0
3. throat /th/ /thr/ /throa/ 0
4. slow /s/ /sl/ 0
5. shelves /sh/ /she/ 0
6. slice /s/ /sl/ /slie/ 0
7. time /t/ /tie/ 0
8. sports /s/ /sp/ /spor/ 0
9. chance /ch/ /cha/ 0
10. plot /p/ /pl/ /plo/ 0
11. skate /s/ /sk/ /skai/ 0
12. sand /s/ /sa/ 0
13. dropped /d/ /dr/ /dro/ 0
14. loud /l/ /low/ 0
15. storm /s/ /st/ /stor/ 0
16. peak /p/ /pea/ 0
17. smash /s/ /sm/ /sma/ 0
18. tree /t/ /tr/ 0
19. fair /f/ /fe/ 0
20. dad /d/ /da/ 0
21. smooth /s/ /sm/ /smoo/ 0
22. clean /k/ /kl/ /klea/ 0
23. cheer /ch/ /chi/ 0
24. nine /n/ /nie/ 0
25. space /s/ /sp/ /spai/ 0
26. dirt /d/ /der/ 0
27. creek /k/ /kr/ /krea/ 0
28. zoom /z/ /zoo/ 0
29. call /k/ /ko/ 0
30. scarf /s/ /sk/ /skar/ 0
sc
17
34 4410
Acadience Reading First Sound Fluency
Progress Monitoring 1
58Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
What is letter naming?
To read an alphabetic writing system such as English, students must be
able to recognize letters, name the letters, and associate the letters with
their corresponding sounds (Troia, 2004). However, letter naming is not
one of the ve core components of early literacy. Many, though not all,
students enter kindergarten with some knowledge of letter names. Many
can sing the alphabet song and can recite the names of the letters in a
sequence. Surrounded by environmental print, many students can easily
recognize the letter shapes and print cues of their favorite stores or foods.
All these experiences provide an entry point to the printed word.
The pragmatic implication of having learned letter names through rhythm
and song is that teaching the visual representation for each letter follows
easily and almost naturally. The value of recognizing environmental
print is that students begin to understand that print has meaning. The
importance of knowing letter names in mastering the alphabetic principle
is ambiguous because the skill of knowing the alphabet letter names
is not essential to reading outcomes. Nevertheless, knowledge of letter
names in kindergarten is a strong and robust predictor of later reading
performance (Adams, 1990), and has an enduring relationship with
phonological awareness (Kaminski & Good, 1996; Scarborough, 1998;
Stahl & Murray, 1994; Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994).
Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skill Acadience Reading Measure
Not directly linked to a basic early literacy skill
Letter Naming Fluency
59Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
Chapter 6: Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)
Overview
Essential Early Literacy
and Reading Skill
None
Administration
Time
1 minute
Administration
Schedule
Beginning of kindergarten to beginning of rst grade
Score
Number of letters named correctly in 1 minute
Wait Rule
If the student does not name a letter within 3 seconds, mark a slash (/)
through the letter and say the correct letter name.
Discontinue
Rule
No letters named correctly in the rst row
What is LNF?
Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) is a brief, direct measure of a student’s uency in naming letters. LNF assesses
a student’s ability to recognize individual letters and say their letter names. Using standardized directions, the
assessor presents a page of uppercase and lowercase letters arranged in random order and asks the student
to name the letters. The assessor marks letter names that are read incorrectly or skipped. The total score is
the number of correct letter names that the student says in 1 minute.
The purpose of LNF is to measure students’ automaticity with letter naming. Fluency in naming letters is a
strong and robust predictor of later reading achievement (Adams, 1990). The purpose of LNF is to measure
uency rather than identify which letters the student knows or does not know, so while all letters are included
on the LNF materials, they appear in random order. As such, it provides an added risk indicator for early
school-age children. Although it may be related to rapid automatized naming (RAN), it is not a measure of
RAN.
Because letter naming does not appear to be critical for achieving reading outcomes, it is not an essential early
literacy and reading skill. Therefore, a benchmark goal is not provided. As an indicator of risk, scores on LNF
should be used in conjunction with scores on other measures, especially at the beginning of kindergarten.
LNF is a strong and robust predictor of later reading achievement but is not a powerful instructional target, i.e.,
focusing instruction on letter names should not be expected to lead to better reading outcomes. For students at
60Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
risk, the primary instructional goals should be developing phonological awareness skills and gaining knowledge
about the alphabetic principle.
Materials
• Scoring Booklet
• Student materials
• Pen/pencil
• Clipboard
• Stopwatch
Administration Directions
Follow these directions exactly each time with each student. Say the words in bold italic type verbatim. Begin
with the practice activities. The practice activities are designed to introduce the assessment task to the student.
They are untimed and include correction procedures. The correction procedures are not used once the testing
begins. Put the student copy of the materials in front of the student and say the following:
I am going to show you some letters. I want you to point to each letter and say its name. (Put the
page of letters in front of the student.)
Begin testing. Start here (point to the rst letter at the top of the page). Go this way (sweep your nger
across the rst two rows of letters) and say each letter name. Put your nger under the rst letter
(point). Ready, begin.
1. Start your stopwatch after you say begin.
2. During the testing:
• Follow along in the scoring booklet. Mark a slash ( ) through any skipped letter or letter read
incorrectly.
• At the end of 1 minute, put a bracket after the last letter named and tell the student to Stop. If the
student completes the assessment before 1 minute, stop testing and record the student’s score.
Scores are not prorated.
3. Immediately after testing:
• Reset the stopwatch for the next measure.
• Mark LNF response patterns and make a note in the scoring booklet about any patterns in student
responses that were not captured by the marking procedures.
4. At a later time (shortly after testing but when you are no longer with the student) compute the nal score:
• Add the number of correct letters and record the number on the Total line of the LNF scoring page.
• Record the score on the front page of the scoring booklet.
61Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)Acadience
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Scoring Rules
The student receives 1 point for each letter correctly named in 1 minute.
1. Do not mark letters named correctly. Young students sometimes confuse the lowercase L with
uppercase I. Give the student a point for naming the lowercase L as either an L or an I. Do not give
the student a point for calling it a number 1.
2. Mark a slash ( ) through any letter the student names incorrectly, skips, or does not name within
3 seconds.
3. Write “sc” above any letter that had been previously slashed and was self-corrected within 3 seconds.
Count the self-corrected response as correct.
4. Draw a line through any row the student skips. Do not count the row when scoring.
Discontinue Rule
Discontinue administering LNF if the student does not correctly name any letters in the rst row. Tell the student
to Stop. Record a score of 0 on the Total line on the scoring page and in the LNF score box on the cover page
of the student booklet.
Wait Rule
Wait 3 seconds for the student to respond. If the student does not name a letter within 3 seconds, mark a slash
( ) through the letter and say the correct letter name.
Reminders
If the student names letters from top to bottom, or points randomly, say Go this way. (Sweep your nger across
the row). This reminder may be given only once.
If the student skips four or more consecutive letters, but does not skip the whole row, say Try to say each letter
name. This reminder may be given only once.
If the student says letter sounds rather than letter names, say Say the letter name, not its sound. If the student
continues saying letter sounds, mark each letter as incorrect and indicate the pattern of response at the bottom
of the page. This reminder may be given only once.
If the student stops and it is not a hesitation on a specic item, say Keep going. This reminder may be used as
often as needed.
If the student loses his/her place, point. This reminder may be used as often as needed.
Note:
Students are not penalized for differences in pronunciation due to dialect, articulation delays or impairments,
or speaking a rst language other than English.
62Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)Acadience
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Examples of Scoring Rules
The following are examples of how to score responses on LNF. Please pay attention to the notes included with the
examples as they provide scoring explanations and indicate variations and nuances related to the scoring. The
examples do not encompass all possible responses. If in doubt about how to score a student response, refer to
the scoring rules on the previous page.
Scoring Rule 1: Do not mark any letter the student names correctly.
Example:
Student response
B...N...r...d...W...u...H...eth...I...thea
How to
score
B N r d W u H s l Z
Total: _________
10
Notes: In the font used on LNF, the lowercase L may look like an uppercase I. Give the student
a point for naming the lowercase L as either an L or an I. Do not give the student a point for
calling it a number 1. Students are not penalized for differences in pronunciation due to dialect,
articulation delays or impairments, or for pronunciations due to speaking a rst language other
than English.
Scoring Rule 2: Mark a slash ( ) through any letter the student names incorrectly, skips, or does not
name within 3 seconds.
Example:
Student response
B...M...r...d...u.../h/...(assessor says, “Say the letter name, not its
sound”)...s...l...(3 seconds)...(assessor says, “Z”)...Z
How to
score
B N r d W u H s l Z
Total: _________
6
Note: The rst time the student says a letter sound rather than the letter name, say Say the
letter name, not its sound. This reminder may be used only once.
63Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)Acadience
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Scoring Rule 3: Write “sc” above any letter that had been previously slashed and was self-corrected
within 3 seconds. Count the self-corrected response as correct.
Example:
Student response
B...N...r...b...I mean d...W...u...H...s...l...Z
How to
score
B N r d W u H s l Z
Total: _________
10
SC
Scoring Rule 4: Draw a line through any row the student skips.
Example:
Student response
B...N...r...d...W...u...H...s...l...Z...
U...h...k...d...S...K...q...O...n...P
How to
score
B N r d W u H s l Z
e T o V m z p G C a
U h k d S K q O n P
Total: _________
20
64Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)Acadience
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Model LNF Scoring Sheet
The following is an example of a completed scoring sheet. The scoring rules and scoring calculation are shown. This
scoring sheet serves as a model and can be used during training and practice to support accurate administration
and scoring of Acadience Reading.
1
LAcadience etter Naming Fluency
T B x g e V Z R Q k
H I J y u f a S z t
w N L d s U G r i D
W q E h n c l m j O
C P X F b Y K A v M
p o P I R i d G o j
x L T E f y B n A w
r N v s a C u Z H e
Q K h b Y J l z X U
p F O g k D q t m S
W c M V T B x g e V
Total Correct: _________
LNF Response Patterns:
Makes random errors Doesn’t track correctly
Other
Says letter sound instead of letter name
sc
34
X X
65Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
What is phonemic awareness?
Phonemic awareness is the explicit awareness that spoken words
are made up of individual sounds or phonemes. A phoneme is the
smallest sound unit into which speech can be divided that makes a
difference to the meaning of the word (National Reading Panel, 2000).
Phonemic awareness involves the ability to attend to and manipulate
these phonemes in spoken words. For example, the knowledge that
the word dog begins with the sound /d/ is phonemic awareness. The
ability to replace the /d/ sound at the beginning of dog with the /h/
sound to make the word hog is also phonemic awareness. Phonemic
awareness is an auditory skill that does not require knowledge of the
letters of the alphabet or letter-sound knowledge, thus it is not the
same as phonics.
A convergence of research on the acquisition of reading skills
has demonstrated that phonemic awareness is highly predictive
of success in learning to read (Gillon, 2004; Stahl & Murray, 2006).
Additionally, effective instruction in phonemic awareness leads to
signicant differences in reading achievement (Ehri, 2004; National
Reading Panel, 2000). Most reading researchers advocate that
phonemic awareness be purposefully and explicitly taught as part of a
comprehensive instructional program in reading and writing.
Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skill Acadience Reading Measure
Phonemic Awareness
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency
66Acadience
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Chapter 7: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)
Overview
Essential Early Literacy
and Reading Skill
Phonemic Awareness
Administration
Time
1 minute
Administration
Schedule
Middle of kindergarten to beginning of rst grade
Score
Number of correct sound segments (different, correct parts of the words) the
student says in 1 minute
Wait Rule If the student does not respond within 3 seconds, say the next word.
Discontinue
Rule
Zero correct sound segments in the rst ve words
What is PSF?
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) is a brief, direct measure of phonemic awareness. PSF assesses
the student’s uency in segmenting a spoken word into its component parts or sound segments. Using
standardized directions, the assessor says a word and asks the student to say the sounds in the word. The
assessor underlines each correct sound segment of the word that the student says. Appendix D provides a
pronunciation guide for how individual sounds are represented on the PSF measure. A correct sound segment
is any different, correct part of the word the student says. The total score is the number of correct sound
segments that the student says in 1 minute. For example, if the assessor says the word sh and the student says
/f/ /i/ /sh/, the student has completely and correctly segmented the word into its component sounds and the
score is 3 correct sound segments. If the student says /f/ /ish/, the score is 2 correct sound segments.
Partial credit is given for partial segmentation. A student who is developing phonemic awareness may not yet
segment words completely into individual sounds but may segment parts of words. For example, a student
who says the rst sound of the word sun (/s/) receives 1 point. A student who says the onset and rime
(/s/ /un/) receives 2 points and a student who completely and correctly segments all of the individual phonemes
in the word (/s/ /u/ /n/) receives 3 points. Note that consonant blends have two or more phonemes that should
be produced separately for a student to receive full credit. For example, for the word trap, a student who says
/tr/ /a/ /p/ receives partial credit of 3 points, and a student who says /t/ /r/ /a/ /p/ receives the full 4 points.
Allowing partial credit in scoring increases the sensitivity of the measure, thus making it possible to measure
67Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)Acadience
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growth from partial to complete segmentation. Although partial credit is given, the preferred response is for
students to completely segment words at the phoneme level by the end of kindergarten.
Materials
• Scoring Booklet
• Pen/pencil
• Clipboard
• Stopwatch
Administration Directions
Follow these directions exactly each time with each student. Say the words in bold italic type verbatim. Begin
with the practice activities. The practice activities are designed to introduce the assessment task to the student.
They are untimed and include correction procedures. The correction procedures are not used once the testing
begins.
We are going to say the sounds in words. Listen to me say all the sounds in the word “fan.” /f/ /a/ /n/.
Listen to another word, (pause) “jump.” /j/ /u/ /m/ /p/. Your turn. Say all the sounds in “soap.”
Correct
response
/s/ /oa/ /p/
Very good saying all the sounds in “soap.”
(Begin testing.)
Incorrect
response
anything other
than /s/ /oa/ /p/
I said “soap,” so you say /s/ /oa/ /p/. Your turn. Say
all the sounds in “soap.”
Correct
response
Good.
(Begin
testing.)
Incorrect
response
Okay.
(Begin
testing.)
Begin testing. I am going to say more words. I will say the word, and you say all the sounds in the
word. (Say the rst word from the list in the scoring booklet.)
1. Say the rst word and start your stopwatch.
2. During the testing:
• Present the words to the student one at a time by reading across the row.
• As the student responds, underline each correct sound segment the student says. A sound segment
is dened as each different, correct part of the word. Leave omitted sounds blank. Circle repeated
words.
• As soon as the student nishes saying the sounds of the word, say the next word promptly and
clearly. If the student indicates that he/she did not hear the word, you may repeat it.
• Continue to say words one at a time and score the student’s responses for 1 minute.
• At the end of 1 minute, put a bracket after the last sound segment the student said. Stop presenting
words and do not score any student responses after 1 minute. If the student is in the middle of a
response at the end of 1 minute, you may allow the student to nish his/her response, but place the
bracket where the minute ended and do not count any sound segments after the end of the minute.
If the student completes the assessment before 1 minute, stop testing and record the student’s score.
Scores are not prorated.
68Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)Acadience
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3. Immediately after testing:
• Reset the stopwatch for the next measure.
• Mark PSF Response Patterns and make a note in the scoring booklet about any patterns in student
responses that were not captured by the marking procedures.
4. At a later time (shortly after the testing but when you are no longer with the student) compute the nal score:
• Add the number of correct sound segments (i.e., underlined parts of words) for each row and record
the number in the space provided at the right side of each row.
• Add the number of correct sound segments from all rows and record the total number on the Total
line of the PSF scoring page.
• Record the score on the cover page.
Scoring Rules
The student receives 1 point for each different, correct sound segment produced in
1 minute.
1. Underline each correct sound segment the student says. A correct sound segment is any correct part
of the word. To be correct, the sound segment must be a correct part of the word in its entirety. For
example, /m/ /ma/ /a/ /an/ /n/ are all correct parts of the word man. /mae/ is not a correct part of the
word man even though it contains /m/. Blended sounds or partial segmentation should be underlined
exactly as the student said the sounds, and given 1 point per underline.
2. Mark a slash ( ) through any incorrect sound segment. Score the entire sound segment as correct
or incorrect.
3. Circle the word if the student repeats the word without saying any sound segments.
4. Leave blank any sounds the student omits.
5. Write “sc” over any corrected sound segments that had previously been slashed if the student self-
corrects an error within 3 seconds.
Discontinue Rule
Discontinue administering PSF if the student has not said any correct sound segments in the rst ve words.
Record a score of 0 for the total number of correct sound segments on the Total line on the scoring page and in
the PSF score box on the cover page of the student booklet.
Wait Rule
Wait 3 seconds for the student to respond. If the student does not respond within 3 seconds, say the next word.
Reminders
If the student spells the word, say Say the sounds in the word. This reminder may be given only once.
If the student repeats the word, say Remember to say all the sounds in the word. This reminder may be given
only once.
69Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)Acadience
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Notes:
1. Schwa sounds (/u/) added to consonants are not counted as errors. Some phonemes cannot be pronounced
correctly in isolation without a vowel, and some early learning of sounds includes the schwa.
2. Students may elongate the individual sounds and get credit if you judge that they have awareness of each
individual sound in the word (e.g., they have held each sound for approximately 1 second).
3. Students are not penalized for differences in pronunciation due to dialect, articulation delays or impairments,
or speaking a rst language other than English.
Examples of Scoring Rules
The following are examples of how to score responses on PSF. The examples do not encompass all possible
responses. If in doubt about how to score a student response, refer to the scoring rules above. Please pay
attention to the notes included with the examples as they provide scoring explanations and indicate variations
and nuances related to the scoring.
Scoring Rule 1: Underline each correct sound segment a student says. Correct sound segments are
different, correct parts of the word. Blended sounds or partially correct segments should be underlined
exactly as the student said them, and 1 point given per underline.
Examples:
Words Student response How to score
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
4
3
ag /f/.../l/.../a/.../g/
sit /s/.../i/.../t/
Note: The student completely segments the words at the individual phoneme level.
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
1
2
2
ag /f/
ag /fla/.../g/
sit /s/.../it/
Note: The student says only some of the sounds in the word or combines sounds. The student
does not receive credit for sound segments that are not said.
70Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)Acadience
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Words Student response How to score
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
2
3
4
ag /fla/.../ag/
sit /si/.../i/.../it/
ag /f/.../l/.../la/.../a/.../g/
Note: If the student repeats a sound in adjacent segments, the student receives credit as long as
each segment is a different, correct part of the word. The student cannot receive more points for a
word than the maximum number of phonemes in the word. This is an uncommon response pattern,
and not as desirable as /f/ /l/ /a/ /g/.
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
4
3
2
ag /f/.../l/.../a/.../g/.../s/
sit /s/.../p/.../i/.../t/
sit /sp/.../i/.../t/
Note: Added sounds are disregarded in scoring if they are separated from the other sounds in the
word. If a student consistently adds sounds to words, make a note and follow up to determine why
this is happening.
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
4
3
ag /fu/.../lu/.../a/.../gu/
sit /su/.../i/.../tu/
Note: Schwa sounds (/u/) added to a sound are not counted as errors. If a student consistently
adds the schwa sound, make a note.
71Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)Acadience
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Words Student response How to score
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
4
3
ag ffffllllaaaag
sit ssssiiiit
Note: The student receives full credit for elongating sounds, if that is how he/she is being taught to
segment sounds in words, and the assessor judges that the student demonstrates awareness of
each individual sound in the word.
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
this
/TH/ /i/ /s/
/3
4
3
ag /f/.../w/.../a/.../g/
this /d/.../i/.../s/
Note: There is no penalty for articulation errors or dialect differences when assessing a student.
For example, a student with an articulation delay who consistently says /w/ for /l/ would not be
penalized for this pronunciation. A student who speaks a dialect and consistently says /d/ for
/TH/ would not be penalized for this pronunciation. Many other examples of articulation errors and
dialect differences are possible.
Scoring Rule 2: Mark a slash ( ) through any incorrect sound segment. Score the entire sound
segment as correct or incorrect.
Examples:
Words Student response How to score
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
3
2
ag /f/.../l/.../a/.../p/
sit /s/.../if/.../t/
Note: The sound segment is judged in its entirety to be correct or incorrect. For example, if the
word is sit and the student says /s/…/if/…/t/, mark a slash through the /i/ because there is no /if/
sound in the word sit.
72Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)Acadience
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Scoring Rule 3: Circle the word if the student repeats the word without providing any sound segments.
Examples:
Words Student response How to score
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
0
0
1
ag ag
sit sit
ag /f/..ag
Note: If the student says a sound segment and then repeats the entire word, underline the
corresponding sound(s) and circle the word. The student receives credit for any correct sound
segments.
Scoring Rule 4: Leave blank any omitted sounds.
Examples:
Words Student response How to score
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
3
2
flag /f/.../l/.../g/
sit /s/.../t/
73Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)Acadience
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Scoring Rule 5: Write “sc” over any corrected sound segments that had previously been slashed if the
student self-corrects an error within 3 seconds.
Examples:
Words Student response How to score
Score
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
sit
/s/ /i/ /t/
/3
/f/ /l/ /a/ /g/
/4
4
3
4
sc sc
sc
flag
eff…ell…
/f/.../l/.../a/.../g/
sit
/s/.../a/...I mean...
/i/.../t/
ag
/fl/...
/f/.../l/.../a/.../g/
See Appendix F for Practice Scoring Sheet and Answer Key.
74Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)Acadience
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Model PSF Scoring Sheet
The following is an example of a completed scoring sheet. The scoring rules and scoring calculation are shown. This
scoring sheet serves as a model and can be used during training and practice to support accurate administration
and scoring of Acadience Reading.
3
PAcadience honeme Segmentation Fluency
Score
boat
/b/ /oa/ /t/
log
/l/ /o/ /g/
stuff
/s/ /t/ /u/ /f/
judge
/j/ /u/ /j/
black
/b/ /l/ /a/ /k/
cane
/k/ /ai/ /n/
verbs
/v/ /ir/ /b/ /z/
near
/n/ /ea/ /r/
run
/r/ /u/ /n/
seeds
/s/ /ea/ /d/ /z/
have
/h/ /a/ /v/
much
/m/ /u/ /ch/
clue
/k/ /l/ /oo/
wet
/w/ /e/ /t/
met
/m/ /e/ /t/
new
/n/ /oo/
hill
/h/ /i/ /l/
groups
/g/ /r/ /oo/ /p/ /s/
knife
/n/ /ie/ /f/
bill
/b/ /i/ /l/
shake
/sh/ /ai/ /k/
plane
/p/ /l/ /ai/ /n/
own
/oa/ /n/
ball
/b/ /o/ /l/
Total: _____________
PSF Response Patterns:
Repeats word
Makes random errors
Says initial sound only
Says onset rime
Does not segment blends
Adds sounds
Other
/13
/14
/13
/11
/14
/12
some difficulty on vowel sounds and ending sounds
10
11
10
9
6
46
sc
75Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual
What are the alphabetic principle and basic phonics?
In order for students to learn how to read in an alphabetic writing system,
they must rst be able to map individual speech sounds to symbols. In the
case of written English, these symbols are letters. Unlocking the reading
code begins when associations are made between letters and sounds.
The alphabetic principle is comprised of two parts:
• Alphabetic understanding: Knowledge of letter-sound
correspondences and the understanding that letters represent
sounds in spoken words.
• Phonological recoding: The use of alphabetic understanding to
decode or read unknown words.
Phonics is the system of letter-sound relationships that is the foundation
for decoding words in print. Phonics skills must be explicitly taught
and practiced (Ehri, 1991; Liberman & Liberman, 1990). A student’s
understanding of the alphabetic principle and basic phonics begins rst
by using letter-sound correspondences to segment and then blend simple
CVC words, or to retrieve these correspondences to spell a word.
It is the automaticity with the sequences of letter sounds comprising
frequent words and spelling patterns that enables skillful readers to process
text quickly and easily (Adams, 1990). Development of the alphabetic
principle and basic phonics is essential for decoding unknown words
(Adams, 1990; Ehri, 2002) and for developing the sight-word vocabulary
necessary for uent reading (Share, 1995; Share & Stanovich, 1995).
Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skills Acadience Reading Measure
Alphabetic Principle and Basic Phonics
Nonsense Word Fluency
–Correct Letter Sounds
–Whole Words Read
76Acadience
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Chapter 8: Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)
Overview
Essential Early Literacy
and Reading Skills
Alphabetic Principle and Basic Phonics
Administration
Time
1 minute
Administration
Schedule
Middle of kindergarten to beginning of second grade
Scores
• Number of Correct Letter Sounds (CLS)
• Number of Whole Words Read (WWR) without sounding out
Wait Rule
If the student responds sound-by-sound, mixes sounds and words, or sounds
out and recodes, allow 3 seconds, then provide the correct letter sound.
If the student responds with whole words, allow 3 seconds, then provide the
correct word.
Discontinue
Rule
No correct letter sounds in the rst row
What is NWF?
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) is a brief, direct measure of the alphabetic principle and basic phonics.
It assesses knowledge of basic letter-sound correspondences and the ability to blend letter sounds into
consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) and vowel-consonant (VC) words. The test items used for NWF are
phonetically regular make-believe (nonsense or pseudo) words. To successfully complete the NWF task,
students must rely on their knowledge of letter-sound correspondences and how to blend sounds into whole
words. One reason that nonsense word measures are considered to be a good indicator of the alphabetic
principle is that “pseudo-words have no lexical entry, [and thus] pseudo-word reading provides a relatively
pure assessment of students’ ability to apply grapheme-phoneme knowledge in decoding” (Rathvon, 2004,
p. 138).
Following a model and a practice item, the student is presented with a sheet of randomly ordered VC and
CVC nonsense words (e.g., dif, ik, nop). Standardized directions are used to ask the student to read the make-
believe words the best they can, reading either the whole word or saying any sounds they know. For example,
if the stimulus word is tof, the student could say /t/ /o/ /f/ or “tof.” The assessor underlines each correct letter
sound produced either in isolation or blended together. Whole words read without sounding out are underlined
in their entirety.
77Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)Acadience
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There are two separate scores reported for NWF:
1. Correct Letter Sounds (CLS) is the number of letter sounds produced correctly in 1 minute. For example, if
the student reads dif as /d/ /i/ /f/ the score for Correct Letter Sounds is 3. If the student reads dif as /di/ /f/ or
“dif,” the score is also 3.
2. Whole Words Read (WWR) is the number of make-believe words read correctly as a whole word, one time
and only one time, without rst being sounded out. For example, if the student reads dif as “dif,” the score is
3 points for CLS and 1 point for WWR, but if the student reads dif as “/d/ /i/ /f/ dif,” the score is 3 points for
CLS but 0 points for WWR.
The goal is for students to read whole words on NWF; however, an advantage of NWF is that it allows for
monitoring the development of the alphabetic principle and basic phonics as early as the middle of kindergarten,
when producing individual letter sounds is the more common response.
Materials
• Scoring Booklet
• Student materials
• Pen/pencil
• Clipboard
• Stopwatch
Administration Directions
Follow these directions exactly each time with each student. Say the words in bold italic type verbatim. Begin
with the practice activities. The practice activities are designed to introduce the assessment task to the student.
They are untimed and include correction procedures. The correction procedures are not used once the testing
begins. Put the student copy of the materials in front of the student and say the following:
We are going to read some make-believe words. Listen. This word is “sog.” (Run your nger under the
word as you say it.) The sounds are /s/ /o/ /g/ (point to each letter). Your turn. Read this make-believe
word (point to the word “mip”). If you can’t read the whole word, tell me any sounds you know.
Correct Whole Word Read
mip
Very good reading the word “mip.”
(Begin testing.)
Correct Letter Sounds
Any other response with all
the correct letter sounds
Very good. /m/ /i/ /p/ (point to each
letter) or “mip” (run your nger under
the word as you say it).
(Begin testing.)
Incorrect response
No response within
3 seconds, or response
includes any errors
Listen. /m/ /i/ /p/ or “mip.” (Run your
nger under the letters as you say the
sounds.) Your turn. Read this make-
believe word. (Point to the word “mip.”) If
you can’t read the whole word, tell me
any sounds you know.
Correct
response
Very
good.
(Begin
testing.)
Incorrect
response
Okay.
(Begin
testing.)
Begin testing. I would like you to read more make-believe words. Do your best reading. If you can’t
read the whole word, tell me any sounds you know. (Place the student copy in front of the student.) Put
your nger under the rst word. Ready, begin.
78Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)Acadience
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1. Start the stopwatch after you say begin.
2. During the testing:
• Underline each correct letter sound the student says either in isolation or blended together. Use
separate underlines to indicate reading sound-by-sound and a continuous underline to indicate
blending together two or three sounds.
• Mark a slash ( ) through any letter sound read incorrectly.
• At the end of 1 minute, place a bracket after the last letter sound produced (even if it’s in the middle of
a nonsense word), say Stop, and stop the stopwatch. If the student completes the assessment before
1 minute, stop testing and record the student’s score. Scores are not prorated.
3. Immediately after testing:
• Reset the stopwatch for the next measure.
• Make a note in the scoring booklet about any patterns in student responses that were not captured
by the marking procedures.
4. At a later time (shortly after the testing when you are no longer with the student) compute the nal score:
• Record the total number of correct letter sounds (CLS) on the Total Correct Letter Sounds line of
the NWF scoring page.
• Record the total number of whole words read correctly (WWR) on the Total Whole Words Read line
of the NWF scoring page.
• Record each score in the appropriate box on the front page of the scoring booklet.
Scoring Rules
Correct Letter Sounds (CLS): The student receives credit for 1 CLS for each correct letter sound
read in isolation or read as part of a make-believe word.
Whole Words Read (WWR): The student receives credit for 1 WWR for each whole word read
correctly, one time and only one time, without rst being sounded out.
1. Underline each letter sound the student says correctly, either in isolation or blended with other sounds
in the word. For CLS, score the student’s nal answer. For WWR, give credit only if the student’s rst
and only answer was to read the whole word correctly without rst sounding it out.
2. Mark a slash ( ) through any incorrect letter sound.
3. Leave blank any omitted letter sounds or words. When a student is reading sound-by-sound, leave
blank any inserted letter sounds. When the student is reading word-by-word, slash the underline to
indicate any inserted letter sounds.
4. Write “sc” above any letter sound that had been previously slashed and was self-corrected within
3 seconds. Count that letter sound as correct. Credit is given for WWR only when the student reads
the whole word completely and correctly the rst time, and reads the word only once.
5. Draw a line through any row the student skips. Do not count the row when scoring.
79Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)Acadience
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Discontinue Rule
Discontinue administering NWF if the student has not said any correct letter sounds in the rst row. Record a score
of 0 on the Total line on the scoring page and in the NWF score box on the cover page of the student booklet.
Wait Rule
Wait 3 seconds for the student to respond. If the student has been responding sound-by-sound, mixing sounds
and words, or by sounding out and recoding, allow 3 seconds, then provide the correct letter sound.
If the student has been responding by reading the words as whole words, allow 3 seconds, then provide the
correct word.
If the student hesitates in the middle of a word, wait 3 seconds, then provide the correct letter sound.
If providing the correct letter sound or word does not prompt the student to continue, say Keep going.
Reminders
If the student does not read from left to right, say Go this way. (Sweep your nger across the row.) This reminder
may be given only once.
If the student says letter names, say Say the sounds, not the letter names. This reminder may be given only once.
If the student reads the word rst, then says the letter sounds, say Just read the word. This reminder may be
given only once.
If the student says all of the letter sounds correctly in the rst row, but does not attempt to blend or recode, say
Try to read the words as whole words.
If the student stops (and it’s not a hesitation on a specic item), say Keep going. This reminder may be used as
often as needed.
If the student loses his/her place, point. This reminder may be used as often as needed.
Notes:
1. Schwa sounds (/u/) added to consonants are not counted as errors when the student is saying letter sounds.
Some phonemes cannot be pronounced correctly in isolation without a vowel, and some early learning of
sounds includes the schwa.
2. Students are not penalized for differences in pronunciation due to dialect, articulation delays or impairments,
or speaking a rst language other than English.
3. Sometimes students sound out a word quietly or silently before reading it as a whole word. In those cases,
we use the following guideline to minimize subjectivity in scoring. In order to determine that a student is
sounding out the word, you have to hear them do it. This means that if you hear students sound out the
word, they do not get credit for WWR. If students move their lips, nod their heads, or indicate in some other
way they might be sounding out the word, but you do not hear them sound out the word, they get credit for
WWR. Do make a note of your observations to inform instruction, however, as these students are not yet
fully automatic in their decoding.
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Examples of Scoring Rules
The following are examples of how to score responses on NWF. The examples do not encompass all possible
responses. If in doubt about how to score a student response, refer to the scoring rules on the previous page.
Please pay attention to the notes included with the examples as they provide scoring explanations and indicate
variations and nuances related to the scoring.
Scoring Rule 1: Underline each letter sound the student says correctly, either in isolation or blended
with other sounds in the word. For CLS, score the student’s nal answer. For WWR, give credit only if the
student’s rst and only answer was to read the whole word correctly without rst sounding it out.
Examples:
Student response /k/.../i/.../f/ /u/.../k/ /s/.../e/.../b/
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
8 0
Note: Use separate underlines under each correct sound if the student correctly says the letter
sounds in isolation but does not recode the sounds into words.
Student response kif uc seb
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
8 3
Note: Use a continuous underline under all of the sounds if the student says all of the correct letter
sounds and says them as a whole word.
Student response /k/.../if/ /u/.../k/ /se/.../b/
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
8 0
Note: Underline exactly the way the student says the sounds for partially blended words.
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Student response /k/.../i/.../f/...kif /u/.../k/...uc /s/.../eb/...seb
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
8 0
Note: Indicate exactly the way the student reads the word, even if multiple rows of underlines are
required. Score the student’s nal answer for CLS. This pattern is sounding out and recoding,
and is not scored as a whole word read. Credit is given for WWR only when the student reads the
whole word completely and correctly the rst time.
Student response
/k/.../i/.../k/.../if/.../kif/
/uk/.../u/.../k/
/seb/.../seb/
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
8 0
Note: If the student repeats the letter sounds while sounding out a word, show it with multiple
underlines but give credit for each sound only once. To receive a point for WWR, the student must
read the whole word correctly the rst time, and read the word only once.
Student response
/f/.../i/.../k/ (student points correctly)
/k/.../u/ (student points correctly)
/b/.../e/.../s/ (student doesn’t point correctly)
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
6 0
Note: Letter sounds said correctly in isolation but out of order are scored as correct if the student
points correctly to the letter(s). The purpose of this rule is to give students credit as they are
beginning to learn individual letter-sound correspondences.
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Student response fik ku bes
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
2 0
Note: Blended sounds must be in the correct position to receive credit. Give credit if the medial
vowel is produced correctly, even within a word with other incorrect sounds. No credit is given for
WWR. Although the sounds were blended together, they were not in the correct order.
Student response /k/.../i/.../v/ uc theb
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
8 2
Note: Students are not penalized for articulation errors when the error is known to the assessor
and is part of the student’s typical speech. If in doubt, score it as incorrect. If necessary, have the
student retested by someone familiar with his/her speech or articulation pattern.
Student response /ku/.../i/.../fu/ /u/.../ku/ seb
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
8 1
Note: Students are not penalized for putting a schwa sound after consonants.
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Scoring Rule 2: Mark a slash ( ) through any incorrect letter sound.
Examples:
Student response /k/.../i/.../p/ /i/.../k/ sed
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
5 0
Student response /k/.../ie/.../f/ /u/.../s/ seab
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
5 0
Note: The student gets credit for saying the most common sound for each letter according to basic
phonics rules. Vowels should be pronounced with the short vowel sound.
Student response
/k/...(3 seconds)...(assessor says, “/i/”).../f/
/u/.../k/
/s/.../e/...(3 seconds)...(assessor says, “/b/”).../b/
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
6 0
Note: If the student is reading individual letter sounds and hesitates for more than 3 seconds,
provide the letter sound and mark it as incorrect.
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Student response kif...(3 seconds)...(assessor says, “uc”)...seb
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
6 2
Note: If the student is reading whole words and hesitates for more than 3 seconds, provide the
word and score it as incorrect. Mark a slash through any letters or words that were told to the
student because they were not read within 3 seconds.
Student response /k/.../i/.../f/...kef /u/.../k/...ic /s/.../e/.../b/...sib
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
5 0
Note: Score the student’s nal answer for CLS.
Scoring Rule 3: Leave blank any omitted letter sounds or words. When a student is reading sound-by-
sound, leave blank any inserted letter sounds. When the student is reading word-by-word, slash the
underline to indicate any inserted letter sounds.
Examples:
Student response kif...se...ak...foj...tem
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
5 1
8 3
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Student response
/k/.../f/
ak
/u/.../k/
folj
/s/.../t/.../e/.../b/
stem
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
7 0
8 1
Note: Leave blank any inserted sounds. If inserting sounds is a frequent response, make a note in
the margin of the student scoring booklet. No credit is given for WWR when a sound is inserted.
Put a slash through the underline to indicate inserted sounds when the student is reading word-
by-word.
Scoring Rule 4: Write “sc” above any letter sound that had been previously slashed and was self-
corrected within 3 seconds. Count that letter sound as correct. No credit is given for WWR unless the
student reads the whole word completely and correctly the rst time, and reads the word only once.
Examples:
Student response
/k/.../e/.../f/...I mean /k/.../i/.../f/
ic...uc
sed...I mean...seb
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
8 0
sc sc sc
Note: Give students credit on CLS for self-corrects within 3 seconds.
Student response /k/.../e/.../f/...kif /oo/.../k/...uc /s/.../i/.../b/...seb
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
8 0
sc sc sc
Note: Score the student’s nal answer for CLS. If the word is not read completely and correctly the
rst time, then no credit is given for WWR.
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Scoring Rule 5: Draw a line through any row the student skips. Do not count the row when scoring.
Example:
Student response
kif
wij
uc
lan
seb
zug
How to score
CLS WWR
k i f u c s e b
/8
(8)
a k f o j t e m
/8
(16)
w i j l a n z u g
/9
(25)
8
0
3
0
9 3
See Appendix F for Practice Scoring Sheet and Answer Key.
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Model NWF Scoring Sheet
The following is an example of a completed scoring sheet. The scoring rules and scoring calculation are shown. This
scoring sheet serves as a model and can be used during training and practice to support accurate administration and
scoring of Acadience Reading.
3
NAcadience onsense Word Fluency
CLS WWR
b a c r o z e m w u t d i l
p o j k i p z e d u j h a p
v e z s i g j o k n a d d u v
e n f u j z o p r a s t i k
a g w i c n o l n e g k u z
k e k v i v d o d p a v j u c
m u s a v w e c m i v d o p
t a c l i z v u l f o s e g
d i f t o v z e z n u s w a n
j a d o b h i z m e k n u m
NWF Response Patterns:
Total Correct Letter Sounds (CLS): _________
Total Whole Words Read (WWR): _________
Says correct sounds out of order
(sound-by-sound)
Makes random errors
Says correct sounds, does not recode Doesn’t track correctly
Says correct sounds, recodes out of order Tries to turn nonsense words into real words
Says correct sounds, recodes with
incorrect sound(s)
sound(s)
Says correct sounds and correctly
recodes
Other
/14
(14)
/14
(28)
/15
(43)
/14
(57)
/14
(71)
/15
(86)
/14
(100)
/14
(114)
/15
(129)
/14
(143)
14
14
1
14 1
13
59
8
3
4 1
2
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What are advanced phonics and word attack skills?
Advanced phonics skills are an extension of basic phonics skills such as letter-sound correspondence and
decoding of simple letter patterns and syllables. Advanced phonics includes skills such as recognizing common
sounds related to combinations of letters (e.g., digraphs, blends, vowel teams, trigraphs), understanding the way
the position of the letter(s) in a syllable or word affects the sound, and knowledge of affixes. Word attack skills
are the approach to pronouncing and knowing the meaning of a word through the application of phonics, the
use of context, and knowledge of morphology. Advanced phonics and word attack skills facilitate the accurate
and automatic reading of connected text.
What is accurate and uent reading of connected text?
Accuracy and uency with connected text, both critical components of skilled reading, allow meaning to be
gained from text. To read a text easily and make sense of it, a large percentage of the words must be decoded
effortlessly (Ehri, 1998). Reading uency depends on well-developed word attack skills (National Reading
Panel, 2000), efficient and automatic decoding of regular and irregular words, and the use of expression and
phrasing while reading aloud (Dowhower, 1991; Schreiber, 1987, 1991). Oral reading uency in connected
text is more than the accurate reading of words in lists and is not speed-reading. Oral reading uency can be
described as the bridge between accurate, automatic, word-level decoding and reading comprehension.
What is reading comprehension?
Reading comprehension represents the ultimate goal of instruction in the other essential early literacy and
reading skills. It is a complex collection of skills that includes accurate and uent reading, monitoring while
reading, and the ability to use cognitive strategies exibly to gain meaning from text (Goldman & Rakestraw,
2000; Pressley, 2000). While reading comprehension is dependent on decoding skills, decoding skills by
themselves are not enough (Adams, 1990). In addition to decoding, reading comprehension requires access
to linguistic knowledge about syntax, semantics, and word morphology (Catts & Kahmi, 1999; McGuinness,
2005); prior knowledge about words in a given context (Duke, Pressley & Hilden, 2004); and reasoning skill. It is
only through the skillful interplay of both bottom-up decoding skills and top-down meaning-making skills that the
student reads for meaning.
What is the relationship between oral reading uency and reading comprehension?
The relationship between oral reading uency and reading comprehension is strong and complex and has
been extensively researched (Crowder & Wagner, 1992; LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Perfetti, 1985; Wolf & Katzir-
Cohen, 2001). While a recognized relationship between oral reading uency and comprehension exists, more
research will further illuminate the nature of the reciprocal relationship. Reading uency by itself is not sufficient
for comprehension. Vocabulary and language knowledge also play a direct role in reading comprehension, and
overall vocabulary instruction does improve comprehension (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986). On the other hand, well-
developed vocabulary and oral language skills by themselves are also not sufficient for reading comprehension.
The student also must access the text uently and automatically.
Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skills Acadience Reading Measures
Advanced Phonics and Word Attack Skills
Oral Reading Fluency
–Accuracy
Accurate and Fluent Reading of Connected Text
Oral Reading Fluency
–Correct Words Per Minute
–Accuracy
Reading Comprehension
Oral Reading Fluency
–Correct Words Per Minute
–Retell Total/Quality of Response
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Chapter 9: Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
Overview
Essential Early
Literacy and
Reading Skills
Advanced Phonics and Word Attack Skills
Accurate and Fluent Reading of Connected Text
Reading Comprehension
Administration
Time
1 minute plus 1 minute maximum for Retell
Administration
Schedule
Middle of rst grade through end of sixth grade
Scores
• Median number of words correct per minute (Words Correct)
• Median number of errors per minute (Errors)
• Median number of correct words in the Retell
• Median Quality of Response for the Retell
Wait Rule
On ORF, 3 seconds; On Retell, rst hesitation 3 seconds
Discontinue
Rule
If no words are read correctly in the rst line, say Stop, record a score of 0, and
do not administer Retell.
If fewer than 10 words are read correctly on passage #1 during benchmark
assessment, do not administer Retell or passages #2 and #3.
If fewer than 40 words are read correctly on any passage, use professional
judgment whether to administer Retell for that passage.
What is ORF?
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) is a measure of advanced phonics and word attack skills, accurate and uent
reading of connected text, and reading comprehension. The ORF passages and procedures are based on
the program of research and development of Curriculum-Based Measurement of reading by Stan Deno and
colleagues at the University of Minnesota (Deno, 1989). There are two parts to ORF: orally reading a passage
and retelling the passage. For the oral reading part, students are given an unfamiliar, grade-level passage of
text and asked to read for 1 minute. Errors such as substitutions, omissions, and hesitations for more than 3
seconds are marked while listening to the student read aloud. For benchmark assessment, students are asked
to read three different grade-level passages for 1 minute each. The score is the median number of words read
correctly and the median number of errors across the three passages. Using the median score from three
passages gives the best indicator of student performance over a range of different text and content. The oral
reading part of the measure can be used from the middle of rst grade through the end of sixth grade.
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The passage Retell part of ORF follows the reading of each passage, provided that the student has read at
least 40 words correct per minute on a given passage. Passage Retell is intended to provide a comprehension
check for the ORF assessment, and provides an indication that the student is reading for meaning. With a
prompted passage Retell, the student is instructed to read for meaning. Speed-reading without attending to text
comprehension is undesirable and will be readily apparent in the student’s Retell.
Case studies have documented students who can read words but not comprehend what they read (Dewitz &
Dewitz, 2003). There is concern that students who display similar reading behavior will not be identied without
a comprehension check. Passage Retell provides an efficient procedure to identify those students who are not
able to talk about what they have just read. Inclusion of passage Retell also explicitly instructs students to be
reading uently for meaning. The quality of a student’s Retell provides valuable information about overall reading
prociency and oral language skills.
During Retell, the student is asked to tell about what he/she has read. Passage Retell provides a valuable
indicator of reading comprehension. The assessor indicates the number of words in the Retell that are related to
the passage by drawing through a box of numbers. Following a hesitation of 3 seconds, students are prompted
to tell as much as they can about the passage. If the student hesitates again for 5 seconds or longer, or if the
student is clearly responding for 5 seconds in a way that is not relevant to the passage, the task is discontinued.
The assessor must make a judgment about the relevance of the Retell to the passage. Retell can be used from
the middle of rst grade through the end of sixth grade. A quality of response rating allows the assessor to make
a qualitative rating of the quality of the student’s response. The rating should be based on how well the student
retold the portion of the passage that he/she read.
Materials
• Scoring Booklet
• Student materials
• Pen/pencil
• Clipboard
• Stopwatch
Administration Directions
For Oral Reading Fluency:
Follow these directions exactly each time with each student. Say the words in bold italic type verbatim. Put the
student copy of the reading passage in front of the student and say the following:
I would like you to read a story to me. Please do your best reading. If you do not know a word, I will
read the word for you. Keep reading until I say “stop.” Be ready to tell me all about the story when
you nish. (Place the passage in front of the student.)
Begin testing. Put your nger under the rst word (point to the rst word of the passage). Ready, begin.
1. Do not read the title to the student. If the student chooses to read the title, do not start the stopwatch until he/
she reads the rst word of the passage. If the student asks you to tell him/her a word in the title or struggles
with a word in the title for 3 seconds, say the word. Do not correct any errors the student makes while reading
the title.
2. Start the stopwatch after the student says the rst word of the passage. If the student is silent or struggles
for 3 seconds with the rst word of the passage, say the word, mark it as incorrect, and start the stopwatch.
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3. During benchmark assessment, three passages are administered if the student reads 10 or more words
correctly on the rst passage. When administering the second and third passages, use the following
shortened directions:
Now read this story to me. Please do your best reading. Ready, begin.
4. During the testing:
• Follow along in the student’s scoring booklet.
• Leave blank any words read correctly. Mark a slash ( ) through errors (including skipped words).
• The maximum wait time for each word is 3 seconds. If the student does not provide the word within
3 seconds, say the word and mark it as incorrect.
• During benchmark assessment, students read three different passages, for 1 minute each. If the
student reads fewer than 10 words correctly on the rst passage, record his/her score for words
correct and errors on the front cover of the booklet, and do not administer passages 2 and 3.
• At the end of 1 minute, place a bracket ( ] ) in the text after the last word provided by the student.
Say Stop and remove the passage. If the student completes the assessment before 1 minute, stop
testing and record the student’s score. Scores are not prorated.
Note: If the student is in the middle of a sentence at the end of 1 minute, you may allow the student to
nish the sentence, but score only the words said up to the end of 1 minute.
5. If the student reads 40 or more words correctly on the passage, have the student Retell what he/she has just
read using the directions provided below. If the student reads fewer than 40 words correctly on a passage,
use professional judgment whether to administer Retell for that passage.
For Retell:
1. Remove the passage from the student and say the following:
Now tell me as much as you can about the story you just read. Ready, begin.
2. Start the stopwatch and allow a maximum of 1 minute for the Retell.
3. The rst time the student stops or hesitates for 3 seconds, select one of the following:
• If the student has not said anything at all, provides a very limited response, or provides an off-track
response, say Tell me as much as you can about the story.
• Otherwise, ask Can you tell me anything more about the story? This reminder may be used only
once.
After the reminder, the next time the student hesitates or gets off track for 5 seconds, say Thank you,
discontinue the task, and record the score on the front of the student’s scoring booklet.
4. During the testing:
• As the student is responding, move your pen through the Retell numbers grid that appears after the
passage to count the number of words the student says that are related to the passage.
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• Stop moving your pen through the numbers if the student stops retelling the story or if his/her Retell
is not relevant to the story just read.
• If the student’s response goes on for more than 1 minute, say Thank you, discontinue the task, circle
the total number of words in the student’s Retell, and record the number on the Retell Total line.
• When the student has nished responding or has met the discontinue criteria, circle the total number
of words in the student’s Retell, and record the number on the Retell Total line.
After testing:
1. Immediately after testing:
• Score reading passages immediately after administration. Use the cumulative word count to determine
the total number of words read. Record that total on the Total Words line on the scoring page.
• Record the number of errors (including skipped words) on the Errors line on the scoring page.
• Subtract the number of errors from the total words to get the number of words correct and record it
on the Words Correct line.
• Use the Retell Quality of Response Rubric (below) to rate the quality of the student’s Retell
response, based on the portion of the passage that the student read. These ratings are not used for
determining the ORF score, but may be helpful for focusing additional comprehension assessment
or comprehension instruction. Circle the Retell Quality of Response Rating.
Quality of Response:
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
2
Provides 3 or more details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that captures a main idea
2. At a later time (shortly after the testing when you are no longer with the student) compute the student’s nal
ORF scores:
• During benchmark assessment, if the student reads three passages, record all three Words Correct
scores and all three error counts on the front cover of the student’s scoring booket, and circle the
median (middle) Words Correct score and median (middle) error count. For example, if the Words
Correct across the three passages are 42, 28, and 35, circle the 35. If the student’s errors are 4, 6,
and 7, circle the 6. If two scores are the same number, that number is the median. For example, if
the scores are 62, 58, and 62, the median is 62. If the student read fewer than 10 words correctly on
the rst passage during benchmark assessment and, thus, was not administered the second or third
passage, record the Words Correct and error count for the rst passage on the student’s scoring
booklet cover and circle them. Do not record scores for the second or third passage.
• During benchmark assessment, if the student provides a Retell after all three passages, record
all three Retell scores and all three Quality of Response values on the front cover of the student’s
scoring booklet and circle the median (middle) score and median (middle) Quality of Response. For
example, if the student’s Retell scores across the three passages are 12, 8, and 5, circle the 8. If two
scores are the same number, that number is the median. For example, if the Quality of Response
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values are 2, 3, and 2, the median is 2. If the student meets the criteria to engage in Retell on only
two passages, the median is the average of the two numbers. If the result is a decimal, round it to
the nearest whole number. If the student meets the criteria to engage in Retell on only one passage,
record the score on the cover of the student’s scoring booklet and circle it. Do not record Retell or
Quality of Response scores for passages for which Retell was not administered.
• Most data management services will calculate the student’s accuracy rate for you. To calculate the
accuracy yourself, use the following formula:
Accuracy = 100 x
median words correct
median words correct + median errors
Scoring Rules for ORF
The student receives 1 point for each word read correctly in 1 minute.
1. Leave blank any words the student reads correctly. Inserted words are not counted. To be counted
as correct, words must be read as whole words and pronounced correctly for the context of
the sentence.
2. Mark a slash ( ) through any errors. Errors include words read incorrectly, substitutions, skipped
words, hesitations of more than 3 seconds, words read out of order, and words that are sounded out
but not read as a whole word.
Discontinue Rule
Discontinue administering ORF if the student reads zero words correctly in the rst line of the rst passage.
Record a score of 0 on the “Total words” line on the scoring page and in the ORF Words Correct score box
on the front cover of the student’s scoring booklet. If the student reads fewer than 10 words correctly on the
rst passage during benchmark assessment, do not administer Retell or the second and third passages. If
the student reads fewer than 40 words correctly on any passage, use professional judgment on whether to
administer Retell for that passage.
Wait Rule
Wait 3 seconds for the student to respond. If the student hesitates for 3 seconds on a word, mark a slash
( ) through it and read the word to the student. If necessary, indicate for the student to continue with the next
word by pointing.
Reminders
If the student stops reading (and it’s not a hesitation on a specic item), say Keep going. This reminder may be
used as often as needed.
If the student loses her/his place while reading, point. This reminder may be used as often as needed.
Note:
Students are not penalized for differences in pronunciation due to dialect, articulation delays or impairments,
or for pronunciations due to speaking a rst language other than English.
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Examples of Scoring Rules
The following are examples of how to score responses on ORF. The examples do not encompass all possible
responses. If in doubt about how to score a student response, refer to the scoring rules above. Please pay
attention to the notes included with the examples as they provide scoring explanations and indicate variations
and nuances related to the scoring.
Scoring Rule 1: Leave blank any words the student reads correctly. Inserted words are not counted. To
be counted as correct, words must be read as whole words and pronounced correctly for the context of
the sentence.
Examples:
Student
response
It was hot at the beach.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
0
6
Student
response
It was hot at the /b/ /ea/ /ch/ beach.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
0
6
Note: To be counted as correct, the whole word must be read.
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Student
response
It was hot and sunny at the beach.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
0
6
Note: Inserted words are ignored and not counted as errors. The student does not get additional
credit for inserted words. If the student frequently inserts extra words, note the pattern at the
bottom of the scoring page.
Student
response
It was hot at the at the beach.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
0
6
Note: Words that are repeated and phrases that are re-read are not scored as incorrect and are
ignored in scoring.
Student
response
It was hot at the bank…I mean beach.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
0
6
sc
Note: A word is scored as correct if it is initially mispronounced but the student self-corrects within
3 seconds. Mark “sc” above the word and score as correct.
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Student
response
It was hot at the beach in Dubay.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach in Dubai. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat.
He has had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
29
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
8
0
8
Note: If the student reads a proper noun with correct pronunciation or with any reasonable
phonetic pronunciation, it is counted as correct. Reasonable phonetic pronunciation includes,
but is not limited to, left to right sequential decoding, an accurate number of phonemes, and
errors that represent knowledge of probable phonetic decoding based upon English orthography
(McGuinness, 1997). This rule applies to all proper nouns.
Student
response
It was hot at the beach. Mister Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has had a
part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
27
0
27
Note: (1) Abbreviations should be read in the way they would be pronounced in conversation.
(2) Numerals must be read correctly within the context of the sentence. (3) Hyphenated words count
as two words (and two errors) if both parts can stand alone as individual words. Hyphenated words
count as one word if either part cannot stand alone as an individual word (e.g., x-ray, t-shirt).
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Scoring Rule 2: Mark a slash ( ) through any errors. Errors include words read incorrectly, substitutions,
skipped words, hesitations of more than 3 seconds, words read out of order, and words that are sounded
out but not read as a whole word.
Examples:
Student
response
It is hot at the beach.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
1
5
Student
response
It was hot at the /b/ /e/ /a/ /ch/.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
1
5
Note: Students must read the whole word, not just the sounds, to be counted as correct.
Student
response
It was hot at the barn. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has had a part-time
job at the barn as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job at the beach as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
29
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
29
2
27
Note: If a student reads the same word incorrectly multiple times in the passage, it counts as an error
each time.
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Student
response
It was at the beach.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
1
5
Note: Omitted words are scored as incorrect.
Student
response
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has usually
works on weekends when the beach is crowded.
How to
score
0
14
28
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years. He
usually works on weekends when the beach is crowded.
14
28
37
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
37
14
23
Note: If a student skips a row of text, draw a line through the entire row and count the omitted words
as errors.
Student
response
It was high at the beach.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
1
5
Note: If a student substitutes a word for the word that is written on the page, it is an error.
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Student
response
It was hot at the b…b…b…be...(3 seconds)...(assessor says “beach”).
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
6
1
5
Note: If a student hesitates or struggles with a word for 3 seconds, tell the student the word and mark
the word as incorrect. If necessary, indicate for the student to continue with the next word by pointing.
Student
response
Mr. Smith duv into the ocean to cool off.
How to
score
0
14
28
Mr. Smith dove into the ocean to cool off. It was hot at the
beach but Mr. Smith didn’t mind. He has had a part-time job there
as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
28
35
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
9
1
8
Note: If a word is pronounced incorrectly given the context of the sentence, it is scored as an error.
Student
response
It was hot at the beach. Mister Smith does not mind the heat. He has had a
part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
27
1
26
Note: Students should read contractions as they are printed on the page.
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Student
response
It was hot at the beach. Mister Smith doesn’t heat the mind. He has had a
part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
How to
score
0
14
It was hot at the beach. Mr. Smith doesn’t mind the heat. He has
had a part-time job there as a lifeguard for twenty-four years.
14
27
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
27
2
25
Note: Words must be read in the order they appear on the page to be considered a correctly read
word.
Scoring Rules for Retell
The student receives 1 point for every word in his/her Retell that is related to the passage.
1. Count as correct any words in the response that are related to the passage. The judgment is based
on whether the student is retelling the passage or has gotten off track on another passage or topic.
Move your pen through a number in the scoring booklet for each word the student provides that is
related to the passage.
2. Count as incorrect any words in the response that are not related to the passage that the student
read. Do not move your pen through a number in the scoring booklet for words that are not related to
the passage that the student read.
Discontinue Rule
After the rst Wait Rule reminder (see below), if the student does not say anything or gets off track for 5 seconds,
say Thank you and discontinue the task.
Wait Rule/Reminder
If the student stops or hesitates for 3 seconds, select one of the following:
• If the student has not said anything at all, provides a very limited response, or provides an off-track
response, say Tell me as much as you can about the story.
• Otherwise, ask Can you tell me anything more about the story? This reminder may be used only
once.
Note:
The student is not penalized for language use or grammatical errors that are due to articulation, dialect, or
speaking a rst language other than English.
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Examples of Scoring Rules
The following are examples of the Retell scoring rules. The examples do not encompass all possible responses.
If in doubt about how to score a student response, refer to the scoring rules above. Please pay attention to the
notes included with the examples of responses as they provide scoring explanations and indicate variations and
nuances related to the scoring.
Scoring Rule 1: Count as correct any words in the response that are related to the passage. The judgment
is based on whether the student is retelling the passage or has gotten off track on another passage or
topic. Move your pen through a number in the scoring booklet for each word the student provides that
is related to the passage.
Examples:
Passage
Goldsh make good pets. They are easy to take care of and do not cost much
to feed. Goldsh are fun to watch while they are swimming.
Student
response
He has a pet goldsh. The sh is easy to take care of. He likes to watch it
swim. It is a good pet.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
24
Student
response
He’s got a pet goldsh because goldsh make good pets. He takes good
care of his sh. He likes to watch it swim.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
23
Note: Contractions are counted as one word.
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Student
response
The story is about a girl who has a goldsh and she really likes it.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
15
Student
response
Goldsh. And pets.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
3
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Passage
During the last ice age, the world looked much different than it does today.
Nearly all the land was covered with huge sheets of ice or glaciers. Most of
the world’s water was trapped in these glaciers, and the water level of the
seas was low. A vast amount of land was above the water.
The narrow waterway between Asia and North America, the Bering Strait,
was mostly exposed land at that time. The land formed a narrow bridge that
connected Asia with North America.
Student
response
The story is about the ice age and the land was covered in ice. There were
glaciers. And there was a land bridge between Asia and South America.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
28
Note: Mistakes or inconsistencies in the Retell do not count against the student as long as the student
is still on topic.
Passage
The main ingredients for this recipe are cucumbers and dill weed. Both of
these are easy to grow if you are lucky enough to have a vegetable garden.
If you don’t have a garden, you can nd them in the produce department at
the grocery store. Two other produce items you will need are fresh garlic and
a small onion about the size of a golf ball. You will also need salt and sugar
to add avor to the pickles.
Student
response
It was about making dill pickles. Pickles are made from cucumbers and dill
weed. You can grow those in your garden or buy them at the store. You need
salt, sugar, some garlic, and an onion the size of a baseball.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
41
Note: Mistakes or inconsistencies in the Retell do not count against the student as long as the student
is still on topic.
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Scoring Rule 2: Stop moving your pen through the numbers and count as incorrect any response that is
not related to the story that the student read.
Examples:
Passage
Goldsh make good pets. They are easy to take care of and do not cost much
to feed. Goldsh are fun to watch while they are swimming.
Student
response
He has a pet goldsh. He likes to watch it swim. I like to swim. We go
swimming every Saturday.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
11
Note: The portion in bold is NOT counted.
Student
response
He has a uhh, a uhh pet goldsh. The uhh sh is easy to uhh take care of,
uhh he likes to uhh watch it uhh swim.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
19
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Student
response
He has a pet goldsh. The sh is easy to take care of. He likes to watch it
swim. Mmmm. Hmmm, it sure is a good pet.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
25
Note: Only actual words are counted. If the student inserts exclamations or other sounds, stop moving
your pen through numbers and do not count those in the Retell.
Student
response
He has a pet goldsh. I know what rhymes with sh–wish and dish!
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
5
Note: If the student recites the ABC’s, a poem, or sings a song, even if relevant to the Retell, the
recitation, song, or poem is not counted.
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Student
response
The rst thing that happened in the story is...[student shrugs]. The
second thing that happened in the story is...[student shrugs]. The third
thing that happened in the story is...[student shrugs].
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
0
Note: The student has provided no information that is about the passage they just read. If this appears
to be a coached response framework solely for the purpose of getting a higher score on Retell, we
recommend interrupting that coaching and conducting a review of the fundamental purpose of the
assessment. If it appears to be a general framework for building understanding of a passage, the
response would be scored the same way, but a review of the fundamental purpose of the assessment
would not be necessary.
Student
response
The rst thing that happened in the story is...there was a goldsh. The
second thing that happened in the story is...good pets. The third thing
that happened in the story is...low cost.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
17
Note: The portion in bold is NOT counted. The second thing and the third thing words were not
counted because repetitions of words or phrases are not counted. If this appears to be a coached
response framework solely for the purpose of getting a higher score on Retell, we recommend
interrupting that coaching and conducting a review of the fundamental purpose of the assessment.
If it appears to be a general framework for building understanding of a passage, the response would
be scored the same way, but a review of the fundamental purpose of the assessment would not be
necessary.
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Student
response
He has a pet goldsh sh shy sh. The sh is easy to take care of. He
likes to watch it swimmy swim swim. It is a good pet.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
24
Note: Repetitions of words or phrases are not counted.
Student
response
Goldsh make good pets. Goldsh make good pets because they are easy
to care for and are cheap to buy.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
16
Note: Repetitions of words or phrases are not counted.
Student
response
I wish I had a goldsh.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
0
Note: The student’s entire response is off-track.
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Student
response
The story is about goldsh as pets. They make good ones because they are
easy to care for and are cheap to buy. I wish I had a goldsh.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
23
Student
response
I have to feed our pet dog. I hate to do that job because it is smelly and
messy. I wish my mom would just do it.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
0
Student
response
Goldsh make good pets...(pause). You know, I don’t have a goldsh, but
I wish I did. I have to feed our pet dog. I hate to do that job because it
is smelly and messy. I wish my mom would just do it.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
4
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Student
response
This reminds me of that book about the rainbow sh. Do you like that
book? It is my favorite.
How to
score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
Quality of Response:
(Note: If the student provides only a main idea, it is considered one detail.)
1
Provides 2 or fewer details
3
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence
2
Provides 3 or more details
4
Provides 3 or more details in a meaningful sequence that
captures a main idea
0
Note: The student’s entire response is off-track.
See Appendix F for Practice Scoring Sheet and Answer Key.
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Model ORF Scoring Sheet
The following is an example of a completed scoring sheet. The scoring rules and scoring calculation are shown. This
scoring sheet serves as a model and can be used during training and practice to support accurate administration
and scoring of Acadience Reading.
16
OAcadience ral Reading Fluency
Kinds of Hats
0
15
26
40
53
68
84
91
104
119
131
143
157
171
180
193
205
219
A hat sits on top of the head. There are many kinds of hats. Some
hats have special jobs, and some hats are just for fun.
A hard hat keeps the head safe. It is made out of plastic. House
builders wear this kind of hat. Things that fall cannot hurt their heads.
Firefighters also use a hard hat. Their hats have a wide brim on the back
to keep fire and heat away. You also wear a hard hat when you ride a
bike. That hat is called a helmet.
Many workers wear hats that show the job they do. Some of these
hats are made of cloth. Police officers wear a flat hat that is the same
color as their uniform. Chefs wear tall white hats when they cook.
People use different hats to match the weather. Wool hats fit closely
over the head. They keep the head and ears warm in the winter. Sun
hats and baseball caps have a wide brim or bill. These hats shade the
face and eyes from the sun in the summer.
Hats don’t always have a job. Some are just for fun. Birthday party
hats are made of paper. They have bright colors and cute pictures.
Next time you walk in the neighborhood, go on a hat hunt. You will
be surprised at how many different hats you can find.
15
26
40
53
68
84
91
104
119
131
143
157
171
180
193
205
219
229
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
sc
58
15
73
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What is reading comprehension?
Early reading acquisition is a large, complex linguistic task, whereby
students gain knowledge about speech sounds, print rules, and
strategies for decoding words. Reading comprehension is equally
large and complex and best understood as an interactive process
between the reader’s skills and context. Reading comprehension is
the ability to understand what is read, and is demonstrated by making
inferences, getting the gist, lling in the gaps, and understanding the
big ideas of the text (Duke, Pressley & Hilden, 2004).
While reading comprehension is dependent on decoding skills,
decoding skills by themselves are not enough (Adams, 1990). In order
to understand the printed words, readers must tap into their knowledge
about language as well as their understanding of the world. Reading
comprehension thus requires accurate, effortless decoding (Adams,
1990); access to linguistic knowledge about syntax, semantics, and
word morphology (Catts & Kahmi, 1999; McGuinness, 2005); prior
knowledge about words in a given context (Duke, Pressley & Hilden,
2004); and reasoning skills. It is only through the skillful interplay of
both bottom-up decoding skills and top-down meaning-making skills
that the student reads, and reads for meaning.
Students’ ability to read and understand increasingly difficult texts
increases as they develop more sophisticated decoding skills,
improve their vocabulary knowledge and linguistic awareness, and
gain experience with the world. Effective reading comprehension
instruction that supports the acquisition of comprehension strategies
applied to a wide range of reading materials is essential.
Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skill Acadience Reading Measure
Reading Comprehension
Maze
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Chapter 10: Maze
Overview
Essential Early Literacy
and Reading Skill
Reading Comprehension
Administration
Time
3 minutes
Administration
Schedule
Beginning of third grade to end of sixth grade
Score
Number of correct words in 3 minutes minus half the number of incorrect
words
What is Maze?
Maze is a standardized measure of reading comprehension. The purpose of a maze procedure is to measure
the reasoning processes that constitute comprehension. Specically, Maze assesses the student’s ability
to construct meaning from text using word recognition skills, background information and prior knowledge,
familiarity with linguistic properties such as syntax and morphology, and reasoning skills. Acadience Reading
Maze adds reading for meaning silently as another indicator of reading comprehension along with ORF and
Retell. With Acadience Reading, these three measures provide a more complete picture of reading prociency.
Maze can be given to a whole class at the same time, to a small group of students, or to individual students.
Using standardized directions, students are asked to read a passage silently and to circle their word choices.
By design, approximately every seventh word in the Maze passages has been replaced by a box containing
the correct word and two distractor words. The student receives credit for selecting the words that best t the
omitted words in the reading passage. The scores that are recorded are the number of correct and incorrect
responses. The Maze Adjusted Score, which compensates for guessing, is calculated based on the number
of correct and incorrect responses.
Materials
• Student worksheets
• Pen/pencil
• Maze Benchmark Assessment Administration
Directions And Scoring Keys
• Clipboard and stopwatch
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Administration Directions
Follow these directions exactly each time with each student. Say the words in bold italic type verbatim. Begin
with the modeling and practice activities. The practice activities are designed to introduce the assessment task
to the student. They are untimed and include correction procedures. The correction procedures are not used
once the timing begins.
1. Before handing out the worksheets, say I am going to give you a worksheet. When you get your
worksheet, please write your name at the top and put your pencil down. Hand out the Maze
student worksheets. Make sure each student has the appropriate worksheet. If the worksheets are in a
booklet, make sure each student’s booklet is open to the correct worksheet.
When all of the students are ready, say You are going to read a story with some missing words.
For each missing word there will be a box with three words. Circle the word that makes the most
sense in the story. Look at Practice 1.
Listen. After playing in the dirt, Sam went (pause) home, summer, was (pause) to wash her hands.
You should circle the word “home” because “home” makes the most sense in the story. Listen.
After playing in the dirt, Sam went home to wash her hands.
Now it is your turn. Read Practice 2 silently. When you come to a box, read all the words in the
box and circle the word that makes the most sense in the story. When you are done, put your
pencil down.
Allow up to 30 seconds for students to complete the example and put their pencils down. If necessary,
after 30 seconds say Put your pencil down.
2. As soon as all students have their pencils down, say Listen. On her way home, she (pause) chair,
sleep, saw (pause) an ice cream truck. You should have circled “saw” because “saw” makes the
most sense in the story. Listen. On her way home, she saw an ice cream truck.
When I say “begin,” turn the page over and start reading the story silently. When you come to a
box, read all the words in the box and circle the word that makes the most sense in the story.
Ready? Begin. Start your stopwatch after you say “begin.”
3. Monitor students to ensure they are reading and circling the words. Use the reminders as needed.
4. At the end of 3 minutes, stop your stopwatch and say Stop. Put your pencil down. Collect all of the
Maze worksheet packets.
At a later time (shortly after the testing when you are no longer with the student), compute the nal score:
• Correct the worksheets and calculate each student’s number of correct and incorrect responses. If
a student completes the assessment before the time is up, do not prorate the score.
• Record both scores on the cover sheet. On the cover sheet, “C” designates correct responses and
“I” designates incorrect responses. For benchmark assessment, also transfer the score to the front
of the scoring booklet. For progress monitoring, there is no scoring booklet for Maze, but there is a
progress monitoring chart to record the scores.
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• The Maze Adjusted Score is a modied score that compensates for student guessing. Most data
management services will calculate the Adjusted Score for you. To calculate the Adjusted Score
yourself, use the following formula:
Maze Adjusted Score = number of correct responses – (number of incorrect responses ÷ 2).
The result of the formula should then be rounded to the nearest whole number. Half-points (0.5)
should be rounded up. The minimum Maze Adjusted Score is 0. Do not record a negative number.
Scoring Rules
The student receives 1 point for each correct word, minus half a point for each incorrect word.
1. A response is correct if the student circled or otherwise marked the correct word.
2. Mark a slash ( ) through any incorrect responses. Incorrect responses include errors, boxes with
more than one answer marked, and items left blank (if they occur before the last item the student
attempted within the 3-minute time limit). Items left blank because the student could not get to them
before time ran out do not need to be slashed and do not count as incorrect responses.
3. If there are erasure marks, scratched out words, or any other extraneous markings, and the student’s
nal response is obvious, score the item based on that response.
Discontinue Rule
There is no discontinue rule.
Wait Rule
There is no wait rule.
Reminders
If a student starts reading the passage aloud, say Remember to read the story silently. This reminder may be
used as often as needed.
If a student is not working on the task, say Remember to circle the word in each box that makes the most
sense in the story. This reminder may be used as often as needed.
If a student asks you to provide or for help with the task, say Just do your best. This reminder may be used as
often as needed.
Examples of Scoring Rules
The following are examples of how to score Maze responses. The examples do not encompass all possible
responses. If in doubt about how to score a student response, refer to the scoring rules above. Please pay
attention to the notes included with the examples as they provide scoring explanations and indicate variations
and nuances related to the scoring.
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Scoring Rule 1: A response is correct if the student circled or otherwise marked the correct word.
Example:
The guide explained that
hanging
so
could
on the trees are fruits as
chocolate
get
large
as melons.
Scoring Rule 2: Mark a slash ( ) through any incorrect responses. Incorrect responses include errors,
boxes with more than one answer marked, and items left blank (if they occur before the last item the
student attempted within the 3-minute time limit). Items left blank because the student could not get to
them before time ran out do not need to be slashed and do not count as incorrect responses.
Example:
The guide explained that
hanging
so
could
on the trees are fruits as
chocolate
get
large
as melons.
Scoring Rule 3: If there are erasure marks, scratched-out words, or any other extraneous markings, and
the student’s nal response is obvious, score the item based on that response.
Example:
The guide explained that
hanging
so
could
on the trees are fruits as
chocolate
get
large
as melons.
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Chapter 11: Design Specications and
Technical Adequacy Summary
This chapter provides descriptive information, an overview of the design specications, and a summary of the
technical adequacy for each of the Acadience Reading measures. More detailed information about each of these
topics is provided in the Acadience Reading K–6 Technical Manual available at www.acadiencelearning.org.
Descriptive Information and Design Specifications
Acadience Reading is a set of measures used to assess early literacy and reading skills for students from
kindergarten through sixth grade. By design, the Acadience Reading measures serve as indicators of the
research-based essential early literacy and reading skills that every child must master to become a procient
reader (National Reading Panel, 2000; National Research Council, 1998). They are designed to be an efficient,
cost-effective tool used to help make decisions about reading instruction, to help teachers provide support
early, and to prevent the occurrence of later reading difficulties. The following Acadience Reading measures are
available for both universal screening and progress monitoring:
Essential Early Literacy and Reading Skills Acadience Reading Measure
Phonemic Awareness
First Sound Fluency (FSF)
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)
Alphabetic Principle and Basic Phonics
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)
–Correct Letter Sounds
–Whole Words Read
Advanced Phonics and Word Attack Skills
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
–Accuracy
Accurate and Fluent Reading of Connected Text
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
–Words Correct
–Accuracy
Reading Comprehension
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
–Words Correct
–Retell
Maze
Reading Composite Score
Note: Information from Table 1.1 in Chapter 1 of this manual.
Acadience Reading benchmark testing (universal screening) is conducted three times per year at the beginning,
middle, and end of the year. Progress monitoring materials, for more frequent assessment, are available for FSF,
PSF, NWF, ORF, and Maze. Twenty alternate forms are available for each of these measures, with 20 ORF and
20 Maze forms available per each applicable grade level. Because LNF is an indicator of risk that is not directly
linked to any of the essential early literacy skills, it is included in benchmark assessment (universal screening),
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but not in progress monitoring. The Reading Composite Score (RCS) is also calculated for each benchmark
assessment but not for progress monitoring. Descriptions and design specications for each measure and the RCS
are provided below. Additional information about the design specications for each Acadience Reading measure is
detailed in Chapter 2 of the Acadience Reading K–6 Technical Manual.
First Sound Fluency (FSF): FSF provides a direct measurement of a student’s uency in identifying the initial
sounds in words. The ability to isolate the rst sound in a word is an important phonemic awareness skill that is
highly related to reading acquisition and reading achievement (Yopp, 1988). To make FSF more sensitive for use
with young students, the measure uses differential scoring. Items for all FSF forms were selected from a word pool
consisting of single-syllable words. Initial work on this word pool was derived from a study of preschool measures
of early literacy (Kaminski, Baker, Chard, Clarke, & Smith, 2006). Words were excluded if they were deemed
inappropriate (e.g., rob, knife) or if they began with the initial phonemes /b/, /d/, /p/, or /g/ followed by the /u/ sound
(e.g., duck), as such words cannot be scored differentially due to confusion with the schwa sound. The nal word
pool consisted of 861 words, three of which were used as example items and so do not appear as test items. The
words were then broken into three difficulty categories as follows: initial continuous sound (e.g., /s/, /m/) followed by
a vowel sound; initial stop sound (e.g., /b/, /t/) followed by a vowel sound; and initial blend (e.g., /st/). The sequence
of items on each 30-item form was stratied.
The ability to isolate and identify the rst phoneme in a word is an easier skill than segmenting words or manipulating
phonemes in words, thus FSF is used as a measure of developing phonemic awareness at the beginning and
middle of kindergarten. Using standardized directions, the assessor says a series of words one at a time to the
student and asks the student to say the rst sound in the word. On the scoring page, the assessor circles the
corresponding sound or group of sounds the student says. Students receive either 2 points for saying the initial
phoneme of a word in isolation (e.g., saying the /s/ sound as the rst sound in the word street) or 1 point for saying
the initial consonant blend (e.g., /st/, /str/ in street), consonant plus vowel (e.g., /si/ in sit), or consonant blend plus
vowel (e.g., /strea/ in street). A response is scored as correct as long as the student provides any of the correct
responses listed for the word. The total score is based on the number of correct 1- and 2-point responses the
student says in 1 minute.
Differential scoring for student responses allows young students to receive partial credit for demonstrating beginning
skills in phonemic awareness. A student who may not be able to isolate an initial phoneme (e.g., /s/, /t/) would still
receive partial credit for providing the rst group of sounds in the word, showing emerging understanding that
words are made up of sounds. Although partial credit is given, the goal is for the student to be able to correctly say
the rst phoneme of each word.
To ensure that students understand the task and to maximize the performance of young students who may not
have had any prior exposure to instruction in phonemic awareness, three practice items are included. The practice
items provide increasing levels of support, including modeling (e.g., “listen to me say...”) and leading the correct
response (e.g., “say it with me”). By design, the rst two practice items start with the same sound, /m/. In the rst
practice item, isolation of the /m/ sound at the beginning of a word is modeled. In the second practice item, the
student is asked to isolate the beginning sound in a word that also starts with /m/. In the third practice item, the
student is asked to generalize the skill of isolating beginning sounds to a word that does not start with /m/.
Letter Naming Fluency (LNF): LNF is a brief, direct measure of a student’s uency in naming letters. The purpose
of LNF is to measure students’ mastery of alphabet knowledge along with their uency with letter naming. Fluency
in naming letters is a strong and robust predictor of later reading achievement (Adams, 1990). All letters are
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included on the LNF materials, but they appear in random order. The 26 uppercase and 26 lowercase letters were
divided into three categories based on relative difficulty, with 18 letters in the easy category and 17 letters each in
the medium and hard categories. A randomly selected letter from the easy category was used as the rst test item,
and then 17 triads were constructed, with a triad including one randomly selected letter from each category: easy,
medium, and hard. The ordering of letters by triads of easy, medium, and hard letters was done to more evenly
space the difficulty levels. The rst triad was placed with the easy letter rst, the medium letter second, and the
hard letter third. For the other 16 triads, the order of the difficulty categories was randomized within the triad. The
process was then repeated, to include another set of 26 uppercase and 26 lowercase letters, providing 104 test
items. Displaying a full set of 52 letters (26 uppercase and 26 lowercase) rst, and then displaying another full set
of 52 letters meant that the same letter would not appear in close proximity. The only difference in procedure for the
second set of 52 letters was that the order of difficulty categories in the rst triad were also randomized. The letters
were displayed in 11 rows of 10 letters each. To prevent the last row from only having four letters, the rst six letters
from the beginning of the form were repeated at the end of the form, for a total of 110 test items.
Using standardized directions, the assessor presents a page of uppercase and lowercase letters arranged in
random order and asks the student to name the letters. The assessor marks letter names that are read incorrectly
or skipped. The total score is the number of correct letter names that the student says in 1 minute.
The purpose of LNF is to measure accuracy and uency with letter names and not merely to recite the alphabet.
So, while all letters are included on the LNF materials, they appear in random order. As such, it provides an added
risk indicator for early school-age children. Although it may be related to rapid automatized naming (RAN), it is not
a measure of RAN. Because letter naming does not appear to be essential for achieving reading outcomes, it is not
an essential early literacy skill. Therefore, a benchmark goal and progress monitoring materials are not provided.
As an indicator of risk, scores on LNF should be used in conjunction with scores on other measures, especially
at the beginning of kindergarten. LNF is a strong and robust predictor of later reading achievement, but it is not
a powerful instructional target. There is insufficient evidence to suggest that focusing instruction on letter names
leads to better reading outcomes.
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF): PSF is a brief, direct measure of phonemic awareness. PSF assesses
students’ uency in segmenting a spoken word into its component parts or sound segments. The word pool for
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency comes from The Educator’s Word Frequency Guide (Zeno, Ivens, Millard, &
Duvvuri, 1995), where either the rst- or second-grade U value (the relative frequency of occurrence) was 20 or
higher. Words were then excluded if they were (a) not found in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Hornby,
Wehmeier, McIntosh, & Turnbull, 2005), (b) were proper nouns, (c) had more than one syllable, (d) had a single
phoneme, (e) had six or more phonemes, (f) included apostrophes, or (g) were inappropriate. The nal word pool
included a total of 1,132 items, three of which were used as example items and so do not appear as test items.
The words were then broken into four difficulty levels as follows: (a) Easiest—no r-controlled vowels, no consonant
blends, two or three phonemes; (b) Less Easy—one difficulty feature consisting of an r-controlled vowel or a
single, two-consonant blend, but not both; no three-consonant blends; two to four phonemes; (c) More Difficult—
two difficulty features, no three-consonant blends, two to four phonemes; and (d) Most Difficult—three-consonant
blends or ve phonemes. The sequence of items on each 24-item form was stratied.
Using standardized directions, the assessor says a word and asks the student to say the sounds in the word. The
assessor underlines each correct sound segment of the word that the student says. A correct sound segment is
any different, correct part of the word the student says. The total score is the number of correct sound segments
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that the student says in 1 minute. For example, if the assessor says the word sh and the student says /f/ /i/ /sh/,
the student has completely and correctly segmented the word into its component sounds and the score is 3 correct
sound segments. If the student says /f/ /ish/, the score is 2 correct sound segments.
Partial credit is given for partial segmentation. A student who is developing phonemic awareness may not yet
segment words completely into individual sounds but may segment parts of words. For example, a student who
says the rst sound of the word sun (/s/) receives 1 point. A student who says the onset and rime (/s/ /un/) receives
2 points, and a student who completely and correctly segments all of the individual phonemes in the word (/s/ /u/
/n/) receives 3 points. Note that consonant blends have two or more phonemes that should be produced separately
for a student to receive full credit. For example, for the word trap, a student who says /tr/ /a/ /p/ receives partial credit
of 3 points, and a student who says /t/ /r/ /a/ /p/ receives the full 4 points. Allowing partial credit in scoring increases
the sensitivity of the measure, thus making it possible to measure growth from partial to complete segmentation.
Although partial credit is given, the preferred response is for students to completely segment words at the phoneme
level by the end of kindergarten.
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF): NWF is a brief, direct measure of the alphabetic principle and basic phonics. NWF
assesses knowledge of basic letter-sound correspondences and the ability to blend letter sounds into consonant-
vowel-consonant (CVC) and vowel-consonant (VC) words. To successfully complete the NWF task, students must
rely on their knowledge of letter-sound correspondences and how to blend sounds into whole words. The test items
used for NWF are phonetically regular make-believe (i.e., nonsense or pseudo) words. The letters “q” and “x” were
not used, since they typically represent more than one phoneme. The letters “h,” “w,” “y,” and “r” were used only in
the initial position, and the letters “c” and “g” were used only in the nal position.
The nal word pool included a total of 1,017 items, two of which were used as example items and so do not appear
as test items. The words were then divided into six difficulty categories based on the pattern (CVC and VC) and
on the relative difficulty of the consonants as follows: (a) VC, easy consonant; (b) VC, hard consonant; (c) CVC,
both consonants easy; (d) CVC, rst consonant easy; (e) CVC, last consonant easy; and (f) CVC, both consonants
hard. The consonants judged to be easier were “b,” “c,” “d,” “f,” “g,” “h,” “k,” “l,” “m,” “n,” “p,” “r,” “s,” and “t.” Letters
were judged to be easier if they appear more often in words, since students will see them more often and many
curricula teach higher frequency letters rst. The difficulty categories on each 50-item form are presented in a
stratied sequence. This stratication process ensures that every form has the same number of items from each
difficulty category and that those difficulty categories will appear in the same place on every form. In addition to
the stratication of the difficulty categories, each row of ve items includes one nonsense word with each of the
ve vowels, in random order. The order of the vowels was re-randomized for each row and each form. Each word
on a form was then randomly selected from the words that matched both the specied difficulty category and the
specied vowel.
One reason that nonsense word measures are considered to be a good indicator of the alphabetic principle is that
“pseudo-words have no lexical entry, [and thus] pseudo-word reading provides a relatively pure assessment of
students’ ability to apply grapheme-phoneme knowledge in decoding” (Rathvon, 2004, p. 138).
Following a model and a practice item, the student is presented with a sheet of randomly ordered VC and CVC
nonsense words (e.g., dif, ik, nop). Standardized directions are used to ask the student to read the make-believe
words the best they can, reading either the whole word or saying any sounds they know. For example, if the stimulus
word is tof, the student could say /t/ /o/ /f/ or “tof.” The assessor underlines each correct letter sound produced
either in isolation or blended together. Whole words read without sounding out are underlined in their entirety.
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There are two separate scores reported for NWF:
1. Correct Letter Sounds (CLS) is the number of letter sounds produced correctly in 1 minute. For example,
if the student reads dif as /d/ /i/ /f/ the score for CLS is 3. If the student reads dif as /di/ /f/ or “dif,” the CLS
score is also 3.
2. Whole Words Read (WWR) is the number of make-believe words read correctly as a whole word without rst
being sounded out produced in 1 minute. For example, if the student reads dif as “dif,” the score is 3 points
for CLS and 1 point for WWR, but if the student reads dif as “/d/ /i/ /f/ dif,” the score is 3 points for CLS but 0
points for WWR because they rst sounded out the word.
The goal of NWF is for students to read whole words. However, an advantage of NWF is that it allows for monitoring
the development of the alphabetic principle and basic phonics as early as the middle of kindergarten, when
producing individual letter sounds is the more common response.
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF): ORF is a measure of advanced phonics and word attack skills, accurate and uent
reading of connected text, and reading comprehension. The Acadience Reading ORF passages and procedures
are based on the program of research and development of Curriculum-Based Measurement of reading by Stan
Deno and colleagues at the University of Minnesota (e.g., Deno, 1989).
The ORF passages were designed to represent the different types of text that students will encounter, including
a mix of narrative and expository, with different types of passages and content within those categories. A range
of topics and themes was selected so that each student would encounter both familiar topics and unfamiliar
topics. The passages were designed to be authentic text, so they include irregular words and are not written
entirely in decodable text. Passages were written and revised by professional authors according to detailed design
specications. All passages were required to meet readability criteria for each grade level as measured by the
Acadience Learning Passage Revision Utility/Passage Difficulty Index, which is software that identies the target
word length, number of rare words, and sentence length for a passage and provides guidance when a passage is
outside of the target ranges. The initial passage set included 40 passages for each grade that met the criteria. A
readability study was conducted to examine actual student performance on all of the passages and further control
differences in passage difficulty within each grade level. Additional details regarding author design specications,
the Passage Difficulty Index ranges for each grade level, and the readability study are provided in the Acadience
Reading K–6 Technical Manual.
There are two parts to ORF: (a) orally reading the passage and (b) retelling the passage. For the oral reading
part, students are given an unfamiliar, grade-level passage of text and asked to read for 1 minute. Errors such as
substitutions, omissions, and hesitations for more than 3 seconds are marked while listening to the student read
aloud. For benchmark assessment, students are asked to read three different grade-level passages for 1 minute
each. The score is the median number of words read correctly and the median number of errors across the three
passages. Using the median score from three passages gives the best indicator of student performance over a
range of different text and content. The oral reading part of the measure can be used middle of rst grade through
end of sixth grade.
The passage Retell part of ORF follows the oral reading of each passage, provided that the student has read
at least 40 words correct per minute on a given passage. Retell is intended to provide a comprehension check
for the ORF assessment and provides an indication that the student is reading for meaning. Case studies have
documented students who can read words rapidly but not comprehend what they read (Dewitz & Dewitz, 2003).
There is concern that students who display similar reading behavior will not be identied without a comprehension
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check. Passage Retell provides an efficient procedure to identify those students who are not able to talk about
what they have just read. With a prompted passage Retell, the student is explicitly instructed to read for meaning.
Speed-reading without attending to text comprehension is undesirable and will be readily apparent in the student’s
Retell. In addition, the quality of a student’s Retell provides valuable information about overall reading prociency
and oral language skills.
During Retell, the student is asked to tell as much as they can about the passage that was read. The assessor
indicates the number of words in the Retell that are related to the passage by drawing through a box of numbers.
Following a hesitation of 3 seconds, students are prompted to tell as much as they can about the passage. If the
student hesitates again for 5 seconds, or if the student is clearly responding for 5 seconds in a way that is not
relevant to the passage, the task is discontinued. The assessor must make a judgment about the relevance of
the Retell to the passage. Retell can be used from the middle of rst grade through the end of sixth grade. After
administering Retell, the assessor uses a Quality of Response Rubric to rate the quality of the student’s response.
The rating is based on how well the student retold the portion of the passage that the student read.
Maze: Maze is the standardized, Acadience Reading version of a maze testing procedure for measuring reading
comprehension. The purpose of a maze assessment is to measure important reasoning processes that contribute
to reading comprehension. Specically, Maze assesses the student’s ability to construct meaning from text using
comprehension strategies, word recognition skills, background information and prior knowledge, familiarity with
linguistic properties such as syntax and morphology, and reasoning skills. Acadience Reading Maze adds reading
for meaning silently as another indicator of reading comprehension along with ORF and Retell. These three
measures, along with the Reading Composite Score (RCS) (discussed below), provide a more complete picture of
reading prociency.
Maze passages were written according to the same specications as Acadience Reading ORF passages, except
for passage length, which was longer for Maze than for ORF. Maze passages were leveled using the Acadience
Learning Passage Difficulty Index. A maze procedure was then applied to each passage. The Acadience Reading
Maze procedure left the rst sentence unchanged. Starting with the second sentence, approximately every seventh
word was selected to be replaced by a multiple choice box containing the original, correct word and two distractor
words, in randomized order. Certain words, such as articles, prepositions, abbreviations, and proper nouns, were
excluded from the maze procedure. If an excluded word was selected, that word was skipped and the next non-
excluded word was selected. A word could be selected up to three times within a passage, but never twice in a row.
For each multiple choice box, two distractor words were randomly selected from the pool of words that appeared
within the passage and were eligible for selection. The same rules about excluded words were applied to distractors
as were applied to selected words. A word could be used as a distractor only once in a passage, regardless of
whether the same word had also been selected as a maze item. After the randomized selections were made and
the maze passages were constructed, the passages were manually checked for appropriateness.
Maze can be given to a whole class at the same time, to a small group of students, or to individual students. Using
standardized directions, students are asked to read a passage silently and to circle their word choices. The scores
that are recorded are the number of correct and incorrect responses the student circles within 3 minutes. The Maze
Adjusted Score, which compensates for guessing, is calculated based on the number of correct and incorrect
responses. Half of the number of incorrect responses is subtracted from the number of correct responses.
122Design Specications and Technical Adequacy SummaryAcadience
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Reading Composite Score (RCS): The RCS is a combination of multiple Acadience Reading scores that provides
the best overall estimate of the student’s reading prociency for the student’s grade level and time of year.
The specic Acadience Reading measures that are used to calculate the RCS vary by grade and time of year.
As a result, the RCS is not comparable across different grades and does not provide a direct measure of growth
across grades. For grades K through 2, the RCS is also not comparable across different times of year and should
not be used as an indicator of growth within a grade. However, because the logic and procedures used to establish
benchmark goals are consistent across grades and times of year, the percent of students at different benchmark
status levels can be compared, even though the mean scores are not comparable. Additional details are provided
in the Acadience Reading K–6 Technical Manual. When a measure of reading growth on a vertical scale across
different grades and times of year is desired, the Lexile Framework for Reading provides a transformation of the
RCS appropriate for this purpose.
As we constructed the RCS, we were guided in equal parts by science (empirical evidence and research) and
theory (models of reading acquisition and educational considerations). Theory and science guided our decisions
about which measures to include, how to structure and compute scores, and how to guide interpretations.
The RCS is formed by combining the Acadience Reading measures that correlate highly with later outcomes for
each grade and time of year and then weighting each measure to contribute approximately equally. The RCS
is highly correlated with specic reading outcomes and generalizes to a broad range of reading outcomes. The
RCS represents a large, rich, and broad sample of reading behavior. It combines information from across the
Acadience Reading measures administered at a given time. As such, educators do not need to determine which
scores are most important or how to integrate the information. The beauty of the RCS is that it allows for an easy
and meaningful integration of information. The RCS conveys that all of the aspects of reading prociency are
critical—a student whose RCS is At or Above Benchmark is reading accurately, at an adequate rate, and attending
to meaning.
Technical Adequacy Summary
Reliability
This section provides a summary of the alternate-form and inter-rater reliability of Acadience Reading. Reliability
refers to the relative stability with which a test measures the same skills across minor differences in conditions.
Alternate-form reliability indicates the extent to which test results generalize to different test forms. Inter-rater
reliability indicates the extent to which results for a measure generalize across assessors.
To provide an efficient summary of the various alternate-form reliability coefficients and their standard errors,
a meta-analysis was conducted on all of the coefficients for a given measure at a given grade. Meta-analysis
allows researchers to combine information on the same research question (e.g., the alternate-form reliability of a
measure) and summarize this information to gain a clearer understanding of the correlations being considered.
The advantages of a meta-analytic approach are the clarity of reporting a single value for reliability and reporting
accurate condence intervals for that reliability coefficient. Measures available for meta-analysis of alternate-form
reliability included FSF, PSF, NWF Correct Letter Sounds, NWF Whole Words Read, ORF Words Correct, the
Maze Adjusted Score, and the Reading Composite Score. Results of the meta-analysis for FSF, PSF, NWF Correct
Letter Sounds, and NWF Whole Words Read reliability are reported in Table 11.1. Table 11.2 includes the meta-
analysis results for ORF, Maze, and the Reading Composite Score.
123Design Specications and Technical Adequacy SummaryAcadience
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Inter-rater reliability estimates for the Acadience Reading measures are also reported in Tables 11.1 and 11.2.
These results are based on two independent assessors simultaneously scoring student performance during a
single test administration (i.e., “shadow-scoring”). The two raters’ scores were then correlated.
All reliability coefficients suggest the measures are appropriate for the screening and progress monitoring decisions
for which they are designed. In addition, the reliability of the Reading Composite Score meets the standard for
important individual decisions. Additional information on the reliability of Acadience Reading measures is provided
in the Acadience Reading K–6 Technical Manual.
Table 11.1 Summary of Reliability for FSF, PSF, and NWF
FSF PSF NWF CLS NWF WWR
Grade r
xx
95% CI r
xx
95% CI r
xx
95% CI r
xx
95% CI
Alternate-form reliability
K .85 .83, .86 .84 .83, .85 .84 .81, .85 .92 .83, .96
1
– –
.82 .81, .83 .84 .83, .84 .90 .79, .95
2
– – – –
.81 .79, .83 .82 .81, .83
Inter-rater reliability
K .94 .87, .97 NA NA .99 .99, .99 .99 .99, .99
1
– –
.95 .89, .98 .99 .99, .99 .99 .99, .99
2
– – – –
.90 .78, .96 .99 .98, .99
Note: The alternate-form reliability coefficients are the result of a meta-analysis. FSF=First Sound Fluency;
PSF=Phoneme Segmentation Fluency; NWF CLS=Nonsense Word Fluency Correct Words Read;
NWFWWR=Nonsense Word Fluency Whole Words Read. Dashes indicate the measure is not administered at the
specied grade level. NA=not available.
124Design Specications and Technical Adequacy SummaryAcadience
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Table 11.2 Summary of Reliability for ORF, Maze, and the Reading Composite Score
ORF Words Correct Maze Adjusted Score Reading Composite Score
Grade r
xx
95% CI r
xx
95% CI r
xx
95% CI
Alternate-form reliability
K
– – – – .81 .81, .81
1
.95 .93, .96 – – .87 .87, .87
2
.90 .88, .92 – – .90 .90, .90
3
.92 .90, .94 .75 .75, .76 .89 .89, .89
4
.90 .88, .92 .78 .77, .79 .91 .91, .91
5
.92 .90, .94 .77 .76, .78 .91 .91, .91
6
.84 .81, .87 .78 .76, .79 .91 .91, .91
Inter-rater reliability
K – – – – .97 .93, .99
1 .99 .99, .99 – – .99 .98, .99
2 .99 .99, .99 – – .98 .96, .99
3 .99 .99, .99 .99 .99, .99 NA NA
4 .99 .99, .99 .99 .99, .99 NA NA
5 .99 .99, .99 .99 .99, .99 NA NA
6 .99 .99, .99 .99 .99, .99 NA NA
Note: The alternate-form reliability coefficients are the result of a meta-analysis. Alternate-form reliability of Reading
Composite Score estimated with approximately three-month interval. ORF = Oral Reading Fluency. Dashes indicate the
measure is not administered at the specied grade level. NA = not available.
Validity
This section provides a summary of the validity evidence gathered on Acadience Reading. Criterion-related validity
is the extent to which performance on a criterion measure can be estimated from performance on an assessment
(Salvia, Ysseldyke, & Bolt, 2007). A test is valid if it accurately measures what it is supposed to measure. Evidence
of validity is presented as a correlation between the assessment and the criterion. Concurrent validity estimates
how well student performance on the assessment is related to performance on the criterion when both measures
are given at about the same time. Predictive validity estimates how well student performance on the assessment
predicts performance on the criterion at a later time.
To provide an efficient summary of the multitude of criterion-related validity coefficients and their standard errors
that have been compiled in the Acadience Reading K–6 Technical Manual, a meta-analysis was conducted on all
125Design Specications and Technical Adequacy SummaryAcadience
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of the coefficients for a given measure at a given grade. Meta-analysis allows researchers to combine information
on the same research question (e.g., the validity of a measure) and summarize this information to gain a clearer
understanding of the correlations being considered. The advantages of taking this approach are the clarity of
reporting a single value for validity and reporting accurate condence intervals for each validity coefficient. Because
of the similarity of predictive and concurrent validity coefficients (i.e., both are estimates of criterion-related validity),
they were meta-analyzed together to produce a single validity coefficient for a given measure at a given grade level.
Measures available for meta-analysis included ORF Words Correct, the Maze Adjusted Score, and the Reading
Composite Score. Results of the meta-analysis are reported in Table 11.3.
All validity coefficients suggest moderate-strong to strong relations between the Acadience Reading measures and
the criterion measures (e.g., SBAC English Language Arts). Additional information on the predictive and concurrent
validity of Acadience Reading, including measures not included in the meta-analysis, is provided in the Acadience
Reading K–6 Technical Manual.
Table 11.3 Meta-Analysis Summary of Validity for ORF, Maze, and the Reading Composite Score
ORF Words Correct Maze Adjusted Score Reading Composite Score
Grade r 95% CI r 95% CI r 95% CI
2
.75 .73, .76
– – .75 .73, .77
3
.68 .67, .69 .61 .60, .62 .73 .71, .74
4
.69 .68, .70 .66 .64, .67 .74 .73, .75
5
.68 .67, .69 .63 .62, .65 .73 .72, .74
6
.65 .62, .67 .66 .63, .68 .74 .72, .76
Note: ORF = Oral Reading Fluency. Dashes indicate the measure is not administered at the specied grade level.
126Acadience
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Appendices
Appendix A: Assessment Accuracy Checklists ................................. 127
Appendix B: Reading Composite Score and Reading Composite Score Worksheets .... 135
Appendix C: Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk .......................... 143
Appendix D: Pronunciation Guide ........................................... 152
Appendix E: Sample Statements and Letters .................................. 153
Appendix F: Practice Scoring Sheets and Answer Keys .......................... 157
127Acadience
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Appendix A: Assessment Accuracy Checklists
These checklists are designed to be a tool for training and for conducting reliability checks on Acadience Reading
assessors. They should be used to provide feedback to Acadience Reading assessors about their accuracy and
consistency with standardized administration and scoring procedures. Additional information about conducting
reliability checks can be found in Chapter 4: Implementing Acadience Reading in Your School.
128Acadience
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FSF Assessment Accuracy Checklist
Consistently
Needs practice
Does the assessor:
1. Position materials so that student cannot see what is being recorded?
2. State standardized directions exactly as written?
Practice item #1) Listen to me say this word, “man.” The rst sound that you hear in the word
“man” is /mmm/. Listen. /mmm/. “Man.” What is the rst sound you hear in the word “man”?
Correct: Good. /mmm/ is the rst sound in “man.”
Incorrect: /mmm/ is the rst sound you hear in the word “man.” Listen. /mmm/. “Man.” Say it
with me. /mmm/. Let’s try it again. What is the rst sound you hear in the word “man”?
Practice item #2) Listen to me say another word, “moon.” What is the rst sound you hear in
the word “moon”?
Correct: Good. /mmm/ is the rst sound in “moon.”
Incorrect: /mmm/ is the rst sound you hear in the word “moon.” Listen. /mmm/. “moon.” Say
it with me. /mmm/. Let’s try it again. What is the rst sound you hear in the word “moon”?
Practice item #3) Let’s try another word, “sun.” (Pause.) If the student does not respond, ask,
What is the rst sound you hear in the word “sun”?
Correct: Good. /sss/ is the rst sound in “sun.”
Incorrect: /sss/ is the rst sound you hear in the word “sun.” Listen. /sss/. “sun.” Say it with
me. /sss/. Let’s try it again. What is the rst sound you hear in the word “sun”?
Begin testing. Now I am going to say more words. You tell me the rst sound you hear in the
word. (Say the rst word from the list in the scoring booklet.)
3. Start the timer after saying the rst word?
4. Use reminder procedures correctly and appropriately?
5. Say the next word immediately after the student responds?
6. Slash the zero if the student does not respond within 3 seconds on any word, and
then read the next word?
7. Write “sc” above the slashed zero and circle any correct sounds if the student self-
corrects within 3 seconds?
8. Score student responses correctly according to the scoring rules?
9. Discontinue if the student gets a score of zero on the rst ve words?
10. Stop at the end of 1 minute?
11. Correctly add the number of sounds in the 2-point and 1-point columns?
12. Record the total number of correctly produced rst sounds in 1 minute?
13. Transfer the score correctly from the scoring page to the cover page of the scoring
booklet?
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LNF Assessment Accuracy Checklist
Consistently
Needs practice
Does the assessor:
1. Position materials so that student cannot see what is being recorded?
2. State standardized directions exactly as written?
I am going to show you some letters. I want you to point to each letter and say its name.
Begin testing. Start here (point to the rst letter at the top of the page). Go this way (sweep your
nger across the rst two rows of letters) and say each letter name. Put your nger under the
rst letter (point). Ready, begin.
3. Start the timer after saying Begin?
4. Score student responses correctly according to the scoring rules?
5. Use reminder procedures correctly and appropriately?
6. Apply the 3-second wait rule (if the student does not name a letter after 3 seconds),
slash the letter, provide the correct letter name, and point to the next letter if
necessary?
7. Write “sc” above any letter that was previously slashed if the student self-corrects
within 3 seconds?
8. Discontinue if the student gets a score of zero on the rst row?
9. Place a bracket (] ) at the 1-minute mark and say Stop?
10. Correctly add the total number of correctly named letters?
11. Transfer the score correctly from the scoring page to the cover page of the scoring
booklet?
130Acadience
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PSF Assessment Accuracy Checklist
Consistently
Needs practice
Does the assessor:
1. Position materials so that student cannot see what is being recorded?
2. Read standardized directions exactly as written?
We are going to say the sounds in words. Listen to me say all the sounds in the word “fan.”
/f/ /a/ /n/. Listen to another word, (pause) “jump.” /j/ /u/ /m/ /p/. Your turn. Say all the sounds in
“soap.”
Correct: Very good saying all the sounds in “soap.”
Incorrect: I said “soap” so you say /s/ /oa/ /p/. Your turn. Say all the sounds in “soap.”
Begin testing. I am going to say more words. I will say the word and you say all the sounds in
the word. (Say the rst word from the list in the scoring booklet.)
3. Start the timer after saying the rst word?
4. Say the next word immediately after the student responds?
5. Say the next word if the student fails to say a sound within 3 seconds?
6. Discontinue if the student gets a score of zero on the rst ve words?
7. Use reminder procedures correctly and appropriately?
8. Write “sc” above any correct sound segments that were previously slashed if the
student self-corrects within 3 seconds?
9. Score student responses correctly according to the scoring rules?
10. Place a bracket (] ) at the 1-minute mark and tell the student to stop?
11. Correctly add the number of correct sound segments for each row?
12. Correctly add the total number of sound segments?
13. Transfer the score correctly from the scoring page to the front cover of the scoring
booklet?
131Acadience
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NWF Assessment Accuracy Checklist
Consistently
Needs practice
Does the assessor:
1. Position materials so that student cannot see what is being recorded?
2. State standardized directions exactly as written?
We are going to read some make-believe words. Listen. This word is “sog.” (Run your nger
under the word as you say it.) The sounds are /s/ /o/ /g/ (point to each letter). Your turn. Read
this make-believe word (point to the word “mip”). If you can’t read the whole word, tell me
any sounds you know.
Correct (“mip”): Very good reading the word “mip.”
Correct (letter sounds): Very good. /m/ /i/ /p/ (point to each letter) or “mip.”
Incorrect: Listen. /m/ /i/ /p/ or “mip.” (Run your nger under the word as you say it.) Your turn.
Read this make-believe word. (Point to the word “mip.”) If you can’t read the whole word, tell
me any sounds you know.
Begin testing. I would like you to read more make-believe words. Do your best reading. If you
can’t read the whole word, tell me any sounds you know. (Place the student copy in front of the
student.) Put your nger under the rst word. Ready, begin.
3. Start the timer after saying Begin?
4. Score student responses correctly according to the scoring rules?
5. Use reminder procedures correctly and appropriately?
6. Wait 3 seconds for the student to respond? If the student responds sound-by-sound,
mixes sounds and words, or sounds out and recodes, allow 3 seconds, then provide
the correct letter sound? If the student responds with whole words, allow 3 seconds,
then provide the correct word?
7. Write “sc” above any previously slashed letter or word if the student self-corrects
within 3 seconds?
8. Discontinue if the student gets a score of 0 for the rst row?
9. Place a bracket (] ) at the 1-minute mark and tell the student to stop?
10. Correctly add the correct letter sounds in each row?
11. Correctly add the total number of correct letter sounds and record it at the bottom
of the scoring page?
12. Correctly add the correct whole words read in each row?
13. Correctly add the total number of whole words read and record it at the bottom of
the scoring page?
14. Transfer both scores correctly from the scoring page to the front cover of the scoring
booklet?
132Acadience
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ORF Assessment Accuracy Checklist
Consistently
Needs practice
Does the assessor:
1. Position materials so that student cannot see what is being recorded?
2. State standardized directions exactly as written?
I would like you to read a story to me. Please do your best reading. If you do not know a
word, I will read the word for you. Keep reading until I say “stop.” Be ready to tell me all
about the story when you nish. (Place the passage in front of the student.)
Begin testing. Put your nger under the rst word (point to the rst word of the passage).
Ready, begin.
Begin testing (2nd and 3rd passages). Now read this story to me. Please do your best reading.
Ready, begin.
3. Start the timer when the student reads the rst word of the passage?
4. Score student responses correctly according to the scoring rules?
5. Use reminder procedures correctly and appropriately?
6. Say the word and put a slash over it if the student fails to say it correctly within
3 seconds?
7. Write “sc” above a previously slashed word if the student self-corrects within
3 seconds?
8. Discontinue if the student does not read any words correctly in the rst row of the
passage?
9. Place a bracket (] ) after the last word the student read before the minute ran out and
tell the student to stop?
10. Correctly calculate the total number of words read (correct and errors) and record it
on the scoring page?
11. Correctly add the number of errors and record it on the scoring page?
12. Correctly subtract the errors from the total words and record the words correct on
the scoring page?
13. Record both scores on the front cover of the scoring booklet?
133Acadience
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ORF Assessment Accuracy Checklist: Retell
Consistently
Needs practice
Does the assessor:
14. Administer Retell if the student read 40 or more words correct?
15. Remove the passage and then state the standardized Retell directions exactly as
written?
Now tell me as much as you can about the story you just read. Ready, begin.
16. Start the stopwatch after saying Begin?
17. Use reminder procedures correctly and appropriately?
18. Mark the number or words in the student’s response and circle the total number of
words?
19. Tell the student to stop if he/she is still retelling at the end of 1 minute?
20. Record the number of correct words at the bottom of the scoring booklet?
21. Record the score on the front cover of the scoring booklet?
134Acadience
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Maze Assessment Accuracy Checklist
Consistently
Needs practice
Does the assessor:
1. Make sure each student has the appropriate worksheet?
2. State standardized directions exactly as written?
I am going to give you a worksheet. When you get your worksheet, please write your name at
the top and put your pencil down.
You are going to read a story with some missing words. For each missing word there will
be a box with three words. Circle the word that makes the most sense in the story. Look at
Practice 1.
Listen. After playing in the dirt, Sam went (pause) home, summer, was (pause) to wash her
hands. You should circle the word “home” because “home” makes the most sense in the
story. Listen. After playing in the dirt, Sam went home to wash her hands.
Now it is your turn. Read Practice 2 silently. When you come to a box, read all the words in
the box and circle the word that makes the most sense in the story. When you are done, put
your pencil down.
After 30 seconds: Listen. On her way home, she (pause) chair, sleep, saw (pause) an ice
cream truck. You should have circled “saw” because “saw” makes the most sense in the
story. Listen. On her way home, she saw an ice cream truck.
When I say “begin,” turn the page over and start reading the story silently. When you come
to a box, read all the words in the box and circle the word that makes the most sense in the
story. Ready? Begin.
3. Start the timer after saying Begin?
4. Use reminder procedures correctly and appropriately?
5. Say Stop, Put your pencils down at the end of 3 minutes?
6. Use the scoring key correctly?
7. Add the number of correct and incorrect responses accurately?
8. Write the total number of correct responses on the “C” line of the worksheet cover
page?
9. Write the total number of incorrect responses on the “I” line of the worksheet cover
page?
135Acadience
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Appendix B: Reading Composite Score and Reading Composite
Score Worksheets
The Reading Composite Score (RCS) is a combination of multiple Acadience Reading scores and provides
the best overall estimate of students’ early literacy skills and/or reading prociency. Most data management
services will calculate the RCS for you, provided that all required measures necessary for calculating it have been
administered. To calculate the RCS yourself, see the Reading Composite Score Worksheets.
Benchmark goals and cut points for risk for the RCS are based on the same logic and procedures as the
benchmark goals for the individual Acadience Reading measures. However, because the RCS provides the best
overall estimate of a student’s skills, it should generally be interpreted rst. If a student earns a RCS that is at
or above the benchmark goal, the odds are in the student’s favor of reaching later important reading outcomes.
Some students who score At or Above Benchmark on the RCS may still need additional support in one of the
essential early literacy and reading skills, as indicated by a Below Benchmark score on an individual Acadience
Reading measure (FSF, PSF, NWF, ORF, or Maze). This potential need for additional support is especially true for
a student whose RCS is close to the benchmark goal.
The Acadience Reading measures that are used to calculate the RCS vary by grade and time of year. As such,
the RCS is not comparable across different grades and does not provide a direct measure of growth across
grades. For grades K through 2, the RCS is also not comparable across different times of year and should not
be used as an indicator of growth within a grade. However, because the logic and procedures used to establish
benchmark goals are consistent across grades and times of year, the percent of students at different benchmark
status levels can be compared, even though the mean scores are not comparable.
136Acadience
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Name: _____________________________________ Class: _____________________________________
Beginning of Year Benchmark
FSF Score = ___________________ [1]
LNF Score = ___________________ [2]
Acadience Reading Composite Score (add values 1–2) =
Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Middle of Year Benchmark
FSF Score = ___________________ [1]
LNF Score = ___________________ [2]
PSF Score = ___________________ [3]
NWF CLS Score
=
___________________ [4]
Acadience Reading Composite Score (add values 1–4) =
Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
End of Year Benchmark
LNF Score = ___________________ [1]
PSF Score = ___________________ [2]
NWF CLS Score
=
___________________ [3]
Acadience Reading Composite Score (add values 1–3) =
Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
K
Kindergarten Acadience
®
Reading Composite Score
Worksheet
The Acadience Reading Composite Score is used to interpret student results for Acadience Reading. Most data-management
services will calculate the composite score for you. If you do not use a data-management service or if your data-management service
does not calculate it, you can use this worksheet to calculate the composite score.
© 2021 Acadience Learning Inc. All rights reserved.
© Acadience Learning Inc. / May 19, 2020
137Acadience
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© 2021 Acadience Learning Inc. All rights reserved.
Middle of Year
ORF Accuracy
Percent
Accuracy
Value
0%–49% 0
50%–52% 2
53%–55% 8
56%–58% 14
59%–61% 20
62%–64% 26
65%–67% 32
68%–70% 38
71%–73% 44
74%–76% 50
77%–79% 56
80%–82% 62
83%–85% 68
86%–88% 74
89%–91% 80
92%–94% 86
95%–97% 92
98%–100% 98
End of Year
ORF Accuracy
Percent
Accuracy
Value
0%–64% 0
65%–66% 3
67%–68% 9
69%–70% 15
71%–72% 21
73%–74% 27
75%–76% 33
77%–78% 39
79%–80% 45
81%–82% 51
83%–84% 57
85%–86% 63
87%–88% 69
89%–90% 75
91%–92% 81
93%–94% 87
95%–96% 93
97%–98% 99
99%–100% 105
Name: _____________________________________ Class: _____________________________________
Middle of Year Benchmark
NWF CLS Score = ___________________ [1]
NWF WWR Score = ___________________ [2]
ORF Words Correct = ___________________ [3]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
=
Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
End of Year Benchmark
NWF WWR Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [1]
ORF Words Correct = ___________________ [2]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [3]
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–3)
=
Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Beginning of Year Benchmark
LNF Score = ___________________ [1]
PSF Score = ___________________ [2]
NWF CLS Score = ___________________ [3]
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–3)
=
Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
1
First Grade Acadience
®
Reading Composite Score
Worksheet
The Acadience Reading Composite Score is used to interpret student results for Acadience Reading. Most data-management
services will calculate the composite score for you. If you do not use a data-management service or if your data-management service
does not calculate it, you can use this worksheet to calculate the composite score.
© Acadience Learning Inc. / May 19, 2020
138Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Name: _____________________________________ Class: _____________________________________
End of Year Benchmark
ORF Words Correct = ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [3]
=
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Middle of Year Benchmark
ORF Words Correct = ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [3]
=
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
.gnissim era seulav eht fo yna fi erocs etisopmoc eht etaluclac ton oD .erocS etisopmoC gnidaeR ecneidacA
Beginning of Year Benchmark
NWF-WWR Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [1]
ORF Words Correct = ___________________ [2]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [3]
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–3)
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–3)
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–3)
=
Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
2
Second Grade Acadience
®
Reading Composite Score
Worksheet
Beginning of Year
ORF Accuracy
Percent
Accuracy
Value
0%–64% 0
65%–66% 3
67%–68% 9
69%–70% 15
71%–72% 21
73%–74% 27
75%–76% 33
77%–78% 39
79%–80% 45
81%–82% 51
83%–84% 57
85%–86% 63
87%–88% 69
89%–90% 75
91%–92% 81
93%–94% 87
95%–96% 93
97%–98% 99
99%–100% 105
Middle and End of Year
ORF
Accuracy
Percent
Accuracy
Value
0%–85% 0
86% 8
87% 16
88% 24
89% 32
90% 40
91% 48
92% 56
93% 64
94% 72
95% 80
96% 88
97% 96
98% 104
99% 112
100% 120
The Acadience Reading Composite Score is used to interpret student results for Acadience Reading. Most data-management
services will calculate the composite score for you. If you do not use a data-management service or if your data-management service
does not calculate it, you can use this worksheet to calculate the composite score.
© 2021 Acadience Learning Inc. All rights reserved.
© Acadience Learning Inc. / May 19, 2020
139Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Name: _____________________________________ Class: _____________________________________
Beginning of Year Benchmark
ORF Words Correct = ___________________
[1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________
[2]
Maze Adjusted Score ___________ x 4 = ___________________
[3]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________
[4]
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
=
Middle of Year Benchmark
ORF Words Correct = ___________________
[1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________
[2]
Maze Adjusted Score ___________ x 4 = ___________________
[3]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________
[4]
=
End of Year Benchmark
ORF Words Correct = ___________________
[1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________
[2]
Maze Adjusted Score ___________ x 4 = ___________________
[3]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________
[4]
=
3
Third Grade Acadience
®
Reading Composite Score
Worksheet
Beginning, Middle, and
End of Year
ORF
Accuracy
Percent
Accuracy
Value
0%–85% 0
86% 8
87% 16
88% 24
89% 32
90% 40
91% 48
92% 56
93% 64
94% 72
95% 80
96% 88
97% 96
98% 104
99% 112
100% 120
The Acadience Reading Composite Score is used to interpret student results for Acadience Reading. Most data-management
services will calculate the composite score for you. If you do not use a data-management service or if your data-management service
does not calculate it, you can use this worksheet to calculate the composite score.
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score
. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
© 2021 Acadience Learning Inc. All rights reserved.
© Acadience Learning Inc. / May 19, 2020
140Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Name: _____________________________________ Class: _____________________________________
Beginning of Year Benchmark
= ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
Maze Adjusted Score ___________ x 4 = ___________________ [3]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
=
Middle of Year Benchmark
ORF Words Correct = ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
Maze Adjusted Score ___________ x 4 = ___________________ [3]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
=
End of Year Benchmark
ORF Words Correct = ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
Maze Adjusted Score ___________ x 4 = ___________________ [3]
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
=
4
Fourth Grade Acadience
®
Reading Composite Score
Worksheet
Beginning, Middle, and
End of Year
ORF
Accuracy
Percent
Accuracy
Value
0%–85% 0
86% 8
87% 16
88% 24
89% 32
90% 40
91% 48
92% 56
93% 64
94% 72
95% 80
96% 88
97% 96
98% 104
99% 112
100% 120
The Acadience Reading Composite Score is used to interpret student results for Acadience Reading. Most data-management
services will calculate the composite score for you. If you do not use a data-management service or if your data-management service
does not calculate it, you can use this worksheet to calculate the composite score.
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
ORF Words Correct
© 2021 Acadience Learning Inc. All rights reserved.
© Acadience Learning Inc. / May 19, 2020
141Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Name: _____________________________________ Class: _____________________________________
Beginning of Year Benchmark
= ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
x 4 = ___________________ [3]
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
=
Middle of Year Benchmark
= ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
x 4 = ___________________ [3]
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
=
End of Year Benchmark
= ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
x 4 = ___________________ [3]
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
=
5
Fifth Grade Acadience
®
Reading Composite Score
Worksheet
Beginning, Middle, and
End of Year
ORF
Accuracy
Percent
Accuracy
Value
0%–85% 0
86% 8
87% 16
88% 24
89% 32
90% 40
91% 48
92% 56
93% 64
94% 72
95% 80
96% 88
97% 96
98% 104
99% 112
100% 120
The Acadience Reading Composite Score is used to interpret student results for Acadience Reading. Most data-management
services will calculate the composite score for you. If you do not use a data-management service or if your data-management service
does not calculate it, you can use this worksheet to calculate the composite score.
Maze Adjusted Score ___________
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
ORF Words Correct
Maze Adjusted Score ___________
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
ORF Words Correct
Maze Adjusted Score ___________
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
ORF Words Correct
© 2021 Acadience Learning Inc. All rights reserved.
© Acadience Learning Inc. / May 19, 2020
142Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Name: _____________________________________ Class: _____________________________________
Beginning of Year Benchmark
= ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
x 4 = ___________________ [3]
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
=
Middle of Year Benchmark
= ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
x 4 = ___________________ [3]
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
=
End of Year Benchmark
= ___________________ [1]
Retell Score ___________ x 2 = ___________________ [2]
x 4 = ___________________ [3]
100 x (Words Correct / Words Correct + Errors)
Accuracy Value from Table = ___________________ [4]
=
6
Sixth Grade Acadience
®
Reading Composite Score
Worksheet
Beginning, Middle, and
End of Year
ORF
Accuracy
Percent
Accuracy
Value
0%–85% 0
86% 8
87% 16
88% 24
89% 32
90% 40
91% 48
92% 56
93% 64
94% 72
95% 80
96% 88
97% 96
98% 104
99% 112
100% 120
The Acadience Reading Composite Score is used to interpret student results for Acadience Reading. Most data-management
services will calculate the composite score for you. If you do not use a data-management service or if your data-management service
does not calculate it, you can use this worksheet to calculate the composite score.
Maze Adjusted Score ___________
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
ORF Words Correct
Maze Adjusted Score ___________
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
ORF Words Correct
Maze Adjusted Score ___________
ORF Accuracy Percent: _________ %
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
Acadience Reading Composite Score
(add values 1–4)
If ORF is below 40 and Retell is not administered, use 0 for the Retell value only for calculating the
Acadience Reading Composite Score. Do not calculate the composite score if any of the values are missing.
ORF Words Correct
© 2021 Acadience Learning Inc. All rights reserved.
© Acadience Learning Inc. / May 19, 2020
143Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Appendix C: Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
Benchmark Goals Study
The Acadience Reading benchmark goals, cut points for risk, and Composite Score were developed based upon
data collected in a study conducted during the 2009–2010 school year. The benchmark goals are based on
research that examined the predictive probability of a score on a measure at a particular point in time, compared
to later Acadience Reading measures and external measures of reading prociency and achievement. The
external criterion measure of reading prociency was the Group Reading and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE;
Williams, 2001). The 40th percentile on the GRADE assessment was used as an indicator that the students
had adequate early literacy and/or reading skills for their grade. Data for the study were collected in thirteen
elementary and middle schools in ve states. Data collection included administering the Acadience Reading
measures to participating students in grades K–6 in addition to the GRADE. Participants in the study were 3,816
students across grades K–6 from general education classrooms who were receiving English language reading
instruction, including students with disabilities and students who were English language learners, provided they
had the response capabilities to participate. The study included both students who were struggling in reading
and those who were typically achieving. A subset of the total sample participated in the GRADE assessment (n =
1,306 across grades K–6). Additional information about the study can be found in DIBELS Next
®
1
: Findings from
the Benchmark Goals Study, available from www.acadiencelearning.org.
1
Acadience
®
Reading K–6 is the new name for the DIBELS Next
®
assessment. Acadience is a registered trademark of Acadience Learning Inc. The DIBELS
Next copyrighted content is owned by Acadience Learning Inc. The DIBELS Next registered trademark was sold by Acadience Learning Inc. to the University of
Oregon (UO) and is now owned by the UO.
144Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Acadience Reading: Summary of Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
38 156 152 129 177 208 202 256 287 289 349 405 341 383 446 386 411 466 435 461 478
26 122 119 113 130 155 141 190 238 220 285 330 290 330 391 357 372 415 344 358 380
13 85 89 97 100 111 109 145 180 180 235 280 245 290 330 258 310 340 280 285 324
16 43
10 30
5 20
44 56 47
20 40 40
10 25 25
Correct
Letter
Sounds
28 40 34 59 81 72
17 28 27 43 58 54
8 15 18 33 47 35
4 17 25 21
Whole
Words
Read
1 8 13 13
0 3 6 6
34 67 68 91 104 90 105 118 104 121 133 121 133 143 139 141 151
Words
Correct
23 47 52 72 87 70 86 100 90 103 115 111 120 130 107 109 120
16 32 37 55 65 55 68 80 70 79 95 96 101 105 90 92 95
Accuracy
86% 97% 96% 99% 99% 98% 99% 99% 98% 99% 100% 99% 99% 100% 99% 99% 100%
78% 90% 90% 96% 97% 95% 96% 97% 96% 97% 98% 98% 98% 99% 97% 97% 98%
68% 82% 81% 91% 93% 89% 92% 94% 93% 94% 95% 95% 96% 97% 94% 94% 96%
Retell
17 25 31 39 33 40 46 36 39 46 40 46 52 43 48 50
15 16 21 27 20 26 30 27 30 33 33 36 36 27 29 32
0 8 13 18 10 18 20 14 20 24 22 25 25 16 18 24
Retell
Quality of
Response
2 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 2 3
1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 2
11 16 23 18 20 28 21 21 28 27 30 30
8 11 19 15 17 24 18 20 24 18 19 21
5 7 14 10 12 20 12 13 18 14 14 15
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Beg
Mid
End
Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade
T
his page is adapted from a chart developed by Cache County School District.
Reading Composite Score: A combination of multiple Acadience Reading scores, which provides the best overall
Acadience Reading Benchmark Goals and Composite Score document.
ABOVE BENCHMARK (number above bold number in each box): Students scoring above the benchmark are highly
Above
Benchmark. While students scoring Above Benchmark are likely to need Core Support
instruction on more advanced skills.
BENCHMARK GOAL (large bold number in the middle of the box); Students scoring at or above the benchmark
goal have the odds in their favor (approximately 80% to 90% overall) of achieving later important reading outcomes.
At or Above Benchmark and the students are likely to need Core Support.
CUT POINT FOR RISK (number below bold number in each box): Students scoring below the cut point for risk are
unlikely (approximately 10%–20%) to achieve subsequent goals without receiving additional, targeted instructional
Well Below Benchmark and the students are likely to need Intensive Support.
Below Benchmark. In this
range, a student’s future performance is harder to predict, and these students are likely to need Strategic Support.
Reading Composite Score
First Sound Fluency (FSF)
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
Maze Adjusted Score
145Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Kindergarten Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
Acadience
Reading
Measure
Benchmark
Status Likely Need for Support
Beginning
of Year
Middle
of Year
End
of Year
Reading
Composite
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
38 + 156 + 152 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
26 - 37 122 - 155 119 - 151
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
13 - 25 85 - 121 89 - 118
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 12 0 - 84 0 - 88
FSF
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
16 + 43 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
10 - 15 30 - 42
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
5 - 9 20 - 29
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 4 0 - 19
PSF
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
44 + 56 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
20 - 43 40 - 55
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
10 - 19 25 - 39
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 9 0 - 24
NWF-CLS
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
28 + 40 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
17 - 27 28 - 39
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
8 - 16 15 - 27
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 7 0 - 14
The benchmark goal is the number that is bold. The cut point for risk is the number that is italicized.
a
Some students may benet from instruction on more advanced skills.
b
Some students may require monitoring and strategic support on component skills.
146Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
First Grade Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
Acadience
Reading
Measure
Benchmark
Status Likely Need for Support
Beginning
of Year
Middle
of Year
End
of Year
Reading
Composite
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
129 + 177 + 208 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
113 - 128 130 - 176 155 - 207
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
97 - 112 100 - 129 111 - 154
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 96 0 - 99 0 - 110
PSF
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
47 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
40 - 46
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
25 - 39
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 24
NWF-CLS
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
34 + 59 + 81 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
27 - 33 43 - 58 58 - 80
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
18 - 26 33 - 42 47 - 57
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 17 0 - 32 0 - 46
NWF-WWR
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
4 + 17 + 25 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
1 - 3 8 - 16 13 - 24
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
0 3 - 7 6 - 12
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 2 0 - 5
ORF
Words
Correct
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
34 + 67 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
23 - 33 47 - 66
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
16 - 22 32 - 46
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 15 0 - 31
ORF
Accuracy
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
86% + 97% +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
78% - 85% 90% - 96%
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
68% - 77% 82% - 89%
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0% - 67% 0% - 81%
Retell
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
17 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
15 - 16
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
0 - 14
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
The benchmark goal is the number that is bold. The cut point for risk is the number that is italicized.
a
Some students may benet from instruction on more advanced skills.
b
Some students may require monitoring and strategic support on component skills.
147Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Second Grade Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
Acadience
Reading
Measure
Benchmark
Status Likely Need for Support
Beginning
of Year
Middle
of Year
End
of Year
Reading
Composite
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
202 + 256 + 287 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
141 - 201 190 - 255 238 - 286
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
109 - 140 145 - 189 180 - 237
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 108 0 - 144 0 - 179
NWF-CLS
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
72 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
54 - 71
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
35 - 53
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 34
NWF-WWR
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
21 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
13 - 20
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
6 - 12
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 5
ORF
Words
Correct
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
68 + 91 + 104 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
52 - 67 72 - 90 87 - 103
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
37 - 51 55 - 71 65 - 86
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 36 0 - 54 0 - 64
ORF
Accuracy
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
96% + 99% + 99% +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
90% - 95% 96% - 98% 97% - 98%
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
81% - 89% 91% - 95% 93% - 96%
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0% - 80% 0% - 90% 0% - 92%
Retell
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
25 + 31 + 39 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
16 - 24 21 - 30 27 - 38
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
8 - 15 13 - 20 18 - 26
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 7 0 - 12 0 - 17
Retell
Quality of
Response
At or Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
2 + 2 +
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
1 1
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
The benchmark goal is the number that is bold. The cut point for risk is the number that is italicized.
a
Some students may benet from instruction on more advanced skills.
b
Some students may require monitoring and strategic support on component skills.
148Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Third Grade Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
Acadience
Reading
Measure
Benchmark
Status Likely Need for Support
Beginning
of Year
Middle
of Year
End
of Year
Reading
Composite
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
289 + 349 + 405 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
220 - 288 285 - 348 330 - 404
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
180 - 219 235 - 284 280 - 329
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 179 0 - 234 0 - 279
ORF
Words
Correct
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
90 + 105 + 118 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
70 - 89 86 - 104 100 - 117
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
55 - 69 68 - 85 80 - 99
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 54 0 - 67 0 - 79
ORF
Accuracy
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
98% + 99% + 99% +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
95% - 97% 96% - 98% 97% - 98%
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
89% - 94% 92% - 95% 94% - 96%
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0% - 88% 0% - 91% 0% - 93%
Retell
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
33 + 40 + 46 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
20 - 32 26 - 39 30 - 45
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
10 - 19 18 - 25 20 - 29
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 9 0 - 17 0 - 19
Retell
Quality of
Response
At or Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
2 + 2 + 3 +
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
1 1 2
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
1
Maze
Adjusted
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
11 + 16 + 23 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
8 - 10 11 - 15 19 - 22
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
5 - 7 7 - 10 14 - 18
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 4 0 - 6 0 - 13
The benchmark goal is the number that is bold. The cut point for risk is the number that is italicized.
a
Some students may benet from instruction on more advanced skills.
b
Some students may require monitoring and strategic support on component skills.
149Acadience
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Fourth Grade Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
Acadience
Reading
Measure
Benchmark
Status Likely Need for Support
Beginning
of Year
Middle
of Year
End
of Year
Reading
Composite
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
341 + 383 + 446 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
290 - 340 330 - 382 391 - 445
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
245 - 289 290 - 329 330 - 390
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 244 0 - 289 0 - 329
ORF
Words
Correct
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
104 + 121 + 133 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
90 - 103 103 - 120 115 - 132
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
70 - 89 79 - 102 95 - 114
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 69 0 - 78 0 - 94
ORF
Accuracy
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
98% + 99% + 100% +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
96% - 97% 97% - 98% 98% - 99%
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
93% - 95% 94% - 96% 95% - 97%
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0% - 92% 0% - 93% 0% - 94%
Retell
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
36 + 39 + 46 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
27 - 35 30 - 38 33 - 45
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
14 - 26 20 - 29 24 - 32
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 13 0 - 19 0 - 23
Retell
Quality of
Response
At or Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
2 + 2 + 3 +
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
1 1 2
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
1
Maze
Adjusted
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
18 + 20 + 28 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
15 - 17 17 - 19 24 - 27
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
10 - 14 12 - 16 20 - 23
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 9 0 - 11 0 - 19
The benchmark goal is the number that is bold. The cut point for risk is the number that is italicized.
a
Some students may benet from instruction on more advanced skills.
b
Some students may require monitoring and strategic support on component skills.
150Acadience
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Fifth Grade Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
Acadience
Reading
Measure
Benchmark
Status Likely Need for Support
Beginning
of Year
Middle
of Year
End
of Year
Reading
Composite
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
386 + 411 + 466 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
357 - 385 372 - 410 415 - 465
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
258 - 356 310 - 371 340 - 414
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 257 0 - 309 0 - 339
ORF
Words
Correct
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
121 + 133 + 143 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
111 - 120 120 - 132 130 - 142
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
96 - 110 101 - 119 105 - 129
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 95 0 - 100 0 - 104
ORF
Accuracy
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
99% + 99% + 100%
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
98% 98% 99%
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
95% - 97% 96% - 97% 97% - 98%
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0% - 94% 0% - 95% 0% - 96%
Retell
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
40 + 46 + 52 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
33 - 39 36 - 45 36 - 51
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
22 - 32 25 - 35 25 - 35
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 21 0 - 24 0 - 24
Retell
Quality of
Response
At or Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
2 + 3 + 3 +
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
1 2 2
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
1 1
Maze
Adjusted
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
21 + 21 + 28 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
18 - 20 20 24 - 27
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
12 - 17 13 - 19 18 - 23
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 11 0 - 12 0 - 17
The benchmark goal is the number that is bold. The cut point for risk is the number that is italicized.
a
Some students may benet from instruction on more advanced skills.
b
Some students may require monitoring and strategic support on component skills.
151Acadience
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Sixth Grade Benchmark Goals and Cut Points for Risk
Acadience
Reading
Measure
Benchmark
Status Likely Need for Support
Beginning
of Year
Middle
of Year
End
of Year
Reading
Composite
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
435 + 461 + 478 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
344 - 434 358 - 460 380 - 477
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
280 - 343 285 - 357 324 - 379
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 279 0 - 284 0 - 323
ORF
Words
Correct
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
139 + 141 + 151 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
107 - 138 109 - 140 120 - 150
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
90 - 106 92 - 108 95 - 119
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 89 0 - 91 0 - 94
ORF
Accuracy
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
99% + 99% + 100%
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
97% - 98% 97% - 98% 98% - 99%
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
94% - 96% 94% - 96% 96% - 97%
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0% - 93% 0% - 93% 0% - 95%
Retell
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
43 + 48 + 50 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
27 - 42 29 - 47 32 - 49
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
16 - 26 18 - 28 24 - 31
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 15 0 - 17 0 - 23
Retell
Quality of
Response
At or Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
2 + 2 + 3 +
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
1 1 2
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
1
Maze
Adjusted
Score
Above Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
a
27 + 30 + 30 +
At Benchmark Likely to Need Core Support
b
18 - 26 19 - 29 21 - 29
Below Benchmark Likely to Need Strategic Support
14 - 17 14 - 18 15 - 20
Well Below Benchmark Likely to Need Intensive Support
0 - 13 0 - 13 0 - 14
The benchmark goal is the number that is bold. The cut point for risk is the number that is italicized.
a
Some students may benet from instruction on more advanced skills.
b
Some students may require monitoring and strategic support on component skills.
152Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Appendix D: Pronunciation Guide
The Pronunciation Guide is a reference for giving and scoring the Acadience Reading measures. The phonemes
and examples should guide how the sounds are spoken to students during the assessment, and also should
guide how to score the measures. The sounds listed in this guide are shown in the initial, medial, and nal
position in words when possible. Multiple spellings (or the most common spellings) for each sound are shown.
Different regions of the country use different dialects of American English. Any regional or dialectal pronunciation
of the sound is acceptable.
Phoneme Phoneme Example Phoneme Phoneme Example
/b/ bus, baby, tub /TH/ them, feather, breathe
/d/ dig, doll, ladder, hid /ng/ wing, spinning, think, rung
/f/ fox, before, laugh, graph /a/ ant, tap, hat
/g/ go, leg, soggy, hog /e/ echo, hen, met
/h/ him, ahead /i/ is, sit, big, with
/j/ jar, ledge, jump, agile /o/ off, saw, dot, waffle
/k/ cap, kite, baking, echo, stack /u/ up, allow, above, mother
/l/ lap, light, hollow, pull /ai/ ace, rail, made, hay
/m/ mess, me, hammer, sum, am /ea/ eat, eet, she
/n/ not, dinner, on /ie/ ice, tried, finally, pie, light, y
/p/ pie, apple, hop /oa/ oak, soap, hope
/r/ run, tree, write, arrow /oo/ boot, shoe, value, nephew
/s/ sap, city, listen, race /uu/ wood, should, put
/t/ tot, hotter, mat /ow/ house, cow
/v/ vest, vase, seven, move /oy/ oil, point, choice, toy
/w/ win, away, wheel, somewhere /ar/ (1 phoneme) art, heart, start
/y/ yes, onion /er/ (1 phoneme) fern, first, learn, turn, girl
/z/ zip, easy, is /or/ (1 phoneme) sort, before
/ch/ chicken, future, switch /e/ /r/ (2 phonemes) pair, share
/sh/ shop, show, motion, hush /i/ /r/ (2 phonemes) hear
/zh/ treasure, beige /uu/ /r/ (2 phonemes) tour, lure
/th/ think, nothing, south
Note: For the intent and purpose of assessing beginning phonemic awareness skills in students in kindergarten and rst grade, we do not distinguish between
the /w/ sound in “win” and the /wh/ sound in “where” or between the /o/ sound in “hop” and the /aw/ sound in “saw.”
153Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Appendix E: Sample Statement and Letters
The sample statement and letters in this appendix are discussed in Chapter 4: Implementing Acadience Reading
in Your School.
Sample Student Statement
The following is a sample statement that can be used to introduce students to Acadience Reading testing. The
wording of this sample is meant to be used on the day the students will be tested. The statement can be modied
to t other situations.
This is only an example, and each school is encouraged to introduce Acadience Reading testing to students in
a manner appropriate to the school community.
Today we are going to do some activities that will help me know how to teach you better.
I will be working with some of you, and some of you will go with Mr. Jones, Ms. Smith, or Mrs.
Thomas (replace with names of assessment team members).
We will go to quiet places such as the cafeteria, the library, the nurse’s office, or the gym (replace
with correct locations).
We will ask you to
Kindergarten: “Tell us letters,and the sounds in words.”
First grade (beginning of year): “Tell us letters and the sounds in words.”
First grade (middle and end of year): “Tell us the sounds in words and read short stories.”
Second to sixth grade: “Read short stories and tell about them.”
Some of the activities may be easy, and some may be hard. I want you to concentrate and do your
best. You will not get a grade on these activities, but you should do your best so I can know what I
need to teach you next.
154Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Sample Parent Announcement Letter
The following is a sample letter that can be used to introduce parents and guardians to Acadience Reading testing.
This is only an example, and each school is encouraged to provide accurate and understandable information to
parents and guardians in a manner appropriate to the school community.
Dear Parents and Guardians,
The teachers and administrators at our school are committed to helping your child become a
successful reader. As part of this commitment, our school has chosen to use a test called Acadience
Reading to help us examine how your child is doing in learning important reading skills.
Acadience Reading tests skills that are necessary for learning to read. Children who learn these
skills become good readers. The skills are:
• Phonemic Awareness: Hearing and using sounds in spoken words
• Phonics: Knowing the sounds of the letters and sounding out written words
• Accurate and Fluent Reading: Reading stories and other materials easily and quickly
with few mistakes
• Reading Comprehension: Understanding what is read
Acadience Reading is made up of six short individual tests. Because each test focuses on a different
reading skill, your child may be given two to four Acadience Reading tests depending on his or her
grade level.
Each test takes approximately 1 minute because the tests are used only as indicators. Much like
using a thermometer to take a child’s temperature is an indicator of overall health, each test is an
indicator of how well a child is doing in learning a particular early reading skill. These measures are
used to determine the reading skills of millions of children throughout the United States. The scores
tell us whether a child is likely to be “on track” for learning to read or whether a child may need some
help in learning important reading skills. Your child’s teacher will use the information to better help
your child. For example, Acadience Reading test results may tell us that we need to spend more time
teaching your child how to “sound out” unknown words.
Acadience Reading is used to identify children who may need extra help to become good readers
and to check up on those children while they receive the extra help to make sure they are making
progress. Acadience Reading also may be used to make decisions about how well our school’s
overall reading program is working for all children. Acadience Reading will not be used to grade your
child.
We are working hard at school to make sure that every child is on target for success, and we thank
you for your efforts at home. Together, we will help your child become a successful reader.
Sincerely,
(principal’s name)
155Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Sample Results Letter
The following is a sample letter that can be used to discuss Acadience Reading results with parents and guardians.
Each school is encouraged to provide accurate and understandable information to parents and guardians in a
manner appropriate to its school community.
Dear Parents of (insert student name):
All students in our school are tested three times during the school year using Acadience Reading.
The purpose of this assessment is to monitor your child’s development in reading, to identify students
needing additional help, and to guide the teacher’s classroom instruction.
The Acadience Reading measures given in rst grade are described below:
Reading Measure Skill Area Types of Activities
Phoneme Segmentation
Fluency
Phonemic Awareness Saying individual sounds in words
Nonsense Word Fluency Basic Phonics Letter-sound correspondence and blend-
ing letter sounds into words
Oral Reading Fluency Accurate and Fluent Reading
and Reading Comprehension
Accurately reading a passage of text
and retelling what was read
In the last several weeks, we have tested all students to check their reading progress. Teachers will
use this information, along with classroom information, to determine any areas in which students need
more instruction.
Your child’s results are provided on the next page.
The Reading Composite Score is a combination of multiple Acadience Reading scores and provides
the best overall estimate of a student’s reading prociency. The scores used to calculate the Composite
Score vary by grade and time of year. This means the Composite Score should only be compared to
the goal for that time of the school year and not to goals or Composite Scores at other times of the year.
Please note that the goal number listed next to your child’s score indicates the minimum target for
students at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.
Scores at or above the goal indicate that the student is on track for meeting future reading outcomes
with the instruction that is currently being provided. Scores below the goal indicate that the student is
currently not on track to meet future reading outcomes and may need additional reading support to
catch up.
Students who score at or above the Composite Score goal may still need additional instruction in one
or more skill areas, as indicated by a score below the goal on one of the Acadience Reading measures
(Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, or Oral Reading Fluency).
156Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Sample Results Letter, continued
Beginning of Year Middle of Year End of Year
Reading
Tests for First
Grade
Goal Score Goal Score Goal Score
Reading Composite
Score
113 130 155
Phoneme
Segmentation Fluency
40 not given not given
Nonsense
Word
Fluency
CLS
27 43 58
WWR
1 8 13
Oral
Reading
Fluency
Words
Correct
not given
23 47
Accuracy
78% 90%
Retell
n/a 15
Scores for your child indicate the following:
_________ Your child will receive the regular classroom reading instruction.
_________ Your child will receive additional instruction within the classroom on the following skills:
___________________________________________________________________________________
_________ Your child will be recommended for additional reading instruction outside the classroom
on the following skills:
___________________________________________________________________________________
If you have any questions concerning your child’s Acadience Reading information, please contact me
or your child’s teacher.
Sincerely,
(principal’s name)
157Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Appendix F: Practice Scoring Sheets and Answer Keys
The following tables provide an opportunity for self-directed practice in scoring student responses. This practice
is intended to supplement and not replace training on the administration and scoring of the measures.
First Sound Fluency Practice Scoring Sheet
Word Student Response Score Rule/Note
ramp r
ra
ram
ramp
fast f
fa
fas
fast
slip s
sl
sli
slip
breeze f
fr
frea
breaz
plate pu
plu
plai
plait
trade ch*
chai
chaid
*said by a student with speech impairment; pronounces /ch/ for /tr/ and /j/ for /dr/
158Acadience
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First Sound Fluency Practice Scoring Sheet: Answer Key
Word Student Response Score Rule/Note
ramp r 2 Correct rst sound
ra 1 Blended rst sounds
ram 0 Included sounds beyond the rst vowel
ramp 0 Repeat word
fast f 2 Correct rst sound
fa 1 Blended rst sounds
fas 0 Included sounds beyond the rst vowel
fast 0 Repeat word
slip s 2 Correct rst sound
sl 1 Blended rst sounds
sli 1 Blended rst sounds
slip 0 Repeat word
breeze f 0 Incorrect rst sound
fr 0 Incorrect blended rst sound
frea 0 Incorrect blended rst sound
breaz 0 Repeat word
plate pu 2 Correct with added sound
plu 1 Blended rst sounds with added sound
plai 1 Blended rst sounds
plait 0 Repeat word
trade ch* 2 Articulation
chai 1 Articulation
chaid 0 Repeat word
*said by a student with speech impairment; pronounces /ch/ for /tr/ and /j/ for /dr/
159Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Practice Scoring Sheet
Word Student Response Score Rule/Note
bet /b/…/e/…/t/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
/b/…/et/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
/ b e/…/t / /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
/ b e/…/e/…/et / /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
/b/… (3 seconds) /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
/ b /…bet /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
bet /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
/b/…/e/…/k/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
/b/…/e/…/s/…/t/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
/b/…/es/…/t/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
slip slip /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/sli/…/ip/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/s/…/li/…/p/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/sl/…/ip/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/s/…/l/…/i/…/p/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/s /…sli p /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/s /…/l /…(3 secon ds) /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/s/…/l/…/i/…/k/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/s/…/l/…/i/…/p/…/s/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/su/…/lu/…/i/…/pu/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/sk/…/i/…/p/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
/th/.../w/…/i/…/p/ * /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
*said by a student with a speech impairment who pronounces /th/ for /s/ and /w/ for /l/
160Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Practice Scoring Sheet: Answer Key
Word Student Response Score Rule/Note
bet /b/…/e/…/t/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Complete, correct
segmentation
/b/…/et/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Partial segmentation
/be/…/t/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Partial segmentation
/be/…/e/…/et/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Overlapping segmentation
/b/… (3 seconds) /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Partial segmentation
/b/…bet /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Partial segmentation/repeat
word
bet /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Repeat word
/b/…/e/…/k/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Incorrect sound
/b/…/e/…/s/…/t/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Added sound
/b/…/es/…/t/ /b/ /e/ /t/ ____/ 3
Incorrect sound
slip slip /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Repeat word
/sli/…/ip/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Overlapping segmentation
/s/…/li/…/p/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Partial segmentation
/sl/…/ip/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Incomplete segmentation
/s/…/l/…/i/…/p/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Complete, correct
segmentation
/s/…slip /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Partial segmentation/repeat
word
/s/…/l/…(3 seconds) /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Partial segmentation
/s/…/l/…/i/…/k/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Incorrect sound
/s/…/l/…/i/…/p/…/s/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Added sound
/su/…/lu/…/i/…/pu/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Complete, correct segmentation
with schwa sound
/sk/…/i/…/p/ /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Incorrect sound
/th/.../w/…/i/…/p/ * /s/ /l/ /i/ /p/ ____/4
Articulation
*said by a student with a speech impairment who pronounces /th/ for /s/ and /w/ for /l/
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
2
2
3
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
2
2
0
0
2
161Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Nonsense Word Fluency Practice Scoring Sheet
Word Student Response Score Rule/Note
CLS WWR
dif /d /…/ i/…/ f /
d i f ____/3 ____
/du/…/i/…/fu /
d i f ____/3 ____
/dif/
d i f ____/3 ____
/d /…/ i /…/f/... /d if/
d i f ____/3 ____
/d /…/ i f /
d i f ____/3 ____
/d i /… / f/
d i f ____/3 ____
/b/…/i/…/f/
d i f ____/3 ____
/bif/
d i f ____/3 ____
/di/…/f/… /dif/
d i f ____/3 ____
/fid/
d i f ____/3 ____
/fed/
d i f ____/3 ____
/dief/
d i f ____/3 ____
/d /…/f/
d i f ____/3 ____
/d/.../d/.../d/…/i/…/f/
d i f ____/3 ____
/d /…/ i /…/f/... / t /
d i f ____/3 ____
/dift/
d i f ____/3 ____
/i/…/d /…/f/. . .
(while correctly pointing to
each letter)
d i f ____/3 ____
/d /…/ i /…/th/. . .
(articulation error)
d i f ____/3 ____
162Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Nonsense Word Fluency Practice Scoring Sheet: Answer Key
Word Student Response Score Rule/Note
CLS WWR
dif /d/…/i/…/f/
d i f ____/3 ____
Correct letter sounds—sound-by-sound
/du/…/i/…/fu/
d i f ____/3 ____
Students are not penalized for adding
the schwa sound after consonants
/dif/
d i f ____/3 ____
Correct letter sounds—recoded (read)
as a word
/d/…/i/…/f/.../dif/
d i f ____/3 ____
Correct sound-by-sound, then
recoded
/d/…/if/
d i f ____/3 ____
Correct letter sounds—onset-rime
/di/…/f/
d i f ____/3 ____
Correct letter sounds
/b/…/i/…/f/
d i f ____/3 ____
Incorrect letter sound—sound-by-sound
/bif/
d i f ____/3 ____
Incorrect letter sound—recoded (read)
as a word
/di/…/f/…/dif/
d i f ____/3 ____
Correct letter sounds, then recoded
/fid/
d i f ____/3 ____
Correct letter sounds, but read out of
order
/fed/
d i f ____/3 ____
Incorrect letter sounds
d i f ____/3 ____
Incorrect letter sound—all vowels
should be read as short sound
/d/…/f/
/dief/
d i f ____/3 ____
Omitted sound
/d/.../d/.../d/…/i/…/f/
d i f ____/3 ____
Repeated correct letter sound
/d/…/i/…/f/.../t/
d i f ____/3 ____
Inserted sound—sound-by-sound
/dift/
d i f ____/3 ____
Inserted sound—read as a word
/i/…/d/…/f/...
(while correctly pointing to
each letter)
d i f ____/3 ____
Correct letter sounds—read out of order, but
credit given if student points correctly
/d/…/i/…/th/...
(articulation error)
d i f ____/3 ____
No penalty in scoring for articulation
errors
3 0
3 0
3 0
3 0
3 0
2 0
2 0
3 0
3 0
3 0
3 0
3 0
3 0
1 0
0 0
2 0
2 0
3 1
163Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Oral Reading Fluency/Retell Practice Scoring Sheet
Passage
helped his father load the baskets onto the family’s boat. Ken’s family lived on a large
island off the coast of Africa. They used the boat to sail to market.
Student Response
(3 seconds, assessor says market). Ken helped her father /l/ /oa/ /d/ the buckets the
onto the f…f…fa…(3 seconds, assessor says family’s) boat. Ken’s family lived on a large
iceland off the (assessor says Stop).
Score
Going to Market
0
14
27
42
Four baskets were filled with fish. Now it was time to take them to
the market. Ken helped his father load the baskets onto the family’s boat.
Ken’s family lived on a large island off the coast of Africa. They used the
boat to sail to market.
14
27
42
47
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
Retell: Student Response
Retell: Score
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
164Acadience
®
Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Appendices
Oral Reading Fluency/Retell Practice Scoring Sheet: Answer Key
Passage
helped his father load the baskets onto the family’s boat. Ken’s family lived on a large
island off the coast of Africa. They used the boat to sail to market.
Student Response
Score
Going to Market
0
14
27
42
Four baskets were filled with fish. Now it was time to take them to
the market. Ken helped his father load the baskets onto the family’s boat.
Ken’s family lived on a large island off the coast of Africa. They used the
boat to sail to market.
14
27
42
47
Total words: _________
Errors (include skipped words): – _________
Words correct: = _________
Retell: Student Response
Retell: Score
36
10
26
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48
Retell Total: _________
8
Four buckets were fixed with big fish. Now it is time to take to the m...m...mar
(3 seconds, assessor says market). Ken helped her father /l/ /oa/ /d/ the buckets the
onto the f...f...fa...(3 seconds, assessor says family’s) boat. Ken’s family lived on a
large iceland off the (assessor says Stop).
165Acadience
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Reading K–6 Assessment Manual Bibliography
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