PALS. The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) has been used as the state-provided screening tool for Virginia’s Early Intervention Reading Initiative (EIRI) since legislation establishing the EIRI was passed in 1997 by the Virginia General Assembly. Developed as a measure of children’s knowledge of important literacy
fundamentals, PALS aligns with Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) for English. The original PALS instrument was designed for use in kindergarten and first grade, but was expanded into separate PALS-K and PALS 1-3 instruments in response to the expansion of the EIRI to kindergarten through third grade in 2000. The specific purposes of PALS are to (a) screen and identify children who are relatively behind in their acquisition of important literacy fundamentals, and (b) provide teachers with diagnostic information that allows them to match reading instruction to specific literacy needs.
Students not meeting grade-level criteria are provided with additional reading instruction.