Public school students throughout the state in grades K-3 were screened in January. Any student that scored below the 25th percentile is considered "at risk." Those students underwent additional testing to find areas of strength and need. The information gathered was used to create Personal Reading Plans. The results of the screener went out to all parents in grades K-5 in mid-January. The Personal Reading Plans went out recently to parents of students who scored below the 25th percentile. Parents should sign and return PRPs if they receive one. 

Sixty OWES students qualify for a personal reading plan after the Fall testing and 53 students qualify for a plan in January. Several curricular and instructional changes were made in the last two years to strengthen the literacy program. Act 20 requires districts to create a promotion policy from 3rd to 4th grade. That policy, although it needs to be adopted by July 1, 2025, does not need to be implemented until September 1, 2027. Owen-Withee has not created that policy yet, as we are still awaiting guidance from DPI.

CESA 6 states the following regarding the testing:

Early Literacy Screener

A single reading readiness screener will be administered to Wisconsin students in 4K through grade 3 beginning in the school year 2024-2025. The assessment must be administered to 4K students once in 2024-25 and then twice per year over the following years, and 5K-3rd twice in 2024-25 and three times per year thereafter.

The Early Literacy Screener must be administered to students no more than 45 days into the school year and administered again no more than 45 days before the end of the school year. (Due to 2023 WISCONSIN ACT 192)

Act 20 states that learners in 5K through grade 3 must be evaluated on phonemic awareness, decoding skills, alphabet knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, and oral vocabulary. The screener for Wisconsin, beginning in January of 2025 for the 2024-25 school year, is aimswebPlus.

Notification

Districts are required to notify parents and families of the reading readiness screener results no later than 15 days after the assessment is scored. These notifications must be written in comprehensive language that the student’s family can understand.

If a child was administered a diagnostic reading assessment, those results must also be provided to parents. These notifications must be in a form understandable to the parents or families.

Diagnostic Assessment

Any child that scores below the 25th percentile of the reading readiness screener must be administered a diagnostic reading assessment within 10 days after the reading readiness screener and no later than the 2nd Friday of November within the fall assessment window.

The curriculum council and local education agencies responsible for selecting, procuring, and administering diagnostic reading assessments will recommend which are suitable for public and independent charter schools. The DPI will publish and maintain a list of recommended assessments for school and district implementation.

The DPI-approved diagnostic list can be found here: Diagnostic Assessment Guidance and List.

School boards and independent charter schools that purchase and implement a diagnostic assessment from the list provided by DPI will be eligible for funds through a reimbursement process. DPI cannot guarantee any amount of funding that will be available for this purpose.

• Diagnostic assessments must include:
• Evaluation of rapid naming
• Phonological awareness
• Word recognition
• Spelling
• Vocabulary
• Listening comprehension
• Oral reading fluency and reading comprehension (when developmentally appropriate)
• Family Notification

Beginning in the 2024-2025 school year, teachers will provide parents and families with the results of the reading readiness screener no later than 15 days after the assessment is scored in an understandable format that includes all of the following:

• Score on the reading readiness assessment.
• Score in each early literacy skill category assessed by the reading readiness assessment.
• Percentile rank score on the reading readiness assessment, if available.
• Definition of “at-risk” and the score on the reading readiness assessment that would indicate that a pupil is at-risk.
• Plain language description of the literacy skills the reading readiness assessment is designed to measure.

If a child was administered a diagnostic reading assessment, those results must also be provided to parents. These notifications must be in a form understandable to the parents or families.

Notifications should include the child’s score in each of the literacy skills assessed, along with a plain-language description of those skills and the score that would indicate whether a child is at risk of challenges with reading development.

If a school cannot acquire the diagnostic results within 15 days, it is reasonable for the school to communicate with the family that they are administering a diagnostic assessment to verify the results of the initial screener and will speak again once they have those results. If the school has any additional information (like classroom data) that could be shared with the family, then they are encouraged to do so for parent-teacher transparency and instructional clarity.

If a diagnostic reading assessment indicates that a child is at risk, the following information must be included. Information about how to make a special education referral. Description of the common indicators and characteristics of dyslexia (found in Wisconsin Informational Guidebook for Dyslexia and Related Conditions).

Personal Reading Plans (PRP)

Any child in grades K-3 who scores below the 25th percentile on the reading readiness screener must receive a personal reading plan. Parents must sign and return the personal reading plan to school.

A plan is considered completed when the school and the parents decide that the child has met the goals of the plan and has shown an adequate rate of progress according to grade-specific measures. For children enrolled in 5K, adequate rates of progress to exit a personal reading plan are determined by nonsense word fluency and phoneme segmentation fluency.

For children enrolled in grades 1, 2, or 3, an adequate rate of progress to exit a personal reading plan is determined by oral reading fluency.

School districts have the authority to select and implement the tool(s) they believe are best to measure those reading foundational skills and should consult the manuals of those tools to determine whether an adequate rate of progress has been achieved. This information can be found at https://www.cesa6.org/guide/wisconsin-act-20.

Any questions can be directed to Katie Hatlestad at khatlestad@owk12.org or 715-229-4488 ext. 1274.