What Parents Are Not Being Told

In both Grand Erie and Hamilton-Wentworth, elementary schools use a standardized reading assessment called Acadience Reading (formerly known as DIBELS).

This assessment is administered multiple times per year in Kindergarten to Grade 3, and in some cases beyond.

It measures foundational reading skills, not comprehension worksheets or homework completion.

Specifically, it evaluates whether a child can:

1. accurately connect letters to sounds

2. decode unfamiliar words without guessing

3. read with enough accuracy and speed to support understanding

4. demonstrate automatic, fluent reading rather than slow, laboured decoding

By Grade 3, Acadience is no longer a “screening tool.” It is a gatekeeper.

Grade 3 is the year schools determine whether a child has transitioned from learning to read to reading to learn.

If that transition has not happened, everything that follows becomes harder.