Thread by @GaabLab

Many school districts are deciding to use 'survey' or 'questionnaire' #screeners (asking teachers a series of questions) for assessing #dyslexia risk instead of directly assessing the child. It's very problematic for various reasons & can harm our #dyslexia advocacy efforts1/6

1) Several research studies have shown that teacher surveys are poorly correlated with the actual performance of a child, especially at the beginning of K (or any grade since teachers are still getting to know the student). It' important to DIRECTLY assess the child's skills 2/6

For example, this study bit.ly/36Gve6e: shows "..teachers’ judgments of students’ early #literacy skills alone may be insufficient to accurately identify students at risk for #reading difficulties. So, why are we still using these? 3/6

2) A survey can lead to large biases (implicit or explicit). For instance, a teacher may know the background of a child and just assume that the child can rhyme because of the preschool they attended or the family background. 4/6

Other kids may be overidentified as being at-risk or completely missed for similar biases related to SES or ELL, etc.. Also, a teacher or administrator could easily ‘manipulate’ the screener if he/she thinks that the rates of children at-risk are too high in her classroom 5/6

3) These survey screeners R often poorly designed & R not rigorously validated. They may be CHEAPER but it's wasting resources, harming students & hurts advocacy efforts since these tools will lead to inaccurate screenings & will lead to misconceptions that screeners don’t work.

I’m just linking this year FYI *sigh*
thecity.nyc/2020/01/new-dy…