This article from Brendan Lee looks at what we can do to support school leaders in implementing the science of learning.

Hundreds of TFE members tuned into Jack Neil’s session in August 2021. If you haven’t see it yet, you can catch up in the Members’ Area. While Jack tackled many member questions in the session, he couldn’t get to all of them.

Enjoy this blog of his responses to a few key questions from this talk. If you have more questions feel free to add a comment to this blog post.

First Question: What assessments do you use?

We use the following assessments.

• Sounds Write screener and segmenting and blending assessment

• Castles and Coltheart 2nd Edition (CC2)

• Phonological Awareness Skills Test (P.A.S.T)

• Morrison and McCall Spelling Scale

• DIBELS Data System that target sounds, letter ID, word accuracy, segmenting blending, fluency, comprehension among other things.

For writing we split our assessment into writing TRANSCRIPTION assessments and writing IDEATION assessments. We have established school wide level expectations on both as success criteria and working towards moderating these to refine accuracy and information to inform teaching.