A new literacy screening test has made its way into classrooms across elementary schools in the Santa Barbara Unified School District, aiming to identify any reading challenges in some of the youngest students. 

First- and second-grade students wrapped up their first testing window last week, nearly a month into the school year, with new software called mCLASS, designed to identify reading challenges, including dyslexia.

The software streamlines literacy testing in the district while delivering instant student test results and immediate analysis, offering teacher suggestions for course material and grouping together students with similar reading difficulties.

Denise Alvarado, executive director of elementary education for the district, said that in “just a click of a few buttons,” she can now see schools’ completion rates and how individual schools are doing. 

“That’s a significant amount of time that is saved by being able to access that data and be able to respond to that data and provide intervention just like teachers do,” Alvarado said.

The test assesses phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency and comprehension to highlight any reading difficulties. The district also adopted the test’s sister, mLECTURA for Spanish-speaking students.

Kindergarten students are set to test later in the school year. 

The rollout comes after a statewide mandate, Senate Bill 114 signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2023. The bill is personal to Newsom, who shared about his struggle with dyslexia while growing up.

In the 2024-25 school year, 46% of first-graders in the district met or exceeded standards of the STAR Early Literacy test, according to the district’s test results. Students take that test only once. After meeting expectations, they move onto the STAR Reading test. Of the second-graders taking the reading test, only 46% of second-graders met or exceeded standards this past school year.

Before the new screening test, Cleveland Elementary School teacher Katia Rodriguez-Mester said the testing process from beginning to end could be a time-consuming task. The process included sitting down with other teachers, analyzing the data, transferring it to a chart, analyzing the chart and then discussing an action plan. 

“Imagine giving students a test and saying, ‘Sound these words out,’ and imagine timing everybody and seeing how quickly they are doing it, and then sitting down and creating a chart,” the kindergarten and first-grade teacher said. 

The software also groups students together who share the same challenges and provides resources that teachers can use to provide help. 

Cleveland Elementary School Principal Gabriel Sandoval said the test also allows the district to talk about test scores comparably — a change from before. Some school sites used the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) assessment and other progress monitoring assessments. Cleveland used STAR Curriculum-Based Measures. 

“It’s now allowing the district to talk about the same apples,” he said.

The test is designed to be completed in one minute but depends on the student and grade level. For the district, test-taking times range from one minute to four minutes. The Spanish test, mCLASS Lectura, can take students three to eight minutes. 

Students are scored against a national benchmark based on where most children are landing at their age. Their scores lie somewhere in a color-coded range beginning at red, yellow, green and blue. 

“The parent report will show those same colors, and colors are easy to identify rather than words,” Alvarado said. 

The process of choosing mCLASS began in 2024 with the help of executive and advisory committees made up of district staff. The committee chose from a predetermined list of four tests.

“It was a challenge, but also an opportunity for us to really support our teachers and our students across the district,” Alvarado said. “I was excited because of the digital platforms that would come.” 

Alvarado said the district was looking for a test that provided resources for teachers and a bilingual option for the dual immersion program. 

Following testing, the district and school sites will use the data to find trends and provide help to individual students to overcome their reading challenges. 

“The goal is progress. We want to make progress from one testing window to the next, and we want to see a beginning, middle and end,” Alvarado said. 

The next cycle of tests is scheduled for October.