5 Multitudes Screening Sequence
Multitudes is designed to identify students at risk of reading difficulties and to provide valuable information for instructional and intervention planning. For this purpose, we describe a two-step process for screening. The first step involves a carefully selected set of measures that have been found to most accurately identify students who require additional instructional support. The second includes a battery of follow up assessments that can further identify and pinpoint a child’s instructional needs.
5.1 Step 1: Universal Screening
The set of measures included in universal screening was selected following empirical analyses exploring the sensitivity and specificity of identification (see the Section titled “Universal Screening”). The battery in each grade takes about 10 minutes and is designed for one-on-one administration between a teacher and child using linked devices.
- Kindergarten: Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Expressive Vocabulary (EVO), Rapid Automatized Naming-Objects (RANO), and Elision-Receptive (ELIR)
- Grade 1: Letter Sound Fluency (LSF), Expressive Vocabulary (EVO), Rapid Automatized Naming-Objects (RANO), and Word Reading (WRE)
- Grade 2: Spelling (SPE), Expressive Vocabulary (EVO), Rapid Automatized Naming-Letters (RANL), and Word Reading (WRE)
5.2 Step 2: Follow-up Measures
The follow-up measures were designed to be instructionally relevant, supporting teachers and other educational professionals in developing student profiles that identify specific strengths and areas of need to guide decision-making. This is a unique feature of Multitudes that moves beyond identification of risk, to guide intervention.
For children whose universal screening scores fall within the “support needed” range, the Multitudes platform will present the follow-up step as ‘recommended’ (highlighted in red on Table 1.2). It is important to note that any child may take these additional measures, not just those identified as needing support. In fact, we encourage teachers and other educational professionals to use the available Multitudes measures at their discretion to gain a deeper understanding of their students’ ability levels Table 5.1.
| Measure | K | G1 | G2 | K | G1 | G2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expressive Vocabulary | • | • | • | |||
| Word Reading | • | • | ||||
| Rapid Automatized Naming – Objects | • | • | (○) | |||
| Rapid Automatized Naming – Letters | • | ○ | ○ | |||
| Elision – Receptive | • | (○) | ||||
| Letter Naming Fluency | • | |||||
| Letter Sound Fluency | • | |||||
| Spelling | • | |||||
| Sentence Repetition | ○ | ○ | ○ | |||
| Listening Comprehension | ○ | (○) | (○) | |||
| Narrative Story Production | (○) | (○) | ||||
| Nonword Reading | (○) | (○) | ||||
| Nonword Repetition | (○) | (○) | (○) | |||
| Oral Reading Fluency | ○ | |||||
| Rapid Visual Processing Letters | (○) | (○) | (○) | |||
| Rapid Visual Processing Symbols | (○) | (○) | (○) | |||
| Receptive Vocabulary | (○) | (○) | (○) | |||
| Semantic Mapping | (○) | (○) | (○) | |||
| Digit Span | (○) | (○) | (○) | |||
| Elision – Expressive | (○) | ○ | ○ |
Note:
\(\bullet\) indicates measures included in the universal screener.
\(\circ\) indicates measures administered as follow-up assessments.
(\(\circ\)) indicates additional measures administered beyond the follow-up step.