4/13/2020

Connecting Data to Instruction in NYC Classrooms: RAPID Results You Can Count On

In order to ensure that all New York City schools follow a cohesive and rigorous curriculum, the New York Department of Education (NYC DOE) has formed Instructional Leader Teams, or ILTs, comprised of school leaders, teachers, and staff who will “serve as the driving force in the school to improve instructional practices and student outcomes.” The aim of these ILTs is to identify solutions that provide educators with the appropriate information they need to make effective, data-driven decisions — with the right data, educators are able to better understand their students’ progress, reduce testing time, and strengthen classroom instruction.  

Lexia® RAPID™ Assessment for grades K–12 helps teachers and educational leaders make decisions that promote reading success. RAPID is a research-based, computer-adaptive reading and language assessment that allows educators to gather predictive, norm-referenced data up to three times a year. By measuring each skill area individually, RAPID provides insight into multiple skills while still remaining sensitive to skill-specific growth, particularly in the areas of word recognition, academic language, and reading comprehension, which are the three skills most predictive of reading success. With RAPID, educators can track their students’ skill development in each of these areas separately. 

Assess Skills Most Predictive of Reading Success

RAPID assesses the reading and language skills that predict reading success at each grade level. These skills are measured with separate, grade-specific tasks to provide areas of instructional focus, and then combined into a screening score that predicts end-of-year reading achievement to guide instructional resource planning. 

Screening and Diagnostic Information 

RAPID's holistic prediction of reading success is determined by a combination of performance on reading and language tasks. Student performance on these screening tasks shows the level of instructional intensity a student will need to reach grade level by the end of a school year. This helps determine which students are at risk, and provides you with a diagnostic profile for each student. Two students may require the same intensity of instruction, but the focus of that instruction may be quite different. Using these profiles, you can place students in instructional groupings, and be connected to strategies for planning classroom instruction.

Target Academic Language Skills

Often described as “the language of school,” academic language is used in textbooks, essays, assignments, class presentations, and assessments. This language includes advanced and discipline-specific vocabulary, as well as sophisticated grammar and syntax. Students in all grades need to acquire and apply academic language to express complex ideas and engage deeply with texts. As students progress through school, the challenges of using and comprehending academic language increase.  

Focus on Important Skills

RAPID’s unique coverage of academic language draws attention to vocabulary, structural analysis, and syntactic knowledge — key elements that are rarely individually measured in reading screening assessments. Assessing these skills allows you to support students that need instruction in complex language skills, in addition to those that need support with reading skills. 

Address Actionable Areas

With immediate scoring and reports, RAPID helps translate data into actionable targets for enhancing students' understanding of written and spoken language, such as teaching students to recognize and use common prefixes, suffixes, roots, and signal words (e.g. because, however). Lexia Connections include strategies to target academic language through reading, writing, speaking, and listening activities. 

Support Emerging Bilinguals and English Language Learners

While academic language skills are fundamental to academic success for all students, they can be especially challenging for Emerging Bilinguals and English Language Learners. Many English Language Learners may appear fluent in social language but still struggle with academic language skills. RAPID promotes the development of sophisticated vocabulary and syntactic knowledge that can support ELL students in accessing complex content.

Align Literacy Initiatives

RAPID provides actionable insights on student literacy that inform the school and district-wide literacy focus. Unlike other programs, RAPID’s easily interpretable data is available immediately and empowers leaders to implement literacy initiatives—like NYC’s Universal Literacy—that best support teachers and students. 

Data Visibility: School and District Levels

At the district and school level, RAPID reports aid administrators in identifying resources needed by defining the number of students who may be at risk and require more intensive instruction. These reports also identify skill areas that need to be addressed more effectively, thereby informing curriculum review and professional development. Additionally, administrators can use RAPID reports to monitor progress in reading skills over the year, across schools, grades, and various demographic groups.

Data Visibility: Class and Student Levels

Class and student reports illuminate how students are progressing in grade-level skills. This data helps teachers differentiate instruction, monitor its impact, and provide students with appropriate interventions. With Lexia® RAPID™ Assessment, educators can confidently make effective, data-driven decisions, reduce testing time, and strengthen classroom instruction.