Fall 2025 Quarterly

Dear Friends of UCSF Multitudes,

California is entering a new chapter for literacy and equity. With new legislation signed into law, our state is coming together around a shared mission: giving every child the tools to become a confident, capable reader. At Multitudes, we’re honored to support that mission through data, early action, and collaboration across communities.

In just one year, our reach has expanded from 2,000 to over 8,000 educators. We’ve grown from 30 schools to 1,500 across 55 of California’s 58 counties—and screened nearly 60,000 students in under two months. These numbers aren’t just metrics—they’re a reflection of what’s possible when we work with purpose and unity.

Looking ahead, Multitudes will keep pushing forward—bringing “precision education” into more classrooms, reaching students earlier, equipping teachers with meaningful tools, and building bridges in every community.

Thank you for your trust, your collaboration, and your belief in what we can achieve together for every child.

— Francesca Pei, Multitudes COO

Multitudes Featured in EdSource!

Can early screening help more California kids learn to read?

By Zaidee Stavely, EdSource

Teachers across California are rushing to learn how to test students on vocabulary, how well they know their letters and the sounds they make, and how quickly they can name objects or letters in a row.

Understanding Your Assessment Tools: Screening, Progress Monitoring, and Benchmarking

As K–2 literacy teachers, you use several assessments throughout the year to guide reading instruction and support every learner. While these tools sometimes overlap, each one plays a different role in understanding and supporting your students’ growth. Let’s look at how Universal Screening, Progress Monitoring, and Benchmarking work together.

Universal Screening: Your Early Warning System

Universal screening is like your classroom’s early alert. It’s a short assessment given to all students, usually once a year, to find out who might need extra help with early reading skills.

The Multitudes Universal Screener focuses on:

Phonological awareness
Letter-sound knowledge
Early decoding skills

The goal isn’t to diagnose — it’s to flag students who may need additional support. If a student’s results show “Support Needed,” that’s your signal to provide targeted instruction or intervention early, before small challenges become bigger ones. Students will also receive percentile scores on each Multitudes screening task, which will compare their performance to other California students in their grade.

Progress Monitoring: Tracking the Journey

Progress monitoring acts like a GPS for learning — it helps you see whether students are moving in the right direction and whether your teaching strategies are working.

Used more often than screening (weekly, biweekly, or monthly)
Focuses mainly on students receiving extra support
Tracks specific skills being targeted in instruction

For example, if a student was flagged for weak phonological awareness on the screener, you might use short progress monitoring checks to track growth in that area while you teach and adjust your approach as needed.

Benchmarking: Checking Against Grade-Level Goals

Benchmarking assessments show how students are performing compared to grade-level expectations at set times during the year — usually fall, winter, and spring. They are more comprehensive than screeners and include:

Reading comprehension
Fluency
Vocabulary

While the screener tells you who might struggle, benchmarking tells you how your students are performing overall relative to grade-level standards. Schools also use this data to see how the curriculum is working and to plan for broader support.

The Dyslexia Center in the LA Times

Signs of dyslexia and reading troubles can be spotted in kindergarten - or even preschool

By Jenny Gold, LA Times

California schools will begin screening kindergartners and first- and second- graders for dyslexia to combat the state's low early reading scores.

Our School Success Team is Here for You!

Clockwise from top left: Sharon Sanhotra, Clay Bell, Wyatt Richards, Malik Kit Fox, Meredith Kalmes, Lilian Constanza, Gabbie Fall, Eli Phipps.

Our school success team is growing to meet the needs of our partners from around the state. They are ready to answer your questions about adoption and implementation, and to provide technical support throughout the rostering and screening windows. If you have questions or need support, please click the link below!

Submit your request here!

From the Multitudes Socials

Visit the Multitudes Website