CAPSS, in partnership with the Connecticut State Department of Education welcomes you to the District Literacy Scan

Brought to you with funding from The Grossman Family Foundation, and presented by the Connecticut Association of Schools, Literacy How and HILL for Literacy.

This Online Tool has Two Purposes

First, it is organized into a survey that will allow district personnel to self-assess current literacy practices and then collaborate as a team to improve literacy strategies. For educators in schools, this scan is a chance to anonymously share your feedback on how literacy practices are being implemented in your school and district. For district administrators, this scan will capture perceptions among staff about implementation within individual schools and district-wide. (In fact, if you administer this scan a few times per year or across multiple years, you will also be able to track the progress of literacy implementation in your district over time.)



This tool’s second purpose is to compile many relevant resources and examples that will help you to implement effective literacy practices.

Your Data is Confidential

This is an anonymous scan designed to capture the perceptions of personnel around key components associated with balanced literacy programs. The scan does not request any personal information and does not track email addresses or other information related to users. Only the district administrator who distributed the link for the scan has access to the reports generated by this tool. The use of this tool over time can help a district understand the progress of the implementation of a balanced literacy program.

How to Use This Tool

For Individuals, district personnel, or school personnel

You can think of this scan as an informative rubric for how districts and schools can implement effective literacy practices. You can access and use any of the resources, examples, and tools that are embedded in the scan questions. (A full list of the resources can also be found below.) If you respond to the scan questions, your results will not be tallied unless your district administers this scan.

For District Administrators

If you are a district administrator who would like to survey your personnel on the extent to which they perceive effective literacy strategies to be in place, you can log in or sign up here. After you create your profile, you can create a school roster so that when you administer the scan, it will disaggregate school-level and district-level results.

If you are a District Administrator
Here are some helpful tips on managing the simple district dashboard

  • Select the Reporting Year. We suggest using the current school year, and administering the scan once or twice a year. That way, you can compare results over time.
  • Use the “Get Share Link” Button. If you want district personnel to take this scan, disseminate this link so that the unique results for your district will tally. (We have also included a sample message that you might include in your email with the link, but you can use whatever language is right for you.)
  • Use the On/Off Button. We recommend that you decide upon a period of time during which the scan will be live, and then turn the button off. This will allow you to close the scan so that results stop tallying.
  • View School-Level and District-Level Results. If you click on the “Aggregate District Report,” you can get feedback on perceptions about literacy implementation across the district. However, you can also look at the results of individual schools under the “School Reports” section.
  • Compare Year-to-Year Results. If you administer this scan over multiple years, you will be able to track your progress over time.
  • Compare the Overview to the Individual Questions. This scan is divided into five content areas: Leadership, Tiered Instructional Model, Professional Development, Assessment, and Family Engagement. When you look at your scan results, the green graph on the left displays overview results for one entire area. When you scroll down, the purple graphs on the right will display the responses to the individual questions within that area. These data points allow you to track both: (a) category areas that are strongest and weakest in your district/school; and (b) the individual issues that make you strong/weak in each area.
  • Use the Data to Inform Strategic Planning. Once you have administered the survey multiple times, you will have useful data about how well implementation of your literacy program is going. Where you find weaknesses, incorporate potential solutions into your strategic planning process–and then continue to track whether your solutions are correlated with improved data on the scan over time. Survey, analyze, plan, repeat!

Download Instructions 

Resources

Embedded throughout this scan are resources, examples, templates, and tools. They will help you to calibrate your responses to the scan questions. (Sometimes, it’s just easier to establish a common vocabulary when there are examples in place.) But these resources are also there for you to use any time, as you deem appropriate. As well as being embedded throughout the scan, you can click the button below to view them all.

View Resources