Third-Grade Screening, English Learners, and Tier 2 Decisions
Ms. Rivera is a Grade 3 teacher reviewing fall universal screening. Of 30 students, 9 fall below the benchmark cut score on oral reading fluency. The group includes 4 English learners and 2 students who speak African American English. The screener is a 1-minute grade-level passage; the school’s decision rule says “below benchmark = Tier 2.” Ms. Rivera has 30 minutes daily for small-group reading and one interventionist who can take 4 students twice a week. She worries about placing English learners in Tier 2 when their issue may be language proficiency, and about missing a student with a real decoding problem. The interventionist is available for diagnostic assessments but only 40 minutes total. The school also wants families notified promptly.
1. How should Ms. Rivera interpret the screening data and decide who receives Tier 2?
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Do not automatically place all nine in Tier 2. Screening is a flag, not a diagnosis. First, verify the data: check attendance, whether the passage was familiar, and whether the student understood the task. For the four English learners, compare their oral reading fluency to true peers and consider English language proficiency; a low score may reflect vocabulary and language, not decoding. For the two African American English speakers, do not count dialect-influenced pronunciations as reading errors unless they change meaning. Use the 40 minutes of interventionist time for diagnostic assessments on the most ambiguous cases. A defensible Tier 2 group is the five or six students with word-reading or fluency scores well below benchmark plus teacher evidence. This avoids both over-identification and missing a decoding problem.
2. What diagnostic information should she gather, and how can it fit into 40 minutes?
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Gather phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, real and nonsense word reading, and a running record with error analysis. For English learners, add an oral language measure and compare listening comprehension with reading comprehension. For dialect speakers, use a linguistically informed error analysis and score meaning-changing errors only. Also collect classroom work samples and a 2-minute retell. The interventionist can do the nonsense-word and running-record checks in 10 minutes per student; the teacher can do the oral language and retell. Do not use the screener as the sole diagnostic. This is feasible within 40 minutes if the highest-priority five are assessed first and the rest are scheduled for the next cycle.
3. How should she communicate with families and avoid over-identification?
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Communicate that the screening is a starting point and that Tier 2 is flexible, not a label. For families, explain the specific skill being targeted and the progress-monitoring plan; avoid saying the child is “behind” in a way that implies a disability. For English learner families, use interpreters and clarify that language acquisition is not a reading disorder. Document decisions and review after six to eight weeks. If a student does not respond to Tier 2, then consider a referral; do not refer before trying appropriate instruction. This protects against over-identification and is fair to students whose dialect or language differs from the test sample.