TECHNICAL MANUAL
Assessment Background
A2i Online Assessments A2i’s computer adaptive online assessments are designed to measure students’ decoding skills, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Decoding and reading comprehension are measured through the Letters2Meaning (L2M) assessment. Vocabulary and word knowledge are measured using the Word Match Game (WMG) assessment: • Letters2Meaning is taken on a computer and assesses a student’s letter-name identification, letter- sound identification, word reading, spelling, and composition skills. Students begin the assessment on different tasks, depending on their grade level. The assessment items become more difficult as students answer correctly. If students answer questions incorrectly, the assessment will select easier questions. This process helps determine a student’s true ability level as quickly as possible. Tasks on L2M include selecting the correct letter by name or sound, selecting narrated words from a word bank, selecting letters to build words, and selecting words to generate sentences. • The Word Match Game is a semantic matching task (e.g., find the two words that go together) that students take individually on a computer. It assesses a student’s vocabulary and word knowledge. As students listen to the audio naming three displayed words (e.g., kitten, cat, tree), they will see the words appear in separate boxes that flash on the screen as the word is spoken. The student then picks the two words that go together (e.g., kitten, cat). Students are provided three training items and then are presented items based on whether the previous item was answered correctly or incorrectly. Like with the Letters2Meaning assessment, if a student answers a question incorrectly, they receive an easier question. If the student answers a question correctly, they get a more difficult one. Use The A2i assessments were developed primarily as formative assessments of reading to assess a student’s ability in vocabulary, decoding, and comprehension. As formative assessments, the primary use case was to collect data at multiple timepoints throughout the school year. The National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) explains that “formative assessment practices are those that provide teachers and students with information about learning as it develops—not just at the end of a project, unit, or year. The information is formative because it enables adjustments that deepen learning. Teachers use formative assessments to make adjustments to instruction, and students use the feedback from formative assessments to make revisions to their work and their approaches to it.” The actionable information provided by A2i is delivered, using the assessment scores and patented algorithms, as customized “minutes of instruction” across the two key areas of literacy development: code- focused instruction and meaning-focused instruction. In addition to the instructional recommendations, the A2i assessments also serve as a valid and reliable way to track student growth across the year and measure progress. Additionally, these assessments allow educators to track growth longitudinally, across Grades K–3, as foundational skills are being acquired and students are learning to read. Both assessments are administered via a computer and take approximately five to 20 minutes.
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