Category: Standardized Testing & Screeners
-
What Tests Diagnose Dyslexia? A Parent’s Guide to a Complete Evaluation
No single test diagnoses dyslexia. A good evaluation looks for a consistent pattern across word reading, decoding, spelling, reading fluency, phonological processing, language, educational history, and response to instruction. The specific test names can vary; what matters is whether the evaluator measured the right skills and explained how the evidence fits together. If someone tells…
-
How to Read a Psychoeducational Evaluation Report
A parent-friendly walkthrough of how to actually read your child’s psychoeducational evaluation: what to read first, how to compare cognitive to academic, where the dyslexia signs hide, and how to know if the conclusions match the data.
-
5 Questions to Ask Your School About Its Reading Screener
Most parents never see the test their kid took. They see the result, sometimes a label like “approaching grade level” or “on track,” and they’re told the school’s plan based on it. The screener itself, the data behind the label, and the rules the school is using to decide who gets help: those usually stay…
-
The Score That Wasn’t: Why Confidence Intervals Decide IEP Eligibility
Your kid took the test. The school sent home a number. The number says 85. The eligibility cutoff is 85. The school says, “Doesn’t qualify.” You stare at that 85 and the 85 next to it and the room goes quiet. The math feels final. Here is what nobody told you in that meeting: that…
-
How a Reading Screener Can Be “Accurate” and Still Miss Your Kid
When the school sends home a reading score, the implied message is simple. The test was given. The number is the answer. If your kid is On Track, you can stop worrying. That message would only be true if reading screeners worked the way most parents assume they do. They do not. The framework you…
-
Why Your Reading Report Says “On Track” When You Can See Otherwise
You opened the email. Your kid is “On Grade Level.” There was that small flicker of relief. Then you sat down to read with him after dinner and watched him stumble through three sentences that week’s decodable reader. Both things can be true at the same time. The screener says On Track and your kid…