This article explains what Screening Assessments and Screening windows are and how the different assessment types are used.
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.
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.
Screening Periods
Screening Periods dates are defined by the school district. Universal screening is typically conducted three times a year in Fall, Winter, and Spring and can last a minimum of 1 week and maximum of 20 weeks. Students can only be tested once during a screening period. However, students may be assessed at any point during the school year, but only scores that are collected within the screening period dates will factor into the local norms in reports.
In order to support schools that operate year-round, FastBridge has the capacity to offer up to five screenings per year.
The dates of each screening period can be seen by hovering over the screening period name on the assessment page.
What assessments are used?
All students should be assessed during scheduled screening periods using a general screener which are offered as computer-administered and teacher-administered.
Computer-Administered Screeners | Teacher-Administered Screener |
aMath aReading CBMmath Automacity CBMmath Concepts and Applications mySAEBRS |
CBMreading CBMcomp* devMilestones** earlyMath earlyReading SAEBRS** |
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. The teacher completes this online without the student present.
- mySAEBRS: student scaled for students in grades 2-12. The student completes this online.