Benchmark Assessments at Jacques

 

Reading Assessment: Acadience 

At Jacques Memorial School, we use the Acadience Assessment to measure growth in reading. The purpose of Acadience Reading is to monitor your child’s development in reading, to identify students who need additional help, and to guide the teacher’s instruction. 

Acadience consists of several brief, timed, tests that are used as indicators of critical skills that students need to master in order to become good readers. Much like measuring a child’s height and weight provides an indicator of that child’s overall growth, each Acadience test provides an indicator of how well a child is doing in learning a particular reading skill. The scores tell us whether a child is likely to be “on track” for learning to read, or whether that child may need some additional help in learning important reading skills. 

Three times per year, our students will take a benchmarking assessment. If indicated, some students are being progress monitored for a particular reading skill. 

The following areas are assessed: 

Phonemic Awareness: understanding that spoken words are made up of individual sounds

Reading Composite Score (RCS): The Reading Composite Score is a combination of multiple Reading scores and provides the best overall estimate of early literacy skills and reading proficiency

Fall (Beginning of Year, BOY):

Grade 1:

• Letter Naming Fluency (LNF): measures the ability to identify letters
• Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF): is a brief, direct measure of phonemic awareness. PSF assesses the student’s fluency in segmenting a spoken word into its component parts or sound segments (sounding out words)
• Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) (CLS): Correct Letter Sound measures the ability to produce the correct sound for a letter
• Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) (WWR): Whole Words Read is the number of make-believe words read correctly as a whole word without first being sounded out

 Kindergarten

• First Sound Fluency (FSF): measures the ability to identify the initial sounds in words
• Letter Naming Fluency (LNF): measures the ability to identify letters

Winter (Middle of Year, MOY):

Grade 1:

• NWF (CLS) and NWF (WWR)

• Oral Reading Fluency (ORF): is a measure of advanced phonics and word attack skills and accurate and fluent reading of connected text. Students are given an unfamiliar, grade-level passage of text and asked to read for 1 minute. Errors such as substitutions, omissions, and hesitations for more than 3 seconds are marked while listening to the student read aloud.

Kindergarten: 

• FSF, PSF, NWF and LNF

Spring (End of Year, EOY):

 

Grade 1:

• NWF and ORF

Kindergarten:

• PSF, NWF, and LNF

Math Benchmark Assessments 

Forefront Universal Number Sense Screeners

 

What Are Universal Number Sense Screeners?

Universal number sense screeners are quick, simple assessments given to all students to check how well they understand early math skills—especially the way they think about numbers. These screeners focus on foundational skills like:

• Recognizing and naming numbers
  
  
• Understanding quantities (how many)
  
  
• Counting accurately and fluently
  
  
• Comparing amounts (more/less)
  
  
• Making simple number combinations (early addition and subtraction thinking)
  
  

These are not tests, but tools to help teachers know how to support each child’s learning.

Why Do We Use Them in Kindergarten and First Grade?

In kindergarten and first grade, children build the core math thinking skills that are essential for success in later grades. Number sense is like the foundation of math—it supports everything from counting to solving problems. The screeners help teachers:

• See each child’s strengths and needs
  
  
• Catch early when a student might be struggling
  
  
• Adjust instruction and provide extra help before students fall behind
  
  
• Celebrate growth over time
  
  

Three Times Per Year: How It Works

We screen students three times per year:

1. Fall (Beginning of the Year)
   This lets teachers understand what students already know as they start the school year.
   
   
2. Winter (Mid-Year Check-In)
   This shows how students are progressing and whether instruction is working.
   
   
3. Spring (End-of-Year)
   This helps teachers see growth over the whole year and plan for next year’s learning.
   
   

Each screening takes only a few minutes and is done in a comfortable, supportive way—often one-on-one or in a small group.

Students who require additional support with number sense may be referred to our Title One Math Program, in addition to interventions provided in the classroom. 

Questions, concerns, or feedback regarding our assessment process at Jacques?

Please contact:

Heather Hoefs

[email protected]

Assistant Principal, Curriculum &

Title 1 Coordinator

Jacques Memorial School