As a former teacher, I recall striving to figure out what was causing my students to struggle with reading. I’d review their previous year’s state ELA assessment results and get an overall understanding of where my students fell within reading proficiency. I’d see that my students were highly proficient, proficient, approaching proficient, or below proficient. These four levels told me something about my students, but not enough to identify their strengths and areas of need, so I’d administer a diagnostic reading assessment to find out where I should focus my instruction.