How To Use The Test

Information on phonological awareness subtest:

If you are looking to set up your class or students, please click here 

ATLAS contains subtests of phonological awareness:

    • Rhyming
    • Blending
    • Segmenting

To start a test, please click on “Start a New Test.” You can then select the subtests of interest. When you are ready, select “Launch Test.” 

 

PA tests all present three picture options side by side, and a speaker reads a question followed by the names of each option. Children can tap or click before the options are all read aloud. They can select one of the three options themselves, or an assessor can help them pick their choice. The stimulus question repeats once, and if a child does not respond, the website automatically proceeds to the next item. After a subtest is completed, an animal GIF will appear moving on screen, to keep the child engaged and motivated. Then the interface returns to the classroom screen with all Child IDs for that class.

As each child takes a subtest, her results will appear using M-scores. The M-score is a rescaled score from 150 to 250, with a mean of 200 and standard deviation of 20. Scoring is based on Rasch item response theory, taking into account not only the child’s initial ability estimate but also the difficulty level of the items she took.

In order to compare a student’s score to other commonly used measures in the field, click on the Child’s ID. 

This will show you a description of how this student performed in comparison to at least one other measure of phonological awareness used in the field. No comparisons are provided for letter names or letter sounds at this time.

Users can also select the button Class Metrics in the lower left to view graphs of subtest results for all students in a class. On the Class Metrics page, at the bottom, users can adjust the date range by specifying the start and end dates to display test results of interest and visualize children’s progress over time.