earlyReading Overview

earlyReading English is a suite of 14 subtests that measure important early literacy skills. When used for screening, 4 subtests are administered at a time. Available for grades K and 1 in English and Spanish. Here is a summary of all of the earlyReading English subtests and the skills measured.

earlyReading English Subtests

When used for screening in grade 1, the FastBridge CBMreading assessment is also included in the earlyReading English Composite in the winter and spring.

Subtest Descriptions

Concepts of Print (COP)

The earlyReading English -- Concepts of Print subtest measures a student’s general understanding of how print is used so other reading skills can emerge. During this subtest, the student points to identify letters, words, and sentences as well as the left-to-right English print directionality. earlyReading English -- Concepts of Print is part of the Composite in the fall of kindergarten.

Onset Sounds (OS)

The earlyReading English -- Onset Sounds subtest assesses a student's phonemic awareness, which is the ability to identify and manipulate the smallest units of sound in spoken language. During the earlyReading English -- Onset Sounds subtest, the teacher asks the student to identify the first sound in a pictured word. earlyReading English -- Onset Sounds is part of the Composite in the fall and winter of kindergarten and can also be used for progress monitoring.

Letter Names (LN)

The earlyReading English -- Letter Names subtest assesses a student’s accuracy and automaticity with naming uppercase and lowercase English letters in isolation. earlyReading English -- Letter Names is part of the Composite in the fall of kindergarten and can also be used for progress monitoring.

Letter Sounds (LS)

The earlyReading English -- Letter Sounds subtest is timed and assesses a student’s ability and automaticity by providing the sounds for lowercase letters in isolation. earlyReading English -- Letter Sounds is part of the Composite in the fall, winter, and spring of kindergarten and it can also be used for progress monitoring.

Word Rhyming (WR)

The earlyReading English -- Word Rhyming subtest assesses a student’s ability to recognize and generate rhyming words. It requires students to identify pictures that rhyme with a given word or generate a rhyme for a pictured word. earlyReading English -- Word Rhyming is an optional screening assessment.

Word Blending (WB)

The earlyReading English -- Word Blending subtest assesses a student’s ability to form a word from individually-spoken sounds called phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in spoken language. During the earlyReading English -- Word Blending subtest, examiners say each phoneme in a word, and the student is expected to say the complete word. earlyReading English -- Word Blending is an optional screening and progress monitoring assessment.

Word Segmenting (WS)

The earlyReading English -- Word Segmenting subtest assesses a student’s ability to separate a spoken word into individual sounds, called phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in spoken language. During the earlyReading English -- Word Segmenting subtest, the examiner says a word and asks the student to say any sounds in the word. earlyReading English -- Word Segmenting is part of the Composite in the winter and spring of kindergarten and the fall, winter, and spring of grade 1. It can also be used for progress monitoring.

Sight Word Reading-50 (SW-50)

The earlyReading English -- Sight Words 50 subtest assesses a student's ability to recognize up to 50 of the most high-frequency English words. The earlyReading English -- Sight Words 50 subtest is distinct from the earlyReading English -- Decodable Words subtest because many high-frequency words are not decodable, and students must recognize them with automaticity rather than by using decoding strategies. earlyReading English -- Sight Words 50 is part of the Composite in the spring of kindergarten and it can also be used for progress monitoring.

Sight Word Reading-150 (SW-150)

The earlyReading English -- Sight Words 150 subtest assesses a student's ability to recognize up to 150 of the most high-frequency English words. The earlyReading English -- Sight Words 150 subtest is distinct from the earlyReading English -- Decodable Words subtest because many high-frequency words are not decodable, and students must recognize them with automaticity rather than by using decoding strategies. earlyReading English -- Sight Words 150 is part of the Composite in the fall, winter, and spring of grade 1 and it can also be used for progress monitoring.

Decodable Words (DW)

The earlyReading English -- Decodable Words subtest assesses a student’s ability to read phonetically regular words. earlyReading English -- Decodable Words can be substituted for earlyReading English -- Nonsense Words in the earlyReading English -- Composite assessment, and it can also be used for progress monitoring.

Nonsense Words (NW)

The earlyReading English -- Nonsense Words subtest is timed and assesses a student’s ability to read phonetically regular "words" (e.g., "vit"). It is called Nonsense Words because the "words" are not real but can all be decoded using English phonics rules. Unlike the earlyReading English -- Decodable Words subtest, it controls for words that students might already know and be able to read without decoding. earlyReading English -- Nonsense Words is part of the Composite for the winter and spring of kindergarten and the fall, winter, and spring of grade 1. It can also be used for progress monitoring.

Sentence Reading (SR)

The earlyReading English -- Sentence Reading subtest assesses a student’s ability to read individual sentences from a story that is accompanied by pictures. As a precursor to CBMreading English, earlyReading English -- Sentence Reading is distinct in two important ways. First, students read from a text that is simple in structure. Second, the paragraphs are short, separated by page, and accompanied by pictures. earlyReading English -- Sentence Reading is part of the Composite for the fall of grade 1.

Oral Repetition (OR)

The Oral Repetition task is a measure of a student’s receptive oral language, particularly students' knowledge of syntax (i.e., sentence structure). During the earlyReading English -- Oral Repetition subtest, the examiner reads 20 sentences of increasing length out loud, one at a time, and asks the student to repeat each sentence verbally, word for word. The earlyReading English -- Oral Repetition subtest is scored using values of 0, 1, or 2, depending on how much detail the student recalls from each sentence, for a possible score of 40 points. earlyReading English -- Oral Repetition is an optional screening subtest that can be used with students having difficulties with oral language development.

Screening with earlyReading English

earlyReading English is recommended for universal screening in kindergarten and grade 1. When used for universal screening, earlyReading includes four specific subtests at each screening period (e.g., fall, winter, spring). The combined scores from the four subtests are weighted to create a Composite score. The following table displays the subtests included in the Composite at each screening period.

earlyReading English -- Composite Subtests

*Nonsense Words is the default decoding measure; Decodable Words can be substituted for Nonsense Words.

The Composite subtest scores are weighted in order to account for the proportional contribution of each subtest to the student’s overall emerging reading skills. Review the Development of earlyReading and earlyMath Composite Score resource to learn more.

Progress Monitoring with earlyReading English

When earlyReading English is used for progress monitoring, one subtest is selected.  The following eight of the earlyReading English subtests are available for progress monitoring.

earlyReading English Subtests Available for Progress Monitoring

• Onset Sounds
• Word Blending
• Word Segmenting
• Letter Names
• Letter Sounds
• Decodable Words
• Nonsense Words
• Sight Words-50
• Sight Words-150

Those earlyReading English subtests available for progress monitoring have 20 different equivalent forms that are used at regular intervals. Equivalent forms are ones that maintain the task difficulty level while varying the sounds, letters, and words on each form to prevent practice effects. FastBridge recommends the following subtests for progress monitoring students in kindergarten and grade 1:

• Kindergarten: Letter Sounds
• Grade 1: CBMreading

These assessments are recommended because they measure the key skills typically taught during those grades.  Nonetheless, not all students will be ready to use the above assessments for progress monitoring. Specifically, if a student is participating in an intervention to learn precursor skills such as blending and segmenting words, or decoding words, other earlyReading English progress measures might be appropriate.  It is important to match the progress measure with the specific reading skills being taught.

There is also a Spanish version of earlyReading.

Subtest Schedule

Below outlines which subtests appear for each season as well as the order they appear in.

Kindergarten

Grade 1