Early Literacy Assessment Tool Project

Early Literacy Assessment Tool

The 2012 School Finance Act required the Colorado Department of Education to select a contractor to supply an early literacy assessment tool that teachers may use to obtain real-time assessments of the reading skill levels of students in kindergarten through third grade. The intent of the program was to support state purchase of software that would provide individualized assessments with immediate results, store and analyze those results, and recommend activities based on those results. Through a competitive bid process, the contract was awarded to Amplify for its DIBELS Next system and diagnostic reading assessments in January 2013 through June 30, 2018.

In the spring 2018 through a new competitive process the award was made to both Amplify and Istation for the approved interim assessments on both platforms. The new contract duration is for the next five years.  Legislative funding was passed in the spring of 2019, therefore the department will offer the project for the 2019-2020 school year. This is a non-competitive project. 

By participating in the Early Literacy Assessment Tool Project, applicants will select one of the two vendors and then receive access to the LEA selected online approved READ Act assessment:

• Amplify for Acadience Reading (formerly named DIBELS Next) and IDEL, approved interim assessments, and DIBELS Deep PA/WRD diagnostic reading assessment, an approved diagnostic measure.
• Istation for ISIP Early Reading, Istation and ISIP Lectura Temprana, Istation, approved interim assessments for the READ Act.

All approved applicants will receive software licenses to use the assessment that they select. The tool will store and analyze the results and recommend school and home activities based on those results. Applicants will be responsible for providing their own hardware.

Hardware is not included. A list of devices that support the software is available for each vendor:

• Amplify devices
• Istation devices

Support Staff

Colorado Department of Education Project Manager

Tammy Yetter
CDE Senior Literacy Consultant
720-955-8055
yetter_t@cde.state.co.us

ELAT Email List

If you would like to be added to the email list for ELAT updates please email Tammy Yetter at yetter_t@cde.state.co.us.