uPAR 3: Viewing and Interpreting Data

To view data, go to universalpar.com and click the "View reports" button. If you've set up Google Classroom classes and/or Google Organizational Units, you'll see them as options. You can always view All Students. If you do not see any data, you can add your students with the "Add student(s)" button.

The most basic question uPAR answers is if the student reads better with a read-aloud accommodation or not. Clicking on the student name will bring up their data, and the fastest way to see if a read-aloud accommodation is appropriate is to view the "Recommendation" or just look at the color-coding for each student. The students will also be color-coded based on their results.

Sample Results

Independent Reader; Accommodation May Enhance Comprehension (Purple)

This student reads at grade level without a read-aloud accommodation. As such, an accommodation is not necessary. However, it may be beneficial to introduce a text reader to this student as students are often exposed to or want to read material well above their independent reading level. In this case, Fiorenzo (a sixth grader) will have success using a text reader with 9th grade material.

No Benefit (Red)

This student is reading three grade levels lower with and without a read-aloud accommodation. This is a case where print processing and word identification are not the primary reasons for the reading struggles. In this case, one area to look into would be the student's language comprehension (vocabulary, background knowledge, knowledge of the world, processing text structure, etc).

Above Independent Reading Level (Orange)

This student should be given a text reader, but they still will not be able to handle grade level text. Other tools and instructional approaches that can support their background knowledge and language comprehension should be considered in order to handle grade level text.

Got to Grade Level (Blue)

This student can read at grade level with a read-aloud accommodation. One thing to note when looking at the graphs is if there is a big drop from one grade to the next and to reference your notes as the students were taking uPAR. In this case, there was a big drop from the 6th grade to the 7th grade with a read-aloud accommodation. Was there any indication of being tired or even giving up while the student was taking uPAR? In this case, it's clear that the student would do well with a text reader. However, you may want to recheck the student with a read-aloud accommodation by having them log in again to startpar.com. They will then start with a read-aloud accommodation at one grade level higher than where they were last successful. In this instance, the student will start with a read-aloud accommodation at the 7th grade.

Exceed Grade Level (Green)

It's clear that this student benefits from a read-aloud accommodation, and can successfully read at the 9th grade level. If students are reading at least 2 grades above their grade level with a read-aloud accommodation, uPAR will tell them they've been successful and will give them the opportunity to continue or stop. This student may be able to read above a 9th grade level, but it looks like they chose to stop (if they didn't choose to stop you'd see them unsuccessful at a grade level). If they log in again, it will start them at the 10th grade level with a read-aloud accommodation. It may be motivating for the student to know just how high they can comprehend text with a read-aloud accommodation.

Time

This student reads at the same comprehension level with and without an

accommodation. However, the timing data shows that it takes them 11m 59s to read

and answer the questions independently. With a read-aloud accommodation they are

over 2.5 times faster - taking only 4m 30s. uPAR will recommend a read-aloud

accommodation if students are over 10% faster.

Recheck

If the same student that has taken uPAR logs in again, it will perform a "recheck." A recheck starts the student one grade level higher than they were last successful. In this case, Fiorenzo took uPAR at the beginning of March. 8 months later they did a recheck and now can read 3 grade levels higher with a read-aloud accommodation.

Next: Student Data Talk