Dear FCPS: Universal Screeners WILL NOT Identify Students in Need if the Data is Falsified, Misrepresented, or Misunderstood
Monies paid out during dispute resolution processes
The headline above appears in an internal Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) report and precedes the following two entries about two Fairview Elementary School students.
For Student One:
Lack of acceptance of dyslexia by teachers
For Student Two:
private dyslexia diagnosis; student parentally placed at [redacted school].
The report stated, too:
Several appeals were filed due to difficulties at local screening and eligibility for students with dyslexia, including two administrative reviews at Laurel Ridge and one at Fairview.
These entries appear in FCPS’ internal “Hot Topics” report, which covers the 2015-2017 period and is dated December 11, 2017.
Why does this matter now?
There’s More to the Story
June 13, 2017, toward the end of the 2016-17 school year—which is a time period covered in the “Hot Topics” report—Fairview Elementary School Principal Lynn Meyer sent staff an email about how to present end-of-year iReady data. (See e-mail at the end of this article.)
iReady is FCPS’ Universal Screener. According to the FCPS site:
“Universal screening gives teachers information about strengths and needs in students’ basic reading and mathematics skills. Gaps in basic skills are the root of many later learning difficulties. Early detection and intervention in these gaps can help students reach their potential.
“In FCPS, we use i-Ready as our Universal Screener.”
Meyer forwarded her staff the following from Annie Stallings, Literacy Specialist/Coach, Fairview Elementary School:
“There seems to be some concern about I-READY information that is being listed on the pink/blue cards. The End of Year report is causing some great anxiety as it places students that are grade level students below level. If I am understanding the report correctly, this report will place any student in which scores reflect an overall “early” for their agrade [sic] as below level. In contrast, the standard view report reflects the students work as on level for the overall score. If the EOY report is used for the pink/blue cards, then we should expect that half of more of our students will be placed as below level. I would recommend using the standard view but placing an E under the categories where a student is on grade level but in the early range. Please let me know how to advise teacher as they ready for the placement day.”
Meyer prefaced her email with this:
“Some students, who you feel are on grade level in reading or math, are showing up as “early grade level”. These students may have passed DRA2 (lower grades) or SOL upper grades. I-ready is just one piece of data. . . . A student, for example, may have not performed well in i-ready for reading; however, you know from classroom guided reading lessons, reading conferences, DRA2, and/or SOLs that this student is strong in reading. . . .”