CDT Screening & Progress Monitoring 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A second-grade student scores at the 12th percentile on a phonological awareness screener. Which next step is most appropriate for the CDT?
- Immediately begin Tier 3 intensive intervention
- Refer for a comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation only
- Conduct additional diagnostic assessment to confirm dyslexia risk and inform instruction (Correct answer)
- Notify parents that the student has dyslexia
Correct answer: Conduct additional diagnostic assessment to confirm dyslexia risk and inform instruction
Screener results indicating risk should prompt further diagnostic assessment rather than immediate labeling or skipping to the highest intervention tier.
Question 2: Which measure is MOST useful for monitoring the fluency component of reading progress in a student receiving dyslexia intervention?
- Curriculum-embedded vocabulary quiz
- Oral reading fluency probe (words correct per minute) (Correct answer)
- Silent reading comprehension passage
- Phoneme isolation task
Correct answer: Oral reading fluency probe (words correct per minute)
Oral reading fluency probes provide a reliable, sensitive index of reading automaticity and are widely used for progress monitoring.
Question 3: A progress monitoring graph shows a student's data points consistently falling below the aim line over four consecutive probes. What action is indicated?
- Continue the current intervention for another 8 weeks before deciding
- Celebrate the student's effort and maintain the same instructional approach
- Adjust or intensify the intervention to better address the student's needs (Correct answer)
- Discontinue intervention because it is not working
Correct answer: Adjust or intensify the intervention to better address the student's needs
Data decision rules in progress monitoring specify that insufficient growth after several probes warrants modifying the intervention.
Question 4: The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) is best characterized as which type of assessment?
- Diagnostic battery for identifying specific reading disabilities
- Universal screener used across a whole class or grade level (Correct answer)
- Norm-referenced standardized test for eligibility determination
- Curriculum-based reading fluency measure
Correct answer: Universal screener used across a whole class or grade level
PALS is a universal screener designed for broad administration to identify students at risk for reading difficulties.
Question 5: Which of the following best describes the purpose of benchmark assessments in a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS)?
- To evaluate teacher effectiveness on a quarterly basis
- To monitor individual student response to intervention weekly
- To screen all students at set intervals (e.g., fall, winter, spring) and identify risk (Correct answer)
- To determine special education eligibility for students with dyslexia
Correct answer: To screen all students at set intervals (e.g., fall, winter, spring) and identify risk
Benchmark assessments are given school-wide at regular intervals to gauge overall reading health and flag students needing closer monitoring.
Question 6: When selecting a progress monitoring tool for a student with dyslexia who is working on decoding, the CDT should prioritize an instrument that is:
- Lengthy and comprehensive to capture all skill areas
- Sensitive to small increments of growth in targeted skills (Correct answer)
- Based solely on teacher observation rather than direct measurement
- Administered no more than twice per year
Correct answer: Sensitive to small increments of growth in targeted skills
Effective progress monitoring tools must be sensitive enough to detect incremental gains, allowing timely instructional decisions.
Question 7: A CDT notices that a student's nonsense word fluency scores have plateaued for six weeks despite consistent intervention. Which factor should be examined FIRST?
- Whether the student's vision has been recently checked
- Whether the intervention is targeting the student's actual skill deficit with sufficient intensity (Correct answer)
- Whether the student is motivated to read at home
- Whether the classroom teacher is using the same phonics program
Correct answer: Whether the intervention is targeting the student's actual skill deficit with sufficient intensity
A plateau in targeted skills suggests the intervention may not be sufficiently matched to the student's needs or may lack adequate intensity.
CDT Screening & Progress Monitoring 2
A second-grade student scores at the 12th percentile on a phonological awareness screener.
Which next step is most appropriate for the CDT?