Literacy Professional Development for Teachers

The gamified online assessments measure students':

• phonemic awareness
• word-level decoding
• sentence-reaching fluency

Remarkably, the fully online process takes 30 minutes or less to complete, providing swift yet invaluable insights into students' foundational reading skills. Students take the assessment completely independently. ROAR is administered 2-3 times a year to measure student progress in these skills and adapt instruction.

Most assessments for older students focus on comprehension and do not assess a student's foundational skills, a key factor in improving their comprehension. While high-quality foundational skills assessments exist for K-2, few assess older students: ROAR is one of only two foundational skills assessments developed for use with older students.

Additionally, ongoing development is integrating ROAR with self-efficacy assessments which are a rare but powerful component of a balanced assessment strategy. Research has shown self-efficacy to be one of three key factors in learning to read, alongside foundational skills and comprehension.

While some districts may use existing decoding assessments with older students, it is not recommended. Decoding assessments are typically designed for younger students and miss the specific challenges faced by secondary students. In older grades, students are expected to read complex, discipline-specific, multisyllabic words. Extensive phonics knowledge does not necessarily predict a reader's ability to read these types of words, and students can also develop coping strategies that mask their challenges with multisyllabic words. Here is an example of the difference:

ROAR is designed specifically with these differences in mind.

Currently, ROAR is part of a pilot program involving over 3,500 ANet students in grades 6-12. Leaders and teachers at these schools also engage in ANet coaching and professional development to support them in understanding the data and adjusting instruction to target each student's unique needs.

Sign up if you would like to stay informed about our learnings from the ROAR pilot and when the assessment may become available to your school or district.