S6 E17: How to Streamline Your Assessment Schedule

The Structured Literacy Podcast

This episode helps schools cut bloated assessment schedules by focusing on two essential questions:

1. Who is at risk?

2. What skills lead to success?

Key Principles:

• Not every assessment needs one-on-one administration
• Assessments must inform instruction, not just generate data
• Question whether testing time is more valuable than teaching time
• Avoid decodable text level assessments that reinforce outdated levelling

The bottom line: Only assess what directly improves student outcomes. Everything else is noise.

Has something in this episode resonated with you? Get in touch!

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챕터

1. Welcome, Purpose, And Overfull Schedules (00:00:00)

2. Start With Questions, Not Tools (00:03:47)

3. Who Is At Risk? Universal Screening (00:05:00)

4. Reading Fluency Without Levelled Systems (00:07:35)

5. Rethinking Decodable Text Assessments (00:10:35)

6. Early Years: Phonics And Check‑Ins (00:13:25)

7. Upper Primary: Spelling And Morphology (00:17:35)

8. Validity, Value, And Time Trade‑Offs (00:21:30)

9. Keep What Matters, Ditch The Noise (00:24:30)