Wallingford reports midyear reading gains, outlines K–12 screening and intervention steps

Wallingford School District’s Instructional Committee reviewed a midyear English language arts update on Feb. 3, 2025, covering K–12 assessment results, curriculum implementation and intervention strategies.

The presentation, led by Angela Bucheri, elementary humanities curriculum coordinator, and Carrie Ladadio, secondary humanities curriculum coordinator, explained that the district uses DIBELS as the state-approved universal screener in grades K–3 and i-Ready for grades 3–8, and described steps the district is taking to reduce the number of students identified as “at risk.”

District leaders said Wallingford is one of 17 Connecticut districts granted a waiver from the state’s approved K–3 curriculum list and is in the second year of implementing its chosen curriculum. Bucheri said DIBELS is a timed screening tool that measures five foundational skill areas—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension—and that its composite is used to identify risk, not grade-level proficiency. For students who score in the yellow (some risk) or red (at risk) bands on DIBELS, teachers and interventionists administer untimed diagnostic measures to distinguish lack of automaticity…