Literably Adds Support for Phonics & Phonological Awareness

 Popular K-8 Literacy Assessment Provider Aligns with California Educators to Support 2026 Literacy Initiative

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. , March 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Literably, the reading assessment platform that works with educators and enables them to know every reader, today announced the availability of its Foundational Skills assessment (FS) for phonics and phonological awareness. Already adopted by 500 schools across the United States, Literably provides literacy educators with an immediate, accurate and actionable picture of each student's reading capabilities and challenges.

As a stand-alone tool or as a complement to their well-established Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) assessment, Literably FS identifies gaps at the skill and sub-skill level and informs classroom teaching in real-time.

"We're committed to becoming the only literacy assessment partner our customers need," said Tyler Borek, chief executive officer, Literably. "Educators are drowning in time-consuming, disjointed offerings that distract from instructional time and don't contribute to district-wide understanding. By bringing technology best practices to classrooms, we're proud to be changing the way educators assess student literacy. It's long overdue."

More than half of California's students read below grade level. The California Department of Education has assembled a task-force dedicated to ensuring that every third grader will read at grade level by 2026. Literably wants to help the state meet its aggressive goal by delivering the first comprehensive picture of every student's reading ability, quickly and accurately. The flexible nature of Literably FS makes it highly effective with English Learners and those with reading challenges like dyslexia.

Literably ORF is already in its ninth year in schools and districts across the United States and California, including Tustin Unified School District, Cupertino Union School District, New Haven Unified School District, La Mesa-Spring Valley District and others. Educators are hailing the company's flagship solution as "easy-to-use," "a time-saver," "accurate," "actionable" and "game-changing."

"This program is exactly what every teacher has been dreaming about. How do I complete [literacy assessments] for my whole class without losing a whole day of instructional time? How do I make sure the scoring of these are completely consistent across the whole school? LITERABLY!" Sarah Nitsos, District Coordinator, Wiseburn School District

"For the first time we have detailed data instead of just a 3-digit Lexile score. All K-5 teachers district-wide were able to group readers… within the first few weeks of school. Literably offers convenient, efficient, and informative data for teachers, interventionists, and families. It's really helped me do my job faster and better." Susan Lavelle, Union School District, Teacher on Special Assignment to the Superintendent.

"My favorite part of Literably is the student recording. I love being able to listen to students read. The Secret Access Link is a great tool that can be shared with parents, resource specialists, speech pathologists, etc. I also appreciate how quickly students can complete the test." Sarah Williams, Teacher, Union School District, CA.

Future platform enhancements will include offerings that span all five pillars of literacy (phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension), as well as support for second language learners and tools that screen for reading challenges like dyslexia. This unified, novel, and easily acquired understanding will allow for better planning and individualized teaching. 

Pricing & Availability
Literably's solution is priced per district or school, by student, and is available immediately at www.literably.com/signup.

About Literably
Literably is a digital reading assessment platform that replicates teacher-administered assessments online and enables educators to know every reader. Literably provides literacy educators with an immediate, accurate and actionable picture of each student's reading capabilities and challenges. Schools use Literably to solve four primary challenges with conventional teacher-administered reading assessments: efficiency, consistency, data access and next steps planning. Literably uses a blend of normed human grading and speech recognition to score two reading assessments online for schools and districts: Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) and Foundational Skills (FS). Research by a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education has shown that Literably ORF can predict student performance on the Smarter Balanced assessment. Literably currently serves over 200,000 students at over 500 schools in 34 states. Literably was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

SOURCE Literably