PALS-K is a measure of children’s knowledge of several important literacy fundamentals: phonological awareness, alphabet recognition, concept of word, knowledge of letter sounds and spelling. PALS-K provides a direct means of matching literacy instruction to specific literacy needs and provides a means of identifying those children who are relatively behind in their acquisition of these fundamental literacy skills.

PALS-K Helpful Documents

• PALS-K Description of Tasks 
• PALS-K Materials Checklist
• PALS-K Technical Reference
• See the PALS Instructional Resources and Reports page for a list of available reports for PALS-K

 The PALS-K Benchmarks and Mid-Year Ranges Chart can be found in your PALS Online account on the Instructional Resources page and on the PALS-K Materials page.

PALS-K Administration and Scoring

Students’ scores on specific tasks are added together to create a summed score. This summed score is compared against a benchmark that represents minimum expectations for fall and for spring. If a student’s summed score is below the benchmark, that student should receive instruction that is in addition to the regular classroom literacy instruction.

Please review your PALS-K Teacher Set for detailed and step-by-step information about PALS-K tasks and scoring.