Child’s Voice uses the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System to assess our PII students’ reading skills, according to Special Services Coordinator Carrie Jackiewicz. Fountas and Pinnell is a standardized assessment used by both public and private schools to determine students’ current reading levels. It assesses students’ reading accuracy (including phonemic awareness skills and sight words) as well as reading comprehension (ability to answer concrete and inferential questions). The results of testing denote which levels are independent, instructional, or hard for the student, says Jackiewicz.
We assess our PII students four times a year: in August and at the end of each trimester. We use the test results to monitor each student’s progress during the school year and over time. We share the results with parents at Parent-Teacher conferences. “It’s helpful to both teachers and parents to know the reading levels of the students and how their levels compare to their hearing peers,” Jackiewicz says.
