K-2 Mid Year ROAR® Implementation

Overview 

K-2 Magpie students complete ROAR® assessments (“ROAR® Days”) in Magpie 3 times during the year:

• Start of Year: when students first log into Magpie
• Mid-Year: November 17 default start date (districts/Magpie point person can change this date with the Magpie team)
• End of Year: May 4 default start date (district/Magpie point person can change this date with the Magpie team)

Between these benchmark assessments (“ROAR® Days”), students independently learn and practice foundational skills in Magpie for 45-60 minutes each week (“Magpie Days”).

Start of Year ROAR® Days

45-60 min/week Magpie Days

Mid Year ROAR® Days

45-60 min/week Magpie Days

End of Year ROAR® Days

Magpie Literacy Article: What is ROAR®?

Magpie Mid Year ROAR® Assessment Days

• Students will be paused in their Magpie grade level curriculum to complete Mid Year ROAR® Assessments when they log into Magpie on or after the date your district/school has determined as the Mid Year ROAR® Start Date. If your district/school has not updated the Mid Year ROAR® Start Date, the default date for students to take the Mid Year ROAR® is set for November 17, 2025
• Note: Teachers have a Magpie Dashboard tab “ROAR® Assessment Schedule”, however, the Mid-Year start date will remain 11/17/2025 (the default start date), even if your district has changed the Mid-Year ROAR® start date. Please refer to the Mid-Year start date your district has shared with you. 

• When students log into Magpie on or after the Mid Year ROAR® Start Date, they will automatically begin the same 2-3 Magpie ROAR® screener assessments they completed at the Start of Year:

Note: Kindergarten and Grade 1 students will take Phoneme first, followed by Letter at MOY.

Kindergarten: Day 1: Hold 45-60 min	Grade 1:  Day 1: Hold 45 min Day 2: Hold 30 min	Grade 2: Day 1: Hold 30 min Day 2: Hold 40 min
Day 1 Hold 45-60 min ROAR® Phoneme (~20 min)  ROAR® Letter (~15 min)	Day 1 Hold 45 min ROAR® Phoneme (~20 min)  ROAR® Letter (~15 min)	Day 1 Hold 30 min ROAR® Phoneme (~20 min)
	Day 2 Hold 30 min ROAR® Word (~15 min)	Day 2 Hold 40 min ROAR® Word (~15 min)  ROAR® Sentence (~10 min)

*Recommended Practices for “ROAR® Days”* 

• Whole class completes ROAR® at the same time, if possible; or in small groups if needed
• Teachers tell students they will be playing ROAR® games like they did at the beginning of the year (powerpoint slides)
• Students launch Magpie through Clever or ClassLink as usual and begin ROAR® assessments, following the guidance you share about when to stop
• Teachers monitor students as they take and complete the ROAR® assessments
• Students complete ROAR® assessments over 1 day (Kindergarten) or 2 days (Grades 1 and 2)
• When students complete all of their 2-3 MOY ROAR® assessments, they will resume their Magpie lessons where they left off before MOY ROAR®. Grade 1 and 2 students complete ROAR® Assessments over 2 days (recommended); on Day 1, they are told when to STOP for the day (see below) and are given another activity to do while waiting for all students to finish.  
• After students have completed the MOY ROAR® assessments, they return to their Magpie grade level lessons where they left off before Mid Year ROAR® and continue learning in Magpie for 45-60 minutes each week.

Kindergarten

• Whole class completes ROAR® at the same time, if possible, with the teacher monitoring
• Introduce students to Mid Year ROAR® games (powerpoint slides)
• Plan for students to complete both ROAR® assessments in 1 day if you have ~45 minutes (or break into 2 days if you only have shorter sessions available for ROAR® testing). Note: at a minimum, students may need 20-30 minutes to complete Phoneme on Day 1.
• Show students in the powerpoint slides where to STOP each ROAR® Day and raise their hand
• When they finish, give students another activity to do until everyone has finished

ROAR® Phoneme (~20 min) - DAY 1

Press START to begin ROAR® Phoneme assessment

Progress bar fills up as student completes assessment

Student finishes assessment and progress is saved

 

ROAR® Letter (~15 min) - DAY 1

Press START to begin ROAR® Letter assessment

Progress bar fills up as student completes assessment

Student finishes assessment: Saving Progress

After completing Phoneme and Letter, kindergarteners will next see their Magpie lesson start screen. They will resume where they were in their Magpie games before MOY ROAR®. If they do not have screens that look like the above ROAR® screens, they have most likely finished ROAR® and are moving back to Magpie games. 

When done with Magpie for the day, students Sign Out of Magpie. If using shared devices, sign out of Clever/ClassLink as well.

Students resume their regularly scheduled Magpie sessions for 45-60 minutes each week.

Grade One

• Whole class completes ROAR® at the same time, if possible, with teacher monitoring completion
• Introduce students to Mid Year ROAR® games (powerpoint slides)
• Plan for students to complete the 3 assessments over 2 days (or 3 days if only shorter sessions are available for MOY ROAR®). Note: students need at least 20 minutes to complete Phoneme on Day 1. 
  • Day 1: ROAR® Phoneme (~20 min), ROAR® Letter (~15 min)
  • Day 2: ROAR® Word (~15 min)
• On Day 1, show students in the powerpoint slides where to STOP and raise their hand. Have another activity they can do until everyone is finished

ROAR® Phoneme (~20 min) - DAY 1

Press START to begin ROAR® Phoneme assessment

Progress bar fills up as student completes assessment

Student finishes assessment and progress is saved

 

ROAR® Letter (~15 min) - DAY 1

Press START to begin ROAR® Letter assessment

Progress bar fills up as student completes assessment

Student finishes assessment: Saving Progress

 

STOP when students see the ROAR® Word start screen. After stopping, Raise hand and teacher gives an activity to work on while other students finish ROAR® Day 1.
 

When done for the day, students Sign Out of Magpie. If using shared devices, sign out of Clever/ClassLink as well.

ROAR® Word (~15 min) - DAY 2

Notes:

• Words flash on the screen and disappear very quickly to assess automatic word recognition. Students should look at the screen the whole time during the ROAR® Word assessment
• Students use Left and Right arrow keys to indicate a word is a made-up (Left) or real (Right) word
• There are sound effects that accompany answer selections in ROAR®-Word (different sound for correct/incorrect responses) that are designed to help students maintain their focus on the test since the item prompts are only visible for a short window of time so it is important that students are paying attention throughout the test

Press START to begin ROAR® Word assessment

If using a keyboard: “Press any key to continue.” Some students may need support knowing what to press (any key) when they see this screen with a keyboard icon.

Student uses Left and Right arrow keys to indicate made-up (Left) or real (Right) words

Progress bar fills up as student completes assessment

Student finishes assessment and progress is saved

 

After completing Phoneme, Letter and Word, Grade 1 students will next see their Magpie lesson start screen. They will resume where they were in their Magpie games before MOY ROAR®. If they do not have screens that look like the above ROAR® screens, they have most likely finished ROAR® and are moving back to Magpie games. 

When done with Magpie for the day, students Sign Out of Magpie. If using shared devices, sign out of Clever/ClassLink as well.

Students resume their regularly scheduled Magpie sessions for 45-60 minutes each week.
 

Grade two

• Whole class completes ROAR® at the same time, if possible, with teacher monitoring completion
• Introduce students to Mid Year ROAR® games (powerpoint slides)
• Plan for students to complete the 3 ROAR® assessments over 2 days (or 3 if only shorter sessions are available for MOY ROAR®, but note the minimum time students will need below to complete each assessment on the day they start it). 
  • Day 1: ROAR® Phoneme (~20 minutes)
  • Day 2: ROAR® Word (~15 minutes), ROAR® Sentence (~10 minutes) (~30 minutes combined)
• On Day 1, show students in the powerpoint slides where to STOP and raise their hand. Have another activity to do until everyone has finished

ROAR® Phoneme (~20 min) - DAY 1

Press START to begin ROAR® Phoneme assessment

Progress bar fills up as student completes assessment

Student finishes assessment and progress is saved

 

STOP when students see the ROAR® Word start screen. Raise hand so teacher can give another activity to work on while other students finish ROAR®.

Students Sign Out of Magpie. If using shared devices, sign out of Clever/ClassLink as well.

ROAR® Word (~15 min) - DAY 2

Notes:

• Words flash on the screen and disappear very quickly to assess automatic word recognition. Students should look at the screen the whole time during the ROAR® Word assessment
• Students use Left and Right arrow keys to indicate a word is a made-up (Left) or real (Right) word
• There are sound effects that accompany answer selections in ROAR®-Word (different sound for correct/incorrect responses) that are designed to help students maintain their focus on the test since the item prompts are only visible for a short window of time so it is important that students are paying attention throughout the test

Press START to begin ROAR® Word assessment

If using a keyboard: “Press any key to continue.” Some students may need a reminder to press any key on their keyboard when they see this screen with a keyboard icon.

Student uses Left and Right arrow keys to indicate made-up (Left) or real (Right) words

Progress bar fills up as student completes assessment

Student finishes assessment and progress is saved

 

ROAR® Sentence (~10 min) - DAY 2

Press START to begin ROAR® Sentence assessment

Students silently read the sentence and press the Left arrow key if the sentence is False and the Right arrow key if the sentence is True.

Student finishes assessment and progress is saved

 

After completing Phoneme, Word, and Sentence, Grade 2 students will next see their Magpie lesson start screen. They will resume where they were in their Magpie games before MOY ROAR®. If they do not have screens that look like the above ROAR® screens, they have most likely finished ROAR® and are moving back to Magpie games. 

When done with Magpie for the day, students Sign Out of Magpie. If using shared devices, sign out of Clever/ClassLink as well.

Students resume their regularly scheduled Magpie sessions for 45-60 minutes each week.

Where do teachers and school leaders view ROAR® scores in Magpie Dashboards? 

ROAR® Score Reports Guide: Teachers

ROAR® Score Reports Guide: School Admin

Teacher and School Admin ROAR® MOY Dashboard Screenshots

• ROAR® Mid year data is available for you to review if you’re interested in seeing how ROAR® measures student skill levels and growth over time
• Reports are similar for Teachers and School Admin, but Teachers can see their Classroom only while School Admin can see the whole school and filter by Classroom

• Are more students in the darker bands Mid Year than at the Start of Year for each ROAR® assessment?  

• Have individual students improved their scores between Start of Year and Mid Year on each ROAR® assessment? 
• Which students are below or significantly below average at Mid Year on each assessment? >> Are these students learning in Magpie every week for 45-60 min?   

• Are more students in the darker bands at Mid Year compared to Start of Year?

• Which specific letters and sounds do students need support to master?