Since 2018, MAP® Reading Fluency™ has made it easier for teachers to understand their students’ reading skills so they can spend more time teaching and less time testing. By assessing the critical components of early reading—oral reading fluency, literal comprehension, and foundational skills—it provides a more complete picture of a student’s reading ability in 30 minutes or less. The automatic scoring and group administration have saved teachers a ton of time, too. Together, the robust data and extra time help teachers confidently plan instruction and support each student in their learning-to-read journey.
Since fall 2021, educators have been able to do one more very important thing with MAP Reading Fluency: screen K–3 students for characteristics of dyslexia or other reading difficulties.
Here are the five most important things you need to know about the MAP Reading Fluency Dyslexia Screener.
1. The screener brings the best of MAP Reading Fluency to dyslexia screening
Built on the foundation of MAP Reading Fluency, the dyslexia screener leverages the same innovative technology to keep saving teachers time with group administration, automatic scoring, and objective results in easy-to-read reports.
Teachers can use MAP Reading Fluency just as they always have: as a pre-K–5 early reading benchmark assessment and progress-monitoring tool. And in contrast to other dyslexia screeners, which require 1:1 administration, educators can screen an entire class at once.
2. The screener applies a predictive model to flag student results
The dyslexia screener reporting features a predictive flag to help educators quickly and clearly see students whose results suggest that follow-up is appropriate.
What does the flag mean, exactly? The screener uses several measures from the foundational skills domain to identify students whose results may indicate possible characteristics of dyslexia or other reading difficulties. The flag is based on a psychometrically backed predictive model and the likelihood of later reading difficulties. It is not a diagnosis of dyslexia or of a reading disability.
For any flagged student, an educator with training in dyslexia can study the rapid automatized naming (RAN) data in conjunction with the foundational skills data from the screener to determine next steps. And starting in fall 2025, MAP Reading Fluency will also include a nonsense word measure in the dyslexia screener.
3. Key data informs instruction
In addition to the predictive flag, RAN measure, and nonsense words fluency measure, teachers also receive informative foundational skills reporting for each student assessed with the dyslexia screener test form. That means there is no need to double test for skill-level instructional planning.
The dyslexia screener reporting highlights each student’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) in the progression of phonological awareness skills, as well as phonics and word recognition skills. This can help teachers better understand what instructional support or interventions may be appropriate. Each student report also links to resources from the Florida Center for Reading Research with activities tailored to their skill needs and ZPD.
4. The screener is a screener only, not a diagnostic tool
The MAP Reading Fluency Dyslexia Screener is just that: a screener. It is brief and universal, so it can be used for all students, and it is designed to identify students who may need follow-up, including possible evaluation with a diagnostic tool. A diagnostic tool provides a much deeper dive for the subset of students flagged as at risk for reading difficulty, and it focuses on why and how a student may be encountering difficulties. For dyslexia in particular, screener follow-up processes, protocols, or next steps may look different from district to district and state to state.
Think of it this way: The dyslexia screener is akin to a vision screening, where a child is asked to read letters on a chart a few feet away. If they have trouble, they move on to more in-depth screening with an optometrist, who might determine their diagnosis is nearsightedness and prescribe glasses.
5. All MAP Reading Fluency partners have access to the dyslexia screener
The dyslexia screener represents a major expansion to MAP Reading Fluency, and we are excited to include it for our partners at no additional charge. The screener solution is available to all partners as part of their MAP Reading Fluency license.
Learn more about meeting the needs of kids with dyslexia
According to the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), about 15–20% of people in the US have some characteristics of dyslexia, like trouble with accurate reading, fluent word recognition, spelling, or decoding. To learn more, download our “MAP Reading Fluency dyslexia screener fact sheet” and view our archive of articles on dyslexia here on Teach. Learn. Grow.
