Background of PALS

Early Intervention Reading Initiative

Virginia’s Early Intervention Reading Initiative (EIRI) was initially established by the 1997 Virginia Acts of Assembly to help participating school districts identify kindergarten and first grade children in need of additional instruction and provide early intervention services to those students with diagnosed needs in reading. Due to its overwhelming success, the Governor and General Assembly provided funding to expand the Initiative in March 2000 to include students in kindergarten through grade three.

The purposes of the EIRI are to (a) provide teachers with a screening tool to help them identify students who would benefit from additional instruction in reading, and (b) offer incentive funds for school divisions to provide these students with additional instruction.

The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) is the state-provided screening tool for Virginia’s Early Intervention Reading Initiative, and is used by 98% of school districts in Virginia on a voluntary basis. PALS consists of two screening instruments, PALS-K (for students in kindergarten) and PALS 1-3 (for students in grades one through three), which measure young children’s knowledge of important literacy fundamentals, including phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, knowledge of letter sounds, spelling, concept of word, word recognition in isolation, and oral passage reading. The major purpose of PALS is to identify those students who are below grade-level expectations in these areas and may be in need of additional reading instruction funded through the EIRI. PALS can also be used as a diagnostic tool to provide teachers with explicit information about what their students know of these literacy fundamentals to help guide their teaching.

VDOE

Development of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening has been supported by a grant from the Virginia Department of Education through Virginia's Early Intervention Reading Initiative. Without the support provided by this grant, the research and development required for this assessment would not be possible.

To visit VDOE online, click here.

Contact: Ginna Glover

Virginia Department of Education
Office of Elementary Instructional Services
24th Floor Monroe Building
P.O. Box 2120
Richmond,VA 23218-2120
Phone:(804) 786-1997
FAX: (804) 786-1703