STEP COVID-19 Updates and Resources

STEP remains passionately dedicated to improving educational outcomes for students. As regions of the U.S. continue with social distancing to try to contain the spread of COVID-19,  we know many of our partner schools have temporarily, if not indefinitely, moved to virtual or hybrid learning models. We also know that educators and schools are seeking solutions and advice for how best to instruct, support, and measure the progress of your students while in a distance learning capacity. Everyone wants to do right by their students and all are worried about regression and lack of data on student progress. With this in mind, STEP has updated its offerings and recommendations for the beginning of the year assessment to better support teachers in facilitating virtual instruction.

To support educators during these challenging times, we are temporarily providing the following resources at no cost. Click the links below to download:
 

• Advice on Virtual Literacy Instruction & Data Collection During COVID-19
• STEP Parent Guides
• A Guide to Reading With Your Child: At-Home Activities for Strengthening Your Child’s Reading Skills
   

Additionally, a series of updates have been made to STEP offerings to support teachers in continuing to foster reading growth through virtual literacy instruction and the collection of student reading data. Those updates include:

• Formatting the STEP assessment for virtual administration.
• Creating Online Progress Monitoring that enables teachers to continue virtually collecting and using formative reading data to differentiate their instructional practices just as they would when instructing in the classroom. 
• Providing teachers with clear views into students’ last given assessments as well as support to determine their new instructional levels through updated prompts in the data management system.
• Supporting the administration of the next lower STEP level if a student does not pass their last achieved level.
• Additional tools and support for reviewing and flagging assessments more effectively and efficiently—including a live feed of assessment changes. 

As plans for reopening schools this fall become more clear, the STEP Team will continue to evaluate how STEP Professional Learning and Data Management System can best support teachers’ literacy instruction during this time. 
 

With remote learning expected to be a large part of the 2020-21 academic year, we know our partner schools are wondering how this will affect the administration of the STEP assessment. Ideally, formative assessments such as STEP should be administered in-person. However, we realize this year is not likely to represent the ideal, with this in mind, STEP has enabled virtual administration of the assessment for the 2020-21 school year. 

Through select video-conferencing platforms and the STEP Data Management System, teachers will be able to virtually assess students’ literacy skills by projecting assessment components and texts screen to screen. As a student answers components of the assessment, the teacher captures student responses directly in the Data Management System. That information is immediately available for scoring and analysis—enabling teachers to quickly make data-informed adjustments to their remote literacy instruction. For the 2020-21 school year, the purchase of STEP kits is not required to utilize the virtual assessment. 

The virtual administration of the STEP assessment will be available as long as COVID-19 continues to impact in-person instruction.
 

This November, STEP will be launching an online, interactive version of STEP Progress Monitoring that has been expressly designed with distance learning and data collection in mind. Online Progress Monitoring allows teachers to isolate and monitor a singular reading skill or set of skills aligned to each student’s assessed needs. All associated materials and resources for Online Progress Monitoring will be available electronically through the Data Management System.

This new system enables teachers to continue virtually collecting and using formative reading data to differentiate their instructional practices just as they would when teaching in the classroom. All data captured for interactive, online progress monitoring will be housed within the Data Management System, thus enabling a clear picture of each student’s ongoing needs and progress. 

To help support educators during these challenging times, schools may partner with STEP to solely utilize Online Progress Monitoring or may adopt both the full assessment and Online Progress Monitoring. 
 

We recognize that students will be coming back to school, either in-person or virtually, after a spring and summer like no other they have experienced. Therefore, the social-emotional needs of students must take precedence above all else at the start of the year. Students may be returning to us having faced increased trauma of various types, in addition to the typical challenges tied to adjusting back to the start of the school year. We appreciate how much all of our partner schools value STEP data and formative assessment. However, we are recommending the following priorities:
 

• Spend the majority of the first 4-6 weeks of the new school year working on routines, social-emotional pulse-checks, community building, and skill recovery.
• Connect with students individually before assessing or progress monitoring literacy skills.
• STEP assessment should begin only after students and teachers have had sufficient time to acclimate to this fall’s school structure and expectations. 
• If you are teaching in-person, STEP recommends assessing all students at the last STEP level achieved this past spring to ensure the greatest clarity and awareness of current skill level and needs. 

This recommendation does not mean that we are suggesting zero literacy instruction during the first 4-6 weeks of the year. Rather, we suggest that teachers consider using any of the below data until such time that they can administer the STEP Assessment or conduct online progress monitoring: 

• Refer to existing formative assessment data from March 2020 (or the most recent STEP data available).
• Analyze trends from previous years’ beginning-of-year grade-level data trends to inform the beginning of this year’s instructional focus.
• Gather and use observational data and anecdotal notes (especially for new students).
• Please connect with your STEP Manager of Professional Learning or Katie Boylan, Manager of Partnerships & Growth, at katieboylan@uchicago.edu with any questions or concerns.

A series of updates are also being made to the STEP Data Management System (DMS) designed to support teachers as they return to the classroom following the initial COVID-19 quarantine. These updates include:

• Providing teachers with clear views into students’ last given assessments, plus support to determine their new instructional levels through prompts in the system.
• System temporarily modified to support the administration of the next lower STEP level if the student, when assessed this fall, does not achieve the last level achieved this past spring.
• Additional tools and support for reviewing and flagging assessments more effectively and efficiently—including a live feed of assessment changes.