The Individual Growth and Development Indicator (IGDI): Which One Doesn't Belong (WODB) task is an early comprehension screening assessment designed for use in pre-Kindergarten multi-tiered systems of support. This article summarizes the purpose, procedures, and evidence base currently available in the literature to support the WODB task.…

We report findings of a validation study comparing two screening tools: the Student Risk Screening Scale-Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE, an adapted version of the Student Risk Screening Scale) and the Social Skills Improvement System-Performance Screening Guide (SSiS-PSG). Participants included 458 kindergarten through fifth-grade…

Early identification of students at risk for writing disabilities is an important step in improving writing performance. Kindergarten students (n = 84) were administered a set of researcher-developed writing tasks (letter writing, sound spelling, word spelling, and sentence writing) and school-administered reading tasks ("Dynamic Indicators…

The extent to which teachers implement evidence-based practices, such as explicit instruction, is critical for improving students' mathematics achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the kindergarten "Early Learning in Mathematics" (ELM) curriculum on teachers' use of explicit mathematics instruction…

Using extant data, the purpose of this study is to examine methods for determining response to intervention (RTI) in a sample of kindergarten English Learners (ELs). Three commonly used methods for determining RTI--(a) benchmark criteria, (b) slope discrepancy, and (c) dual discrepancy--are investigated. Participants included 117 ELs. Students…

The purpose of this study was to extend the research on the "Tests of Early Numeracy Curriculum-Based Measurement" (TEN-CBM) tools by examining concurrent and predictive relations from kindergarten through third grade. Using a longitudinal sample of 535 students, this study included logistic regression, latent cluster, and latent transition…

The present study examined the technical adequacy of curriculum-based measures (CBMs) of early numeracy. Six 1-min early mathematics tasks were administered to 137 kindergarten and first-grade students, along with an omnibus test of early mathematics. The CBM measures included Count Out Loud, Quantity Discrimination, Number Identification, Missing…

The purpose of this study was to examine six early numeracy measures used to monitor the mathematics progress of kindergarten and first-grade students. Seventy-one kindergarten students and 75 first-grade students were administered the measures each week. Delayed-alternate form reliability was adequate for instructional decision making on some…

This study investigated the psychometrics of the "Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Screening Test" (DELV-S) test using confirmatory factor analysis, item response theory, and differential item functioning (DIF). Responses from 1,764 students in kindergarten through second grade were used in the study, with results indicating that the…

Letter-name identification has been widely used as part of early screening to identify children who might be at risk for future word reading difficulty. The goal of the present study was to examine whether a reduced set of letters could have similar diagnostic accuracy rather than a full set (i.e., 26 letters) when used as a screen. First, we…

The purpose of this study was to examine technical and instructional features of a kindergarten curriculum-based measurement (CBM) tool designed to track students' mathematics progress in terms of computational concepts, procedures, and counting strategies. Students in 10 kindergarten classrooms in three elementary schools completed alternate…

This research was conducted to evaluate the technical properties of a set of early numeracy CBM tests that were designed to operationalize early numeric concepts. Data were collected over the course of a school year from 113 kindergarten and first-grade children using nine separate tests with three alternative forms. In addition, test-retest…

This article presents initial findings from a study examining "First Sound Fluency" (FSF), which is a brief measure of early phonemic awareness (PA) skills. Students in prekindergarten and kindergarten (preK and K) were assessed three times (fall, winter, and spring) over one school year, which resulted in multiple reliability and validity…

The authors investigated four spelling scoring metrics: total words correct, correct letter sequences, correct sounds, and phonological coding scoring (developed by Tangel and Blachman) across two studies with children in kindergarten. The relationships between spelling scores and measures of reading, phonological awareness, and writing skills…

Spelling is a language skill supported by several linguistic knowledge sources, including phonemic, orthographic, and morphological knowledge. Typically, however, spelling assessment procedures do not capture the development and use of these linguistic knowledge sources. The purpose of this article is to describe a new assessment system, the…