Considerations for Remote Universal Screening with FastBridge

Considerations for Remote Universal Screening with FastBridge

As schools across the United States consider ways to continue instruction during school closures, users may wonder how to maintain the use of the FastBridge measures when students attend school from home. This document provides information about how to conduct universal screening with FastBridge assessments when both students and teachers are working from home.

Importance of Remote Screening 

Due to COVID-19, many schools are using different methods of providing instruction.  These include fully online remote teaching, hybrid settings with both remote and on-campus settings, and fully on-campus instruction. Illuminate strongly recommends conducting universal screening regardless of the instructional delivery method being used.  Fall, winter, and spring screening data are one of the best ways for teachers to know how each student is doing in relation to grade-level benchmarks. The variety of instructional delivery methods as well as the stress and disruptions in everyday life make screening data more important than ever.  Given all of these disruptions to the regular routine, conducting screening is even more important because such data will shed light on whether students are below, at, or above grade-level goals.  In order to make certain that screening data collected from students attending school remotely is reliable and valid, certain specific procedures need to be followed.  With the correct procedures in place, screening scores from remote administration methods have been shown to be equally valid to those conducted in school settings.

 Selecting Assessments

As you consider how best to conduct universal screening with your students, keep in mind the following information.

• Test Validity.  Test scores will not be able to be compared to norms and benchmarks if the assessments aren’t administered following the standardized instructions.  It is important to plan out the steps needed in order to conduct remote screenings according to standardized procedures.
• Choice of Tests. Certain FastBridge assessments are online and so students with a device and internet access can complete these assessments from home as long as they are made available to them by the school or district FastBridge manager. Other FastBridge assessments require a teacher to download student forms and administer the assessment directly to the student. The assessment formats will determine the necessary procedures for distance-based screening. Here is a summary of FastBridge screening assessments by administration format.

*This assessment is in the Lab; **These assessments are completed by teachers only and no student participation is required.