Early Literacy Assessment Tool

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Introduction

Hello Colorado teachers and leaders, and welcome to the 2022-2023 school year!

Amplify is proud to partner with Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and CO districts to continue providing the Early Literacy Assessment Tool on our platform. Schools that choose to participate in ELAT on our platform receive the following tools and supports for:

  • mCLASS:Acadience Reading (formerly DIBELS Next): CDE approved interim assessment
  • mCLASS:IDEL: CDE approved interim assessment in Spanish
  • mCLASS:Acadience Reading Diagnostic (formerly DIBELS Deep): CDE approved diagnostic measure

Select from the navigation tabs on the left to learn more about:

  • Valuable instructional supports for teachers.
  • Parent and home supports.
  • Early literacy skill practice for students through the Boost app.
  • Professional development sessions, online courses, and reporting tutorials.

Updates and frequently asked questions

  • Updates

  • Frequently asked questions

Learning opportunities

Professional development opportunities

2022-23 ELAT Professional Development

Through ELAT, we will be offering a variety of sessions for schools who are year 1 or year 2 and beyond in their ELAT implementation. Please bookmark and frequently visit the professional development site where you will find full session details and ways to register for sessions such as:

  • mCLASS: Acadience Reading Administration and Scoring Refresher for educators who have been previously trained in administration and need to refresh their scoring and practice the measures.
  • mCLASS: Acadience Reading Administration for those whose schools are returning to ELAT and have teachers who need to be trained in Acadience Reading.
  • IDEL Administration and Data Interpretation for educators who are using the IDEL assessment for foundational literacy skills in Spanish.

After each benchmark, we will also be offering:

  • Data Analysis for Leaders
  • Instructional Planning Across the Tiers for Leaders
  • Data Analysis for Teachers
  • Instructional Planning Across the Tiers for Teachers

Visit the professional development site to learn more.

Office hours

ELAT Virtual Learning

Newsletters

Click to review the monthly Early Literacy Assessment Tool (ELAT) newsletter for 2022-23:

Benchmark Windows

2022-23 Benchmark Windows

Beginning of Year (BOY) Benchmark ELAT students need to be assessed within the first 30 calendar days of school.  Kindergarten consideration: Through a provision in HB15-1323 you may choose to use up to 60 calendar days for initial benchmarking. However, we would encourage districts to continue with best practice by benchmarking and providing support early in the year, within the first 30 days. Completion of your READ BOY assessment within the 60 days will inform the literacy component of your readiness assessment.
   
Middle of Year (MOY) Benchmark Select a two-week window that falls within November 30th – December 18th OR January 4th – 21st. (Your dates need to be prior to the holiday break OR after the holiday break.)
   
End of Year (EOY) Benchmark Select a two-week window that falls within April 26th – May 14th.

Please use this form to set your Benchmark Windows within the mCLASS System so that teachers will be able to assess within your designated window at back to school. The form is due by August 30

Resources

Progress Monitoring

ELAT Progress Monitoring Guidance

Within the READ Act and ELAT there are no requirements for progress monitoring benchmark or above benchmark students. The best practices would include progress monitoring to ensure that students remain on track to achieving the next reading milestones.

Considerations for progress monitoring B/AB:Progress monitoring for these students could occur in a timely way to inform instruction. Remember that all green is not equal.

  • You may want to monitor those students who are at the lower end of benchmark.
  • Progress monitoring data should always be used to inform instructional next steps.

However, for students who score below or well below benchmark, please use the guidance outlined below.

   
Students scoring range Progress monitoring intervals
Below benchmark every 10-12 days
Well below benchmark every 7-10 days

 

Parent Resources

Parent Resource Site – mCLASS Home Connect
Parents can learn more about the literacy skills young readers need to develop and access activities to support their students at home. This site is available in English and Spanish. No login information is necessary to access it. Please share this resource with your parents through your website, newsletters and other communications.

Professional Development Opportunities

2022-23 ELAT Professional Development

Through ELAT, we will be offering a variety of professional development sessions throughout the year. Please visit and bookmark our professional development site. (amplify.com/elat-pd). You will find all of the details regarding professional development offerings and links to register on our professional development site. Remember to check back throughout the year!

 

For the beginning of the year, for schools who are in their 2nd year in ELAT and beyond, we are are offering the following sessions:

  • mCLASS: Acadience Reading Administration and Scoring Refresher
    • This session is intended for educators who have been previously trained in administration and need to refresh their scoring and practice the measures.
  • mCLASS: Acadience Reading Administration
    • This session is an initial training meant for those whose schools are returning to ELAT and have teachers who need to be trained in Acadience Reading. (ELAT has never previously offered this session so we are excited to support schools with this!)
  • IDEL Administration and Data Interpretation
    • This session is intended for educators who are using the IDEL assessment for foundational literacy skills in Spanish.

 

After each benchmark, we will also be offering:

  • Data Analysis for Leaders
  • Instructional Planning Across the Tiers for Leaders
  • Data Analysis for Teachers
  • Instructional Planning Across the Tiers for Teachers

 

Look out for our newsletters to learn about other sessions and reminders to register for our on-going professional development sessions.

Enrollment

Enrollment Data in the mCLASS System

For support with your enrollment process, please use the following helpful tools:

Important: The ability for the CDE to compile accurate assessment data for your district and school is directly impacted by the accuracy of your data. 

Required demographic fields for each student:

  1. Gender
  2. Race/Ethnicity
  3. Eligible for Special Education
  4. English as a Second Language

Optional Custom Demographics

Amplify has created custom demographics so districts/schools can view aggregate data by different demographics when working in the Reporting and Analysis Suite.  We believe this will allow you to better understand your different sub-populations’ growth and needs.  Please note that it is not a requirement for you to use this feature but is here for your convenience of monitoring data. 

Optional custom demographics for students that has been set up for all ELAT Districts:

  1. Read Plan – Yes, No
  2. Summer School – Yes, No
  3. Kindergarten – Full, Half

To create additional custom demographic categories for your district (up to 7 more), please contact Customer Care at 800.823.1969 or help@amplify.com.  

 

Please Note:  

When enrolling Staff & Students, it is important to only enroll staff members that will be accessing mCLASS and students being assessed.  (Example, MS and HS should not be rostered.) Also, we recommend that you do an upload/check your rosters before BOY, MOY and EOY.

Need help?

Our chat agents are standing by to assist you! Simply log in and click the orange chat button in the bottom right corner. Here, you can chat live with our support team or search the help collection for step-by-step guidance.