To develop the high-level reading comprehension skills required to be College and Career Ready by the end of third grade, students need to develop both word reading and listening comprehension skills. There’s an existing focus on assessment of various K-3 word-reading skills, but less so on assessment of listening comprehension.
To address this gap, Read Charlotte launched a pilot initiative in 2024 to support partners with integrating targeted listening comprehension assessments into their programs, providing a more comprehensive understanding of students’ literacy development. In collaboration with Freedom School Partners, we introduced a listening comprehension component to their existing reading assessment. We also partnered with the Charlotte Speech and Hearing Center to pilot use of the LanguageScreen assessment with four-year-olds in Pre-K classrooms in the 2024-25 school year. This work includes a partnership with MECK Pre-K.
We hope to help more partners incorporate listening comprehension assessments into their programs in the future. This information is key to understanding student progress and identifying areas for targeted instruction.
