Category: Standardized Testing & Screeners
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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.
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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…
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i-Ready Scored 50% in Michigan’s K-3 Screener Review. Here’s the Line-by-Line.
This is the deep dive. If you want the higher-level take on what California and Michigan said about i-Ready as a reading screener, start with Part 1 of the series. Then come back here for the receipts. In December 2025, the Michigan Department of Education completed its consensus scoring of the i-Ready Assessment under MCL…
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When a Diagnostic Pretends to Be a Screener
This is the third post in a series. If you started here, you might want Part 1 for the overview of what California and Michigan said about i-Ready, and Part 2 for the line-by-line of Michigan’s review. This one is the personal one. The one where I tell you what i-Ready missed for my own…
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Two States Just Said i-Ready Doesn’t Cut It as a Reading Screener
If you’ve been on parent Facebook lately, you’ve probably seen the i-Ready takes piling up. Kids hate it. Parents hate it. Teachers were quietly recruited as spokesmodels and didn’t know what they were signing up for. The data showing it actually moves reading scores is, charitably, thin. But almost every one of those posts ends…
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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…
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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…
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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…