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District cites early gains from Heggerty pilot as reading screener flags needs
Summary
Auburn USD staff presented results from the Multitude reading screener and a Heggerty phonemic-awareness pilot at Auburn Elementary, reporting initial iReady and screener gains and proposing districtwide rollout and modest materials costs.
Auburn Unified School District officials recommended continued use of the Multitude reading difficulties risk screener and presented early results from a Heggerty phonemic-awareness pilot at Auburn Elementary.
Kara Schwinn, the district’s general education program specialist, told the board that the Multitude screener — required by SB 114 (Ed. Code) — flagged 29.2% of K–2 students districtwide as "support needed," with site-level variation: Auburn Elementary 34.6% support needed, EV Cain 36.7%, and Sky Ridge 16.9%. "The screener serves as a flag for risks and allows AUSD to deploy targeted tier 1 and tier 2 interventions," Schwinn said.
Instructional coach Emily Clark Vivier and other staff described a Heggerty pilot at Auburn Elementary for 1st and 2nd grades. Presenters said Heggerty is a scripted, 9–10-minute daily auditory routine designed to build phonemic awareness and to function as a consistent districtwide Tier 1 practice. Staff showed pre/post iReady comparisons for classes that piloted Heggerty: first-grade grade-level (green) students rose from about 4% pre-pilot to 24% post-pilot in diagnostic comparisons, and second-grade green students rose from roughly 35% to 46% after several weeks of instruction.
Teachers who piloted the lessons provided classroom observations: "Since implementing Heggerty, I've seen my students across the board jump multiple reading levels," one teacher wrote in a pilot quote presented to the board. Presenters cautioned the pilot period covered roughly six weeks of instruction (training began Feb. 1, assessments in April), and they said staff intend to collect additional comparative data in December 2026 (1st/2nd) and February 2027 (kindergarten) before a full year’s analysis.
Staff estimated classroom materials for K–2 teacher sets at about $1,200 per classroom and proposed a PD/rollout plan that uses internal coaching to limit outside costs. Based on the data and logistics presented, the educational-services team recommended Heggerty as a supplemental Tier 1 phonemic-awareness routine for 2026–27; the board took no formal action but gave direction to pursue planning and further data collection.
The presentation also prompted board questions about assessment metrics: one trustee asked about the district’s use of Fountas & Pinnell reading levels; Kara Schwinn replied that Fountas & Pinnell appears in some classroom resource libraries for small-group differentiation but is not the district’s primary metric for the screener-based MTSS work.
Looking ahead, staff said they will re-administer the Multitude screener in December 2026 (1st/2nd) and February 2027 (K) and will analyze Heggerty impacts alongside iReady diagnostics.
