TPRI which has been administered for years has become optional for 2011-2012 school year. We will use STAR Early Literacy for grades K-2 for early screening. STAR Early Literacy is approved by Texas Education Agency. Please click
here to see the 2011-12 Commissioners List of Reading Instruments.
The K-5 team at Cosmos has made great strides in providing teachers and students with assessments that measure student growth and performance in reading and writing. This year we have added a phonics assessment for grades K-2 and a high frequency word assessment for grades 3-5. Beginning this year, all teachers K-5, will conduct one-on-one reading and writing assessments for students. The addition of these assessments allows for authentic assessments while measuring student progress and growth.
The state requires that all Texas public schools use a reading instrument from the commissioners approved list. Harmony Schools began administering the TPRI in 2008; this test was selected because the state provided this resource, and it was our introduction into reading readiness assessments. For the last three years teachers have administered the Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) and STAR Early Literacy (SEL) to all K-3 grade students. Both tests screen for reading readiness and identify students who are at risk for reading difficulties. Both tests are designed to measure student growth and performance in phonemic awareness, graphophonemic knowledge, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Both TPRI and SEL are on the commissioners list of approved instruments. The big difference between these two tests is the time involved in administering these assessments.
With the addition of the reading, writing, phonics, and high frequency word assessments this year, we would like to offer campuses the option of eliminating the TPRI beginning this year. Campuses will be required instead to administer the SEL for the BOY, MOY, and EOY for ALL k-2 students. Teachers will save the SEL classroom summary sheet for BOY, MOY, and EOY, and submit these results to their campus administrators, department chair, and campus cluster chair. The campus cluster chair will in turn submit the results for each campus in one e-mail. These results will be used to fulfill the state requirements.