Step assessment reading levels
STEP | UChicago Impact
STEP provides districts and networks a meaningful, developmental literacy assessment that offers schools, leaders, and teachers rich, reliable student data. With STEP data, educators are equipped to increase the number of students on track to reading proficiency. In addition, STEP's team of Managers of Professional Learning empowers teachers to interpret and act on STEP data to improve and/or modify literacy practices to boost student achievement.
According to STEP’s validation report, students who reach STEP 12 by the end of third grade have an 86% chance of meeting or exceeding state standards.
The STEP Assessment
The STEP Assessment is an online, formative literacy assessment that provides educators with the insight needed to tailor instruction to meet the literacy needs of their students. When using STEP, teachers assess students at multiple points throughout the year to determine current achievement and instructional needs.
Students progress across 19 distinct developmental steps toward the level of reading proficiency expected for grades Kindergarten through 5th grade. STEP offers two distinct assessment series, “Construct & Stabilize” and “Strengthen & Expand.”
STEP: Construct & Stabilize Series
The Construct & Stabilize series supports students with reading levels equivalent to the Kindergarten through 3rd grade levels and is designed to inform teachers about student progression against primary literacy skills necessary to build a strong foundation for later literacy development. The series is available in two equally leveled fiction texts, as well as one nonfiction text, and assesses the following reading skills:
- Phonemic Awareness
- Concepts about Print
- Letter/Word Knowledge
- Reading Accuracy and Use of Word Solving Strategies
- Fluency and Reading Rate
- Comprehension Conversation
- Retelling
- Developmental Spelling
STEP: Strengthen and Expand Series
The Strengthen & Expand series is designed to support students with reading levels equivalent to the 3rd through 5th grades.
The series builds upon the foundational literacy skills established in the Construct & Stabilize series to deepen comprehension skills. It features nonfiction text with an emphasis on Science and Social Studies. The series assesses the following reading skills:
- Vocabulary
- Author’s Craft and Purpose
- Text Analysis and Features
- Comprehension
- Written Response
- Independent Compare and Contrast
Online Progress Monitoring
Online Progress Monitoring allows teachers to isolate and monitor a singular reading skill or set of skills aligned to each student’s assessed needs. All associated materials and resources for Online Progress Monitoring are available electronically through the Data Management System.
This new system enables teachers to continue virtually collecting and using formative reading data while facilitating virtual instruction—allowing them to differentiate their instructional practices just as they would when teaching in the classroom.
All data captured for interactive, online progress monitoring is housed within the STEP Data Management System, thus enabling a clear picture of each student’s ongoing needs and progress.
The STEP Data Management System
The STEP Data Management System supports educators in using data to inform literacy instruction for all students, including those struggling to read proficiently as well as those reading at or above grade level. Teachers use the system to individually administer the STEP Assessment to students and results are viewed in real-time. As a student works through the various components of the assessment, the teacher captures student responses and that information is immediately available for scoring and analysis—enabling teachers to quickly make data-informed adjustments to their literacy instruction. STEP Assessment results can be filtered to highlight student achievement and progress toward reading goals and viewed at the network/district, school, grade, classroom, group, and individual student levels.
STEP Data Displays
The STEP Data Management System provides comprehensive insight into students’ reading abilities through historical, descriptive student data. The system generates a range of data displays, negating the need for educators to create charts.
The Network/District Wall
This Network/District Wall is a display of aggregate STEP achievement levels and growth for all schools within a network or district. Administrators can use this display to determine if assessment results have been entered, scored, and completed, as well as quickly identify high-level achievement trends across their schools.
The School Wall
The School Wall display provides a high-level view that indicates achievement and growth across and within grades represented in a school. School administrators and reading coaches use this display to identify achievement trends to determine and prioritize instructional supports for students and teachers.
The Classroom Wall
The Classroom Wall display provides teachers a snapshot of achievement for students in their classroom.
Teachers use this display to track progress and growth within the term. This information should then be utilized to create groups and inform instructional planning.
Student Displays
Student level displays offer access to a cumulative record of each student’s performance that depicts the rate and dates of progress. This helpful display indicates if a student is progressing consistently or has hit a plateau at a particular developmental level.
Component Level Display
This display provides teachers with details of achievement across the components of the assessment, such as rate, fluency, and comprehension. Users are also able to view target levels and student results for each item within the assessment.
Assessment Scoring Deep Dive
Rather than scoring each assessment individually, the Assessment Scoring display allows teachers to score all student responses for the same question at one time. Here, teachers can quickly compare and score each response against the STEP target response and indicate if the student provided adequate text evidence.
STEP Professional Learning
STEP Professional Learning (SPL) is designed to develop the knowledge base of teachers and support staff in developing the necessary skills for achieving reliable assessment data. The combination of the STEP Assessment data and comprehensive professional learning build staff capacity to provide instruction that promotes strong reading outcomes. Educators also gain a deep understanding of literacy best practices that enhance their overall instruction. Through STEP Professional Learning support, staff learn how to:
- Interpret and respond instructionally to assessment data
- Qualify which literacy skills should be progress monitored for each student and develop a process for doing so
- Create and implement robust, effective reading lessons informed by STEP data
SPL occurs in whole group, differentiated, and small group settings and is customized to align with school goals, teacher, and student needs.
The SPL experience is unlike other professional development sessions. It is highly interactive and supports teachers in transforming concepts into actionable practice.
The outcome of SPL is the use of school-wide, systematic, and consistent approaches to instruction, scoring, and collaborative planning practices. Teachers will feel supported and empowered to continue this work independently and effectively after receiving ample STEP support over multiple years.
Why STEP Professional Learning Works
In 2017, The Learning Policy Institute, a non-partisan research institute based in Palo Alto, California, sought to identify the most effective components of professional development. Their research resulted in seven key features for effective professional development sessions, all of which SPL exemplifies.
Next Step Guided Reading Assessment
Next Step Guided Reading Assessment
Data Management
Assess, Decide, Guide
Assess
Pinpoint your teaching focus, select texts, and plan and teach powerful lessons in four easy steps.
Decide
Use data to determine students’ reading levels, form instructional groups, and create effective action plans for student learning goals.
Guide
Access professional development tools, resources, and videos online to plan personalized instruction with lessons to match reading stages.
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Get to know your readers in
four easy steps
1 . Reading Interest Survey (whole class)
Uncover students’ reading interests to match readers to just-right texts.
2. Word Knowledge Inventory (whole class)
Determine skills in phonological awareness and phonics to inform your word study instruction.
3. Comprehension Assessment (whole class)
Evaluate students' higher-level thinking skills and identify students who need immediate support. (For Grades K–2, this is administered as a read-aloud assessment.)
4. Reading Assessment Conference (one on one)
Obtain precise data on phonics, word recognition, fluency, and comprehension to determine instructional levels and identify skills and strategies to target during guided reading lessons.
Meet the Authors
Jan Richardson, Ph.D., is an educational consultant who has trained thousands of teachers and works with schools and districts to ensure that every student succeeds in reading. Her work is informed by her experience as a reading specialist, a Reading Recovery teacher leader, a staff developer, and a teacher of every grade from kindergarten through high school.
Maria Walther, Ed.D., is an author and expert in literacy with more than three decades of experience as a first-grade teacher in the Chicago area. She was honored as Illinois Reading Educator of the Year and earned the ICARE for Reading Award for fostering a love of reading in children.
Testimonials
Targets Instruction Efficiently
An all-in-one product that simplifies and clarifies the complex process of assessing and teaching reading.
Gives teachers a full picture of a reader so they can target instruction more efficiently and effectively.
Rosanne L. Kurstedt, Ph.D.
Educational Consultant and Staff Developer
Westfield, NJ
Simple Yet Effective
The Assess-Decide-Guide framework is simple yet effective, and will undoubtedly increase the effectiveness of core instruction.
Terry J. Dade
Assistant Superintendent
Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Clear and Pragmatic
The results have been amazing. Guided reading instruction is no longer a puzzle. Teachers are thrilled with the clarity and pragmatic shifts in their practice.
Ellen Lewis
Reading Specialist
Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Valuable Teaching Points
Valuable teaching points can be derived from the simple checklists for decoding and retelling, as well as from the quality comprehension questions.
The assessment texts are appropriately leveled and of high interest to kids, making this assessment a breeze to administer!
Melanie E. Smith
Reading Specialist, NBCT
South Salem Elementary School, Salem, VA
34_Bredikhina_Teaching Methods.cdr
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Many teachers and parents are wondering if teenagers should take the Cambridge exams. And, of course, they have a number of their own arguments against it. In this article, we will look at the benefits that Cambridge exams can provide.
1. Objective and independent assessment of student knowledge
In learning English, an important role, along with the learning process itself, is played by understanding and confirming the level actually achieved. In most cases, a teacher teaching a child can give the most accurate and accurate picture of his abilities. However, in a lesson format, it is often physically difficult for a teacher to assess all the qualities of each student at the same time (especially if there are many students in the group).
Moreover, a prestigious school or an eminent tutor may not always guarantee results.
Now children can walk and study English for several years, and parents, of course, are interested in knowing what level teenagers have reached, what they have learned and what a child can do after six months, a year of study. That is why there is a separate organization, specially trained people who regularly undergo annual assessments and monitoring in order to provide a unified standardized assessment of students' knowledge.
The Cambridge exams help track and provide an independent assessment of how well students can use English as a medium of communication. The exams carefully test reading, listening, speaking and writing skills. An expert assessment of knowledge can be an effective solution to an issue where you can be sure, because the service is provided by an independent person.
2. Versatility
A distinctive feature of the Cambridge exams is their stepped structure. Exams are structured in such a way that the student could, passing the exams, sort of climb up the ladder.
So you can determine and confirm its level at any stage. As a result, the teacher can use the CEFR scale as a "measurement" of students' knowledge throughout the work with them.
3. Language trainer
Passing any exam, including a trial one, works primarily as a simulator. For example, people involved in sports repeatedly take part in various kinds of competitions, honing their skills. And in this situation, parents do not wait for the next time for better results. Parents understand that children who have coped with a large number of difficulties show better results, unlike those who experience them primarily.
As for the language skills acquired by students during the preparation and passing of the Cambridge exams, they are of the most practical orientation. For example, the emphasis in the oral part is on building a dialogue, expressing one's point of view, agreeing or objecting to the interlocutor. Listening and reading is aimed at understanding and orienting in various kinds of situations - first-person narratives or dialogues and discussions, in the context of more formal and less formal language and topics.
As a result, the practical skills acquired in the process of preparing for the exam will allow you to confidently use English in real situations.
4. Emotion Trainer
Teachers and parents care about children and their increasing workload, do not want to expose the child to additional stress and anxiety, and, as a result, are wondering if it is worth taking an exam at the end of each year. There are studies confirming that a small amount of stress in life is even beneficial and can have a beneficial effect. When an experience is experienced several times with positive emotions and consolidated with a positive result, it contributes to the formation of confidence in the child that he will cope with this obstacle.
Moreover, Cambridge exams are fundamentally different from state exams such as the GIA and the Unified State Examination, because one of the tasks of this institute is to create such an atmosphere in which the examinee is as comfortable as possible - these are friendly examiners who smile at you, and the experience of direct live communication .
And the fear of failing the exam in this case also finds its solution in an optimistic way - the examinee in any case receives a certificate - if the points scored are not enough to obtain a certificate of this level, then a certificate is issued to a lower level.
So, in the case of the Cambridge exams, the answer to the question “is it worth putting extra stress on students?” is definitely yes.
5. Landmark and international recognition
For a tutor or teacher, the initial knowledge that the student will have an exam will also be a kind of guideline, navigation when building a lesson plan. It is very important for the teacher himself to understand what the client wants to achieve in the end, and the control of the level of achievement of results is subconsciously turned on.
Having passed the Cambridge exam, a student, along with a significant certificate in his portfolio, interest in which is now actively growing in schools, also receives one of his first international documents recognized in educational, business and commercial organizations around the world.
