How to Use Universal Screening Data to Guide Instruction

The start of the school year is inundated with many tasks. Universal screening is one that I believe should be a priority for all schools because it sets the tone for instructional decision-making. Many school districts administer universal screeners, but teachers are often left wondering what to make of that data. Questions like “How can data best be used?” come up all the time. Additionally, there are often misconceptions that universal screening data primarily identifies students who need intervention support, and while universal screening data can be used in this way, there are other ways to utilize data to your advantage. 

Assessing Skills Leads to Intentional Instruction

Universal literacy screeners are valid and reliable assessment measures that are given to all students three times a year. They are brief measures of reading skills that don’t take up a lot of class time when administered (about one minute long and mostly online). Likewise, the results are immediately available to analyze. Screeners can certainly identify students at risk for reading difficulties, but they can also identify skills a majority of students may be struggling with that could be addressed in Tier 1 instruction.

This can be one of the largest shifts in thinking because it forces us to consider how to support systems change and not just the individual struggling student. As a result of data collected, students can be grouped together for additional support in areas in need of development. Lastly, screeners can help teachers set goals with students and to check on progress toward those goals. When looked at through all of these lenses, screeners provide a wealth of information.

Utilizing Data to Differentiate Tier 1 Instruction

Although universal screening data isn’t as commonly used to analyze core instruction, it’s by far one of the most effective ways to use the data collected. While Tier 1 instruction is what every student receives, it doesn’t mean that students shouldn’t be met where they are when discussing foundational skills.

We can identify skills that a majority of students are struggling with in a classroom and provide opportunities within core instruction to improve those skills. This might involve interleaving, or mixing up, reviewing skills or trying something like a “Walk to Read” model, whereby a team of teachers divide students into groups to assess foundational skills and teach those skills to each group for a specific amount of time.

Of course, this takes much organization, a team approach, and consistent progress monitoring, but it allows us to use Tier 1 preventively as opposed to a one-size-fits-all measure. Students at all levels are still exposed to grade-level materials in other parts of reading through knowledge pieces or read alouds and therefore are continuing to work with texts at or above their grade level.

Utilizing Small Group Instruction and Intervention 

One of the most common ways to use universal screening data is to identify students who are at risk and provide extra support through interventions that take place outside of the classroom setting. This support is additional to core instruction and can ensure the necessary time and intensity that some students need to become successful readers.

In some school settings, there is time allotted for small group instruction. Universal screening data can help to identify a general area of reading that could be addressed with groups during this time of day. After looking at the data, you can determine how students might benefit from being grouped together to address gaps in areas such as decoding and fluency and find ways to incorporate those skills into lessons with those students. These may be skills that some students in your class are still struggling with but don’t affect the majority of students.

Students in your class might be involved in a PALS (Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies) structure while you’re working with a small group of students on a specific area of reading. Both of these types of instruction are meaningful ways to simultaneously support all students in your classroom.

Data Leads to Student Goal Setting

One final way to employ universal screening data is to set goals with students in order to check on progress throughout the year. This allows us to use diagnostic data to pinpoint specific skills that are needed to create a plan that will support students in moving the needle toward the benchmark goal. When we set goals and develop a clear plan, students can follow a path that will help them achieve their goals.

These days, school systems collect copious amounts of data, but data is meant to be analyzed, not just collected. When looked at through the right lens, universal screening data can be a powerful tool in assisting schools in making preventive decisions that impact core instruction as well as intervention support.

Administering universal screeners is just the first step on the road to informing appropriate instructional decisions for all students. Before rushing into gathering the data, it’s important for educators to be armed with an understanding of the multifaceted ways it can be used to support the schoolwide systems that we already have in place.