The most recently released test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that California’s fourth graders are lagging behind the national average in reading. This is not the first time—in fact, the state’s fourth graders have been below the national average in reading every single year the test has been administered. To improve, research shows that it is important to intervene before third grade. This school year, California has established a new testing requirement for K–2 students to provide additional information about young readers and identify those needing support.

School districts may choose from one of four state-approved assessments of reading difficulties to administer to all students in grades K–2. Students who are flagged should receive, by law, one-on-one or small group tutoring, individualized progress monitoring, and other interventions.

Though this assessment is not meant to diagnose dyslexia or other disabilities, students who do not improve after intervention may be referred for further evaluation for special education services. Some advocates have expressed concern that absent high-quality training on the purpose of the test, educators may refer too many students for assessment before implementing the appropriate interventions. Over-identification could misallocate resources and harm student self-esteem, among other potential problems.

The new assessment could also present specific challenges for the 36% of California kindergarten students who are learning to read at the same time as they are acquiring proficiency in English; if they receive low scores on an assessment of reading skills in English, it may be hard to tell whether the low score is related to English proficiency or an underlying challenge with reading itself. Policymakers, concerned about the possibility of over-identification, ensured that the test can be administered in Spanish as well. But without clear policies about what level of English is sufficient for administering the English assessment, district discretion may introduce more room for error into the process.

In addition, there is no approved assessment for students who do not speak either English or Spanish fluently. This omission could present a challenge for the approximately 7% of California kindergarteners who are considered English Learners and speak a language such as Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Cantonese. These students will be evaluated for intervention by school staff who will consider their “developmental history, educational history, and literacy progress.”

In good news, school districts and other Local Education Agencies must share results of the assessment with parents within 45 days of test administration. This requirement could help parents better understand how their children are doing and galvanize them to seek support for their students both within and outside of school settings. It may also help teachers and schools not only to design focused, individualized interventions but also to adjust their whole-class instruction to target the skills their students are struggling with.

For now, this data lives locally at the school district, but many hope the California Department of Education will soon announce plans to collect this information from districts and share it with the public. Public data sharing would provide a better idea of how our youngest students are doing, helping policymakers and educators to better design systems-level interventions to help students learn to read.