SCOE + Multitudes Partnership

The Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) is pleased to partner with the UCSF Dyslexia Center to provide support to sites using the Multitudes platform. The goal is to expand the capacity of Multitudes' reading difficulties risk screening tool through webinars, newsletters, teacher modules, and open office hours.

In upcoming issues, SCOE will spotlight how schools across the state are using Multitudes to better understand and support students who may be at risk for reading difficulties. These stories are a reminder that this work is shared—and that there is much we can learn from one another. Spotlights will highlight both what schools are doing and how they are doing it, including the systems and structures supporting implementation and the ways Multitudes data is used to guide instruction, strengthen assessment systems, and inform decisions that move students forward.

Hi there, I’m Elise Brenner, and I lead Product Development and School Success here at UCSF Multitudes. Over the past several months, our team has focused on supporting a successful rollout across California. This work has included close collaboration with educators and district partners, ongoing implementation and technical support, and targeted platform improvements informed by classroom experience and your feedback.

This winter, we will begin offering access to the Multitudes Research Suite to the more than 1,500 schools currently using Multitudes. Additional measures for math, progress monitoring, and transitional kindergarten are available through an opt-in research partnership, providing districts with the opportunity to help shape the future of the Multitudes platform. This work supports the development of new features for a more comprehensive, integrated platform that may reduce the need for districts to adopt, manage, and train on multiple separate tools. We are deeply grateful to our partner schools and districts for their collaboration and feedback.

Multitudes adopters may register interest in using the research suite on the Multitudes platform under the Research tab, or via the link below.

Daniel Silberstein is an Educational Specialist with the Diagnostic Center of Northern California (DCN-CDE) and a former Director of Oakland Unified School District's Reading Clinic. With over 20 years in special education and literacy intervention, and through his work with the California Dyslexia Initiative, he shares knowledge and practice guidance for educators. Watch this space!

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“What language do we use to screen a second-grade student whose primary language is Spanish and who has an English Language Proficiency Assessments of California (ELPAC) score of Level 3 in English?”

There is no "one size fits all" answer, as an ELPAC score is only one piece of the puzzle. For many students with this profile, screening in both English and Spanish using Multitudes provides the most comprehensive view of their language and literacy development.

Screening in both languages offers several key advantages:

Identifying Cross-Linguistic Transfer: You can determine if a student has mastered a concept in Spanish (like phonemic awareness or decoding) that hasn't yet "transferred" to their English performance.

Differentiating Language vs. Literacy: This helps determine whether a struggle is due to language acquisition (requiring more ELD support) or a literacy deficit (requiring increased reading instruction).

Driving Targeted Instruction: Knowing a student's strengths in their home language enables teachers to effectively bridge those skills into English instruction.