Kindergarten Screening Probes

iSTEEP Learning is pleased to announce the publication of the Kindergarten Early Numeracy and Literacy Assessment developed by Dr. Amanda VanDerHeyden.  This assessment consists of six measures in early reading, early mathematics, and early writing. The measures can be administered individually or class-wide following standardized administration procedures. The measures have demonstrated value for screening to identify students who may be in need of Tiers 1, 2, or 3 intervention.

The reading component provides an assessment early literacy skills that are prerequisite to reading.  Hence the assessment is similar to DIBELS for reading.  The reliability and validity is excellent and similar to DIBELS but the assessment is much quicker and efficient because it is administered in a group format.  In addition to reading, the assessment process also includes brief assessments for math and writing. 

It is recommended that screening occur three times per year, using three measures-- one measure in early reading, early writing, and early math. The easier measures include the Discrimination probe and the Draw Circles or Circle Number probes. The more challenging probes include Beginning Word Sounds and Write Number probes. The appropriate screening task should be selected based upon (a) local expectations for learning in the student’s classroom (we recommend referring to state performance standards) and (b) the level of competence of the students. In Mathematics, measures are available that sample answers from 1-10 and 1-20 to permit a closer fit to the local curriculum.

Typically at the fall screening, the Discrimination, Copy Letters, and Draw Circles probes are administered. At winter, the Beginning Word Sounds, Copy Letters, and Circle Number probes are administered. In spring, the Beginning Word Sounds, Copy Letters, and Write Number probes are administered. Five of the measures are self-paced and require only 1 minute of administration time class-wide. The Beginning Word Sounds probe is paced by the teacher or assessor and requires 2 minutes and 10 seconds to administer class-wide.

Following screening, the measures are useful to evaluate need for intervention with at-risk students and represent a range of difficulty such that assessment teams can select easier tasks to evaluate performance and progress with lower-performing students.

For additional information, contact iSTEEP or Dr. Vanderheyden (email:  amandavande@gmail.com)

To order the assessments, click here