What role does teacher-created assessment play in universal screening?

Teacher-created assessment plays a specific role in the context of universal screening for literacy and learning difficulties such as dyslexia. Universal screening is designed to identify all students who may be at risk for reading difficulties, using consistent and standardized measures applied across a whole population, such as an entire grade level or school.

While teacher-created assessments can be valuable in evaluating student progress and informing instruction tailored to individual needs, they do not constitute the primary component of universal screening. Instead, universal screening is typically characterized by standardized assessments that are systematically administered to gather data on all students. This approach ensures that screening data is reliable, comparable, and provides a broad overview of student performance across a defined population, rather than solely relying on assessments created by individual teachers.

Therefore, the idea that teacher-created assessments are not considered a characteristic of universal screening aligns with the understanding that standardized methods are essential for effective and objective screening outcomes. This allows educators to make informed decisions based on uniform data rather than variable interpretations from diversified assessments.