The Early Literacy law was passed by the Iowa legislature in 2012. This law requires all K-3 students to be screened in reading three times per year (fall, winter, and spring). Students who do not pass the screening once are "at risk." Students who do not pass twice in a row are "persistently at risk."
The chart on this page summarizes the other requirements of the Early Literacy Law, which include progress monitoring, intervention and parental notification. For more details about this law, visit the Early Literacy Law section of the Iowa Department of Education's website and read their Iowa Early Literacy Law Guidance.
FAST is the reading screener used by the majority of Iowa public schools to meet the requirements of the Early Literacy Law. It stands for "Formative Assessment System for Teachers." The Iowa Department of Education purchased a state license for FAST, and it is available at no cost to Iowa schools. If a school chooses not to use FAST, they must use another screening tool from the Department's approved list.
FAST is designed to quickly identify students who are not on target in their reading skills. FAST is not a diagnostic tool. It does not tell why a student is struggling. To find out what reading skills a student is struggling with, the teacher needs to do further assessment.
For more information on FAST and universal screening, read this article from the Iowa Reading Research Center.
Many parents report receiving their child's FAST score as an isolated number - such as 103 or 429. To understand your child's score, you need to know:
- Which FAST subtest the score is for - the subtests most schools use are aReading and/or CBM Reading
- The benchmark (target) score for your child's grade
If you are only given a number, contact your child's teacher and/or school principal and ask for this additional information. FAST benchmarks for the current school year are available on the Central Rivers AEA web site, along with other helpful information about FAST. The Iowa Reading Research Center also offers a short parent training module on how to understand your child's FAST scores.
Students who do not pass FAST one time are "at risk" and intervention is recommended. Students who do not pass FAST two times in a row are "persistently at risk" and intervention is required by law. The law also says intervention must continue until the student is no longer "persistently at risk."
If your child does not pass FAST, contact their teacher and ask:
-
- How many times has my child not passed FAST?
- What reading skills is my child struggling with?
- Is my child receiving reading intervention beyond the regular classroom instruction?
- If so, what intervention is my child receiving and why was it chosen?
