WEBVTT

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I am Donald Compton.

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I am an associate professor
of special education

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at Vanderbilt University.

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Universal screening is the first
part of a multi-tier system

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where we try to identify
children who are at risk

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for poor reading outcomes.

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There is good and
mounting evidence

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that screening all
children early and trying

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to identify those
who are at risk

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for poor reading outcomes
is an effective practice

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and increases the outcome
for those who are most

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at risk for reading problems.

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What we try to do with universal
screening is we screen all

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children-hopefully before
reading development has started

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or right at the onset of
reading development-try

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to identify the kids who are
at risk and then move them

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into this preventive tutoring.

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It's very hard to tell before
reading instruction starts

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who is going to have
a reading problem

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and who isn't unless we
give structured assessments

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to these kids.

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We like universal screening

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because it's very data-driven;
it's not as dependent

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on context-you know a teacher
is in a classroom with the set

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of children, they are going
to make judgments based

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on the other children
in the classroom.

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With universal screening, you
can use national, district,

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school-based scores which
are not as dependent

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on the context of the classroom.

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However, that being said,

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teacher judgment is a very
good piece of data to bring

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to the table for
making decisions.

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Teachers have insight
into the actual learning

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and the progress
children will make

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when exposed to instruction.

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And often times this is what
can help us clear up those kids

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who actually have long-term
reading problems versus those

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who are just struggling when
they come into school or look

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as if they are struggling
on a universal screener

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but are making good progress
in the eyes of the teachers.

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So we think that using both,

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usually a universal
screener first

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and then maybe clarification
by teacher judgment,

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would be a good way
to go about this.

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In selecting a universal screener, 
it's very important

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to take a developmental approach

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to identify what screener
is best for identifying kids

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who are at risk at that time.

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Reading development is something
that changes very quickly,

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and we have to make sure that
the assessment that we use is

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on target in terms of child
development and also predictive

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of later reading skill.

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When identifying a
universal screener,

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there are certain things that
the schools should look for.

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Probably the most important
is classification accuracy.

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You want a measure that's
going to identify as accurately

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as possible those kids
who are most at risk.

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Along with that are issues
of reliability and validity;

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these should be provided,

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and the measures should
be fairly reliable,

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and it should be a valid measure
of future reading performance.

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Universal screeners are supposed

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to be fairly simple, 
fast assessments,

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so we recommend the schools
use personnel flexibly.

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Universal screeners could be
given by classroom teachers,

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special education
teachers, psychologists,

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even paraprofessionals.

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The thing that we recommend
is that people are trained up

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to high fidelity before
giving these assessments

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and that they are observed
once in a while to make sure

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that they continue to
administer the assessment

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with high fidelity.

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By high fidelity, what
I mean are assessments

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that are given the way they were
meant or designed to be given,

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and that they are
scored correctly.

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In the Practice Guide, we recommend

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actually giving the universal 
screener twice,

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once in the fall
and once in midyear,

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and this is particularly
important for younger kids

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who are just beginning
to learn how to read.

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The second screener, yes,
will take more resources,

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but if you improve your
classification accuracy

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by actually finding
the right kids,

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then it may well be worth it
to give a second screener.

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In the best-case scenario, what
we would like to recommend is

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that schools give the
universal screener in the fall

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and then follow up
with six to eight weeks

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of progress monitoring.

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This will allow them
to make judgments

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about whether kids are going to 
respond to classroom instruction

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faster than giving a midyear
second screener.

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Although, both are considered
best practice right now,

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so it's sort of up
to schools to decide

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which works best for them.

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In a system that combines
universal screening plus

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progress monitoring, 
classroom instruction,

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and particularly
the effectiveness

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of the Tier 1 classroom
instruction, will interact

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with your identification
criteria.

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So you may have children,
a lot of children,

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identified by a universal
screener;

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they may be in very
effective classrooms,

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and their growth rate on the
progress monitoring component of

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your screener may be high enough to 
show that they are no longer at risk.

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And the more effective
that classroom teacher is,

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the more of those kids
who were initially

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at risk will no longer be
at risk, and vice versa

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for less effective
classroom environments.

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So we have to remember that
these universal screeners

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and progress monitoring
are sensitive

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to actually how much kids
are learning in the classroom

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and therefore are dependent on 
the effectiveness of the classroom.

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The more effective the
classroom, the less number

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of children should be
identified as at risk.