Screening Basics

What is screening?

Screening is the administration of a reading, math or behavioral assessment for the purpose of identifying students who may benefit from additional instructional support, and to get information for determining the optimal allocation of resources across the district or educational agency.

All students should be assessed during scheduled screening periods using a general screener, such as aReading, aMath, or SAEBRS. After identifying students who might benefit from instructional support, additional screeners can be used if needed to provide more specific information on student skills, or to get starting scores for progress monitoring.

Universal screening is typically conducted  three times a year, in fall, in winter and in spring. In order to support schools that operate year round, FastBridge has the capacity to offer up to five screenings per year. Students can only be tested once during a screening period. The school district defines the dates of the screening periods. You can see the dates of each screening period by hovering your mouse over the screening period name on the assessment page. You may assess your students at any point during the current screening period. However, only scores that are collected during the screening period dates will factor into the local norms in reports.

What assessments are used?

FastBridge offers both computer-administered and teacher-administered screening assessments.  

*CBMcomp requires administration of CBMreading first

**The teacher completes the devMilestones and SAEBRS online without the student present

Teachers and students have separate FastBridge login credentials and views. For more information on setting up student login access, see Setting Up Student Login Access for instructions.

Curriculum-Based Assessments (i.e., CBMreading, CBMmath, earlyReading, and earlyMath): The same forms are used for each screening period unless otherwise noted.

CBMreading: There are three passages that should be read by each student during each screening period. The median score will be displayed for each screening period. The same three passages are used for all screening periods, however, the order of the passages changes for each screening.

CBMmath: The grade level General Outcome Measure (GOM) -- displayed in green -- should be used as the screener for each screening period.

earlyReading: The assessments highlighted in green on the screening page should be given each screening period. These are the assessments that make up the Composite score. Some of the assessments that make up the Composite score change over the course of a school year (Fall, Winter, and Spring). These changes reflect the developmental sequence of the reading skill progression. You may give any other earlyReading measure as well, but they will not factor into the Composite score.

earlyMath: The assessments highlighted in green on the screening page should be given each screening period. These are the assessments that make up the Composite score. Some of the assessments that make up the Composite score change over the course of a school year (Fall, Winter, and Spring). These changes reflect the developmental sequence of the math skill progression. You may give any other earlyMath measure as well, but they will not factor into the Composite score.

aMath and aReading: These assessments are adaptive and the computer will display all necessary items specific to each student. Student login access can be set up to allow students to log in on their own and complete the assessments.

SAEBRS and mySAEBRS,: These assessments are online rating scales and apply to varying grades. .

• SAEBRS: teacher scale for students in kindergarten through grade 12
• mySAEBRS: student scaled for students in grades 2-12

SAEBRS is a rating scale that the teacher completes online without the student present. mySAEBRS is an online rating scale that the student completes.