Referring a family to the Cornerstone
This page states what the Cornerstone Assessment is, what it is not, what the family receives, and how to send a family to us. It is written for colleagues, not as marketing.
Scope
The Cornerstone Assessment is a criterion-referenced educational assessment in reading and mathematics for Pre-K 4 through fifth grade. Performance is referenced to the skills expected at the scholar’s grade, not to a normative sample.
It does not
- Diagnose any condition, educational, medical, or psychological.
- Function as a psychoeducational or neuropsychological evaluation.
- Substitute for an evaluation by a district Child Study Team, or affect a family’s right to request one at any time.
- Report standard scores, percentiles, or grade equivalents.
Fluency is reported as words correct per minute on our own passages and tracked for growth over time. We do not apply another publisher’s cut scores to our measures. Core, Strategic, and Intensive are our own instructional priority labels, assigned by a written rule, not validated national risk categories.
Administration
- FormatOne 60-minute session, one to one
- DomainsReading and mathematics, by subskill
- Administered byOur founder, personally, for every scholar
- ReportWritten Scholar Profile within five business days
- Re-assessmentQuarterly, on parallel forms
- SettingVirtual, or in person in Hudson County, New Jersey
What the Scholar Profile contains
- Skill-by-skill placement in reading and mathematics on a four-step growth scale: Discovering, Developing, Deepening, Demonstrating.
- A plain-language finding naming the specific skill where difficulty begins.
- Instructional priorities by domain.
- Oral reading rate on our own passages, where developmentally appropriate.
- A written instructional plan, including the first skills to be taught and the methods used.
Credentials
Our founder is a New Jersey state-certified teacher in elementary education and special education, and a former Assistant Principal of Special Education. She is trained in Orton-Gillingham multisensory instruction through IMSE, the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education, and in Handle With Care and the Nurtured Heart Approach. Intentional Education LLC is her practice.
One trained practitioner administers and scores every assessment, which removes the scorer variation that appears when several people assess the same child.
Records and consent
The Scholar Profile belongs to the family. We release it to a school, clinician, or advocate at the family’s written request, and not otherwise. We are happy to review findings with you directly once the family has authorized it.
Two ways a family can use us
A family may take the assessment alone and receive the complete Profile and plan in one session, with no obligation to continue. A family who continues receives instruction from that plan, with the same measures re-checked each quarter.
To refer a family
Send them to the discovery call, or write to us directly and we will follow up with them.
The discovery call