The Effects of an Early Literacy Formative Assessment System

Background: The best formative assessment programs can enable teachers to better match instruction to  student  needs  by  providing  them  with  information  on  student  development  and  instructional  strategies. Historically, San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has not had a common early literacy  formative  assessment  system.   During  the  2011-­‐2012  school  year,  the  District  introduced Phonological  Awareness  Literacy  Screening  (PALS)  in  approximately  half of its pre-­‐kindergarten (pre-­‐k), kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms  (the  PALS  pilot).  SFUSD  randomly  chose  schools  to  participate in the pilot, which consisted of: a teacher training on assessment  administration  and  PALS’  on-­‐line  tool  for  data  analysis;  two facilitator trainings on analyzing data, facilitating grade-­‐level meetings  and  using  the  on-­‐line  system;  three  assessment  administrations; uploading assessment results to the on-­‐line system; and,  three  grade-­‐level  meetings  to  discuss  assessment  results.    A  primary  goal  of  the  pilot  was  to  provide teachers with information on students’ early literacy skills, as well as a series of opportunities to discuss  student  progress  and  develop  their  early  literacy  instructional  practices.    Another  important  project objective was to establish a common language in early literacy. SFUSD partnered with the Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) at Stanford to help with implementation and evaluation of PALS. The remainder of this brief summarizes CEPA’s findings.