Benchmark 2: Universal Screening
The primary goal of universal screening and progress monitoring is to drive effective instruction and intervention. The Inquiry found that Ontario’s approach to early screening was not consistent, evidence-based, or effective at identifying students at risk for reading difficulties. The Inquiry found Ontario’s approach was ad-hoc and generally, did not rely on evidence-based reading assessments. These ineffective policies and practices resulted in many students not being identified as at risk and therefore, not provided with intervention during the critical window for reading development.
Because of this ineffective approach to screening, many students struggle with preventable reading difficulties, which erodes their self-esteem and confidence. In many school boards, ineffective screening policies have resulted in students not being identified until Grade 3 or later. These students require intense intervention provided over a longer period to catch up with their peers. These delays in identification have caused a crisis in special education and a high degree of conflict between parents and schools.
The research on screening for early reading skills is advanced, and the financial investment required is minimal. However, the negative impact of current practices on students is harmful.
Recommendations
Mandate universal screening: The OHRC recommends that the Ministry work with its external experts to mandate and standardize evidence-based screening on foundational skills, focusing on word-reading accuracy and fluency. The Ministry should require boards to screen every student twice per year from Kindergarten Year 1 (formerly known as Junior Kindergarten) to Grade 2 with valid and reliable screening tools and provide boards with stable, enveloped yearly funding for screening. The selected tools should correspond to each specific grade and time in the year (in other words, they should measure expected knowledge for that grade and point in time in the school year). The selected screening tools should have clear, reliable and valid interpretation and decision rules.
Use screening data to provide interventions earlier: The OHRC recommends that early screening be used to identify students at risk of failing to learn to read words adequately and to get these children into immediate, effective evidence-based interventions.
Professional development to support screening: The OHRC recommends that teachers be given adequate professional development to implement screening effectively and the necessary time to complete these assessments.
Universal Screening: In Progress
In the Fall of 2022, the Province announced that screening would become mandatory for Kindergarten to Grade 2 students in September 2023. The Ministry engaged the services of Ontario Education Cooperative Marketplace (OECM) to vet screening tools and create a list of approved tools from which school boards would have to select. Ontario announced that $12.5 million of targeted funding would be provided for school boards to buy tools from the approved list and train educators.
In August 2023, the Ministry released Policy and Procedure Memorandum 168, Reading Instruction and Early Reading Screening (PPM 168). This new policy requires boards to screen all children in Kindergarten Year 2 to Grade 2 once per year, with a second screening necessary for students identified as being at risk during the first screening.
While PPM 168 is a significant improvement over past practices, it does not fully meet the OHRC’s recommendations to screen all students at least twice yearly. PPM 168 mandates that all students be screened at the beginning of the school year, but only students who do not meet the benchmark must be screened a second time in the middle of the year. Many evidence-based screeners, including three on the Ministry-approved list, provide materials for three screening windows at the beginning, middle and end of the school year.
It is important to recognize that meeting a screening benchmark is far from a guarantee of future success; educators benefit from multiple screenings to better understand student needs and judge students’ responses to instruction.
At the time of the release of PPM 168, the Province and unions were negotiating a new collective agreement. ETFO and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association filed a complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) as they contended that screening was a topic being discussed in the bargaining process and posed a threat to teachers’ professional judgement. Before the OLRB heard the complaint, the unions and the Province agreed to delay the implementation of PPM 168 until September 2024.
The Ministry updated the elementary report card, adding a section for educators to show if a student has been screened and share the results with parents. However, numerous school boards, including those with successful screening programs, have advised educators to keep this section blank during the 2023/2024 school year, even if a child has been screened. This directive unfairly keeps crucial information from parents about their child’s potential reading issues and may delay prompt intervention.
Arguments against universal screening and mandatory reporting often claim that these requirements threaten professional judgement. However, professionalism is rooted in values such as responsibility, transparency, and accountability, which are integral to various professions like medicine, law, and engineering.
The Ontario College of Teachers sets up Standards of Practice emphasizing commitment to students and their learning, professional knowledge, professional practice, leadership, and ongoing learning. Opposition to province-wide screening seems inconsistent with those standards and can limit student achievement. Any effort to withhold information from parents or make screening optional can undermine the purpose of universal screening and jeopardize public perception and trust in the teaching profession.
Despite the challenges, many school boards have implemented the screening recommendations, but because the provincial policy does not come into effect until September 2024, progress towards using screening data to provide intervention earlier is mixed.
In school boards that have started universal screening, data are used to identify students at risk for reading difficulties and guide instruction and intervention. Many teachers who have started using the new screening tools have commented about the usefulness of the information these tools provide. As well, many teachers and school boards are going beyond the mandated screening for students up to Grade 2 and are also using it in higher grades. This is because Ontario’s earlier failure to use evidence-based screening tools has left many older students with unidentified foundational skills gaps. These boards and educators are now working to fix past oversight and prove their belief in every child's potential for success.
“At the first grapheme-phoneme screening in October, my students knew on average half the names and sounds of letters. A few months later, at the second screening, most of my students knew almost all the names and sounds of letters. What a great tool that allows me to see my students’ progress.”
Grade 1 Teacher, CEPEO
Because the previous Language Curriculum was inadequate, it is common for teachers using evidence-based screening tools to discover that more than half of their class does not meet benchmarks. These teachers are using the screening data to plan and implement whole-class interventions and more intense interventions for the most vulnerable students.
Many teachers are keen to learn more about screening, implement it in their classrooms, and use the resulting data to inform instruction. Educators across Ontario are participating in a collaborative book study of Next STEPS in Literacy Instruction: Connecting Assessments to Effective Instruction through ONlit, and some schools are using pre-created book study materials from ONlit to build capacity in translating screening data to effective instruction. It is clear, however, that addressing this need requires province-wide efforts and large-scale capacity building, not only for educators but also for principals, board leaders, and Ministry staff.
Boards have used different training approaches where screening has been implemented. For example, the Near North District School Board trained all educators during professional development days in August 2023, before the start of the school year. Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Clarington Catholic School Board used a combination of professional development days and release time to train all educators in the Fall of 2023. Niagara Catholic District School Board paid educators to attend mandatory training after school.
Some school boards have trained board-level teams and sent them into schools to conduct the screening. Sometimes, these board-level teams travel in pairs so that one team member can step in and teach the class, allowing the classroom teacher to observe the student screening process and receive job-embedded training.
Next Steps: Making Data-based Decisions
Screening and data collection are crucial within a broader systemic strategy aimed at enhancing equity outcomes. Screening data not only serve to identify individual students at risk but also to provide valuable indicators of the health of an overall system. As Ontario moves toward province-wide screening, systems at all levels need to learn more about data-based decision-taking in preparation for data collection and analysis. Collaborative problem-solving is a structured process teams should use to:
- understand the needs of students and systems,
- develop a plan to address needs, and
- evaluate the effectiveness of the plan, adjusting, as necessary.
Screening data at a student level should inform the support to be set up for an individual child, either by a classroom educator or other professionals. Educators can use class-wide screening data to understand broader trends in their students' needs and the effectiveness of their class-wide instruction. If a substantial proportion of students in a class are at risk, the focus should be primarily on strengthening general classroom Tier 1 instruction.
Screening data at a system level has more significant implications. This data should inform system staffing, scheduling, resource allocation, and professional development priorities. All stakeholders in a system play a key role in using screening data to drive improved outcomes: board consultants, superintendents, directors, and Ministry staff need to prioritize actively building an understanding of not just the administration of evidence-based screening tools but also how this data should be used to drive system improvement and innovation.
PPM 168 indicates that: "School boards are expected to develop and implement a process for regular data collection and monitoring of student screening, using a robust and secure data collection and recording system."
The Right to Read Inquiry found a need for more consistency across the province. This remains a concern, as more than 72 school boards are individually developing and implementing data collection and recording processes. The Province should have a central repository of data in a consistent format so that it can be analyzed at the school board level and used to identify boards in need of support or intervention.