As I was drafting and recording this week's YouTube video, I thought about last spring, when my oldest son was staying up much too late doing homework for his AP classes. After a few months of that he was having a hard time getting out of bed, and a few mornings he asked to stay home from school because he was so tired.
While asking to miss school may sound typical for a teenage boy, this was very unlike him. So I took him to the doctor, he had a blood test, and he was diagnosed with mono.
(Thankfully, after a few months, he was mostly back to his old self.)
Being tired told us something was wrong. It did not tell us WHAT was wrong. The test did that.
Screening data works the same way. You give the universal screener, the scores come back, and if you paid for the reporting piece you get a chart of red, yellow, green and blue squares. Those squares tell you who is at risk. They do not tell you what to teach.
That is not a flaw in the screener. A screener finishes its whole job the moment it hands you those scores. It answers the question, "Who is at risk?"
The assessment that answers "what do I teach next?" is a diagnostic. It is a different tool, used to answer a different question.
In my newest YouTube video, I explain how a diagnostic differs from a screener, and how and when to use one.
P.S. If you've got a struggling reader on your heart right now, you still have time to turn things around before you're too far into the year. I'm hosting a free, live webinar this month where I'll walk you through four steps to help. Come with your questions; I'll be there live to answer them. Sign up here!