How long will it take to administer
the Tejas LEE to a student?
There is no set answer to this question as it really is dependent upon the grade
level being administered and the skill level of the student. The branching rules
on the Tejas LEE were developed to maximize administration time and minimize student
frustration. In many areas, the tasks are order by difficulty and the branching
rules allow the teacher to skip sections that the that the student will not be likely
to complete based on their performance on easier tasks. Furthermore, the spelling
(Grades 2 and 3) and accenting and diersis (Grade 3) tasks can be administered to
the entire class at one time. On average, a teacher can expect the assessment to
take approximately 20 minutes per student.
In Grades 2 and 3 can I administer
the “Dictado (Spelling)” section to the whole class at once?
Yes, in second and third grades, the “Dictado (Spelling)” section can be given to
a whole class at one time. Individual results can then be recorded on the Individual
Student Record Sheets (Folleto de Respuestas del Estudiante).
A student in my class read the
highest level story for his or her grade during the Beginning of Year administration
(only applicable to First and Second Grade). What should I do at the next administration?
Re-administer the word list again and place the student in the appropriate story.
If they are placed in the same story, the student should re-read the story and the
fluency rate should be calculated. The fluency rate can then be compared to the
fluency rate from the beginning of year administration. Re-administer the comprehension
questions as well.
OPTIONAL: First grade teachers may also have students re-reading story 5 also read
story 6 from second grade, if they wish to have this additional information.
What should I do if a student misreads
the same word over and over gain during the reading accuracy task?
Count the word incorrect each time the student misreads the word.
Do not
give the student the correct pronunciation.
I teach bilingual Kindergarten
and gave my Middle of the Year Administration of Tejas LEE. If a student scores
“Nivel Esperado”, how do I interpret their performance to plan instruction
for him/her?
A student who scores “Nivel Esperado” on any section of the Tejas LEE is not developed
nor do they need intervention. This student is on track for being developed by the
end of the school year. Districts should monitor progress of these students, particularly
those who scored at the lower end of “Nivel Esperado” cut-points, as these students
are the ones who are at greater risk of falling behind. The best way to describe
this is to be “vigilant”, but not “worried”.
How were the fluency rates for
third grade Tejas LEE developed?
Within each time point, the range of fluency scores for students who showed good
story comprehension was highly variable. Some read more slowly, but still show solid
reading comprehension, while others read more quickly and also show solid comprehension.
Pilot results indicated that
>80% of the students who showed solid comprehension
of story content in both stories at a given time point, and who read the stories
at an independent or instructional level, read at average fluency rates of 70 words
correct per minute.
Are accents in the TEKS for Spanish
instruction?
The Spanish TEKS expects that third grade students will:
- Write using silent letters in syllables, dieresis marks, written accents, and spelling
patterns using q/c/k, b/v, r/rr, y/ll, c/h/g or ch, g/j, j/x, i/y, and s/c/z.
- Write with more proficient spelling of:
- inflectional endings, including plurals and past tense and words that drop the final
e when such endings as -ing, -ed, or -able are added;
- inflectional endings, including verb tenses and plurals of words ending in z such
as lápiz-lápices; and
- contractions, compounds, and homonyms such as casar-cazar and cocer-coser.
- Write with more proficient use of:
- orthographic patterns and rules such as qu together, using n before v, m before
b, and m before p changing z to c when adding –es.
Many of the expectations above are addressed in the third grade Tejas LEE through
the spelling task. The application of accenting and dieresis is measured separately
from spelling so that the focus of the task is on the application of the accenting
or dieresis rule and is not confounded by the student’s ability to spell a word.
Students spelling skills are assessment in the spelling task.
While the third grade Tejas LEE does not assess accenting and dieresis in the beginning
and middle of the year, instruction in these skills is expected throughout the school
year. Teachers are more than welcome to spot check student performance throughout
the year on their own.
What will a student’s performance
on the Third Grade word list fluency (single word decoding fluency) tell me about
the student’s skills and instructional needs?
In addition to fluent story reading, the Texas TEKS requires that third grade students
“read both regular and irregular words automatically, … and develop automatic recognition
of words that use specific spelling patterns such as q/c/k, b/v, s/c/z, y/ll, g/j,
x/j, i/y, r/rr, h, ch, gue, and gui)…”. The single word reading list provides the
teacher with the opportunity to assess these skills independent of content laden
reading. Single word decoding fluency provides information about the student’s ability
to decode words automatically. The story fluency provides information about the
student’s ability to decode words automatically in the context of a story. While
seemingly a fine distinction, the information has very practical and important implications.
For example, if a student performs well on single word fluency, but poorly on fluency
when reading words in context, the teacher knows that the primary issue is not the
child’s foundation phonemic awareness abilities per se, rather, their ability to
apply these rules automatically within authentic text. On the other hand, if the
student shows poor single word reading fluency, then the most serious problem is
the student’s basic inability to automatically decode words and the underlying phonemic
awareness knowledge required to complete this task.
How do I calculate the Porcentaje
de estudiantes NI (Percentage of class NI)?
The
Porcentaje de estudiantes NI can be calculated by dividing the “
Number
of students who scored NI in each column by the total number of students
in the class. The result will be a decimal. Move the decimal two places to the right
to determine the percentage of students that are NI. It is only necessary to calculate
this number for the columns on the class summary sheet where the last two rows are
not blocked out. If the last two boxes are blocked out, students are not expected
to have yet mastered this skill and no intervention is required for this skill at
this time point.