This notice will address the following components of PALS: assessment, training, testing requirements, intervention, and funding.

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1 Notice To: Elementary Administrators and PALS School Contacts Approved By: Timothy L. Healey, Associate Superintendent for Student Learning and Accountability Contact Person: Michelle Rowe Student Learning Early Intervention Reading Initiative (PALS) This notice will expire June 30, Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) will be participating in the Early Intervention Reading Initiative, (PALS) the school year. PALS is an acronym for Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening. The purpose of the state-sponsored initiative is to provide early reading intervention services to students in kindergarten through third grade who demonstrate deficiencies reflected in their performance on a diagnostic screening tool. The screening tool is the PALS assessment. School divisions that participate in PALS must assess their K-3 students with the PALS assessment. In return, the state provides funding to the division based upon a formula, with the goal being to assist the division in providing additional reading intervention to students identified as scoring below grade level benchmarks on the PALS assessment. The expected intervention is 2 ½ hours per week for identified students, in a student-to-teacher ratio of five-to-one, in addition to regular reading instruction. This notice will address the following components of PALS: assessment, training, testing requirements, intervention, and funding. Assessment: The PALS assessment (Form B, Blue for ) must be given as follows this year: FALL 2014 SCREENING DATES Testing: Oct. 13 Nov. 7, 2014 Data due on Web site: Nov. 26 Testing: Sept. 15 Oct. 10, 2014 Data due on Web site: Oct. 24 WHO SHOULD BE SCREENED All K students (ESOL Level 1* students and students with according to their IEP do not have to be screened) IEP do not have to be screened) *The decision to exempt a student from screening should be made by a school based team. Students in grades 1-3 who are new to Virginia public schools and/or do not have a spring 2012 PALS score (ESOL Level 1 students and students with according to their

2 Page 2 SPRING 2015 SCREENING DATES Testing: April 27 May 22, 2015 Data due on Web site: June 5 Testing: April 27 May 22, 2015 Data due on Web site: June 5 WHO SHOULD BE SCREENED All K students (ESOL Level 1 students and students with according to their IEP do not have to be screened) Grade 1: All students (ESOL Level 1 students and students with according to their IEP do not have to be screened) Grade 2: All students except those who met the High Benchmark Designation in the spring of first grade or the fall of second grade (ESOL Level 1 students and students with disabilities who are exempt according to their IEP do not have to be screened) Grade 3: Students with a PALS intervention plan in place OPTIONAL MID-YEAR 2015 SCREENING MATERIALS POSTED ONLINE DATES Testing: Jan. 5 Jan. 30, 2015 Data due on Web site: Feb. 13 Testing: Jan. 5 Jan. 30, 2015 Data due on Web site: Feb. 13 The fall database is open to set up class lists beginning on July 25. Attachment A details the subtests included in each level of the PALS assessment. Testing Materials: Teacher Sets (administration materials) of PALS will be delivered to your school in August (Grades 1-3) or September (K). These sets were ordered by your school last year. Consumable materials needed for Grades 1-3 must now be copied by your school, unless you are using the Online Assessment Wizard. Originals to use for copying purposes are posted on the PALS Web site. Consumable materials for Kindergarten will be sent to your school in September. Some tests or parts of tests will already be at your school from the last time PALS Form B was used. Previous materials are fine to use, with the exception of the spelling section of the Grades 1-3 assessment. Schools should have a plan in place for storing Form B tests at the end of this year for the school year.

3 Page 3 Parent Notification: It is up to the individual schools when and how parents are notified that their child will be tested with PALS before testing begins. After testing, parents should be sent a letter explaining the assessment and indicating whether or not the student passed the benchmark for his or her grade level and what this means. Sample parent letters (English and Spanish) will be sent electronically to the PALS contact at each school for this purpose. We are also working on having translations in Urdu, Arabic, and Vietnamese. It is required that teachers discuss the results of the PALS assessment with parents of third-grade students who failed in either the spring of second grade or the fall of third grade. It is recommended that teachers discuss the results of all PALS assessments with the parents of students in their classrooms in a parent-teacher conference. Training: The PALS Web site has video clips on how to administer each section of the PALS assessment. The Web site address is Each school must have a PALS contact person. The contact person will receive correspondences regarding PALS, assist teachers in how to administer the assessment, attend training sessions associated with PALS, and trouble-shoot at your school. Usually this person is your reading specialist, but it can also be a Title I teacher, an administrator, or a teacher in your building. Testing Requirements: Teachers are required to use PALS passages when administering the PALS 1-3 assessment, alternate passages are not allowed. Teachers must use the student s ten digit State Testing Identifier (STI) as the identification (ID) number. Updated Race, Ethnicity, and Disability Status codes from the Virginia Department of Education will now be required when entering and updating student information. Please check the Administration and Scoring Guide for a complete listing of the codes. Each year, the PALS office will be assigning PWCS a new PALS Registration Code. For the school year, the code for PWCS is VAD77539RQ. Intervention: The expected intervention is 2 ½ hours per week for identified students, in a student-to-teacher ratio of five-to-one, in addition to regular reading instruction. This additional intervention instruction can be provided in many different ways, including hiring additional teachers, hiring and training hourly employees (non-certified teachers), purchasing computer software that focuses on the skills tested in the PALS assessment, and/or before or after school tutoring programs. School personnel will be making their own decisions about what the intervention instruction will look like at their school. A PALS Intervention Plan from each school will be required in December. This plan includes numbers of students at each grade level receiving intervention, the types of intervention being used, and a budget detailing how the PALS money will be spent. A template for this plan will be sent to PALS contacts at each school.

4 Page 4 Schools are obligated to provide intervention instruction for all identified students. However, the instruction does not have to be funded by this PALS initiative. If you have a Title I reading program, Reading Recovery program, small group instruction by the reading specialist, or any other supplemental instruction in reading which works with the same skills as those identified as trouble spots on PALS, then that supplemental instruction may count as the intervention for that identified student. According to the VDOE legislation, schools are required to develop an individual remediation plan for students in grade three who demonstrated deficiencies on their performance on any reading diagnostic test that meets the criteria of the Department of Education. Students who failed the PALS assessment in the spring of second grade or the fall of third grade must have a remediation and retesting plan in place at the beginning of the school year. Additionally, it is required that the school partner with the parents of the identified third grade student to discuss the plan and progress made as a result of the intervention (with the parent and student) prior to promoting the student to fourth grade. Schools may choose to document individualized reading intervention plans one of the following ways: The Child Intervention Team forms through Ed Plan that are placed in the student s number 2 file. An Individual Intervention Plan (Attachment B) that is placed in the student s number 2 file. The Division PALS team is recommending that this Individual Intervention Plan continue into grade 4 for students who fail the grade 3 spring benchmark for PALS. Funding: Schools will receive PALS funding each year, and it may be used in two ways: For substitute teachers, so that the teacher may be freed up to administer the PALS assessment; and For intervention instruction. Substitute funding is based upon the numbers of K-3 classrooms in each school. Intervention funding is based upon the numbers of students failing the latest administration of the PALS assessment. Principals and PALS contacts will receive an prior to the start of the school year with the amount of initial PALS funding and an with information regarding a second PALS funding distribution in December or January. It is up to each school to determine how the PALS funding is spent, in accordance with the regulations from the Commonwealth of Virginia. If funds are not needed for substitutes, they may be spent on intervention. As part of the PALS Intervention Plan, each school is required to submit a budget detailing how its PALS money will be spent. PALS budgets must align and support the intervention activities used on the Intervention Plan.

5 Page 5 PALS funds maybe used for: Paying PALS tutor salaries and benefits; Purchasing reading intervention software for PALS tutoring; Purchasing hardware (computers and/or ipads) to support the intervention software; Paying for before-and/or after-school PALS tutoring (salaries and benefits of tutors working with PALS-identified students); and Purchasing some materials to be used only for PALS tutoring. PALS funds may not be used for: Purchasing materials for core reading instruction; Funding professional development; Purchasing hardware or software unrelated to PALS intervention; Purchasing anything for Grades 4 and 5; Purchasing another assessment such as Interactive Achievement (IA); PALS budgets will be monitored on a quarterly basis. At the end of FY15, any unexpended PALS funds will be transferred from school budgets back into the central PALS budget. Principals should work with their bookkeepers to ensure that PALS expenditures are being charged to their PALS budget codes. Please remember that PALS is a state grant and may not be used in combination with other grants such as 50/50 match for computers. Administrators, classroom teachers, and specialists at each school can prepare for the PALS assessment and intervention by visiting the PALS Web site at The Web site provides details on each level of the test and other useful information. Attachments A and B PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS