Achieving reading proficiency by the end of third grade is an important landmark for all elementary students, but dyslexia stands in the way of many. This is a serious threat to the right of all American school children to be literate.

Here, we share the dos and don’ts of having virtual data chats with students and families during remote learning. Many tips will be familiar to educators, including those about staying positive and preparing for each conversation.

Meghan Mayer is a 2020 Extraordinary Educator and a dedicated middle school  English language arts teacher. Here she offers practical strategies for data tracking with students that other educators can use in their own classrooms.

Fourth grade teacher Frank Salinas successfully had his students complete an assessment during distance learning in spring 2020. In a video, he shares his strategies and offers clear steps for delivering an at-home Diagnostic that gets good, useable data.

Setting the right individual growth goals for each student in the 2020–2021 school year shouldn’t be on educators’ list of tough problems. From our perspective, each student should have a goal that is both realistic and ambitious. This year, more than any other, students will need big goals that help make up for some of the disruption they experienced in spring 2020.