Where Do We Start? A Guide to UFLI Placement

A new school year means a familiar question: where do I actually start my students in the UFLI Scope and Sequence? For a long time, the answer from the UFLI team was to reach for the CORE Phonics Survey. But in July 2025, they released something better — a placement test built specifically for intervention. 🎉 In this post I'll walk you through exactly what the UFLI Intervention Placement Test is, how to give it, and how to use it to get your students started in the right place.

First, a question: do you even need to assess?

If you teach Kindergarten, 1st, or 2nd grade and you're starting the year with UFLI, you don't need to assess for placement at all. Just follow the recommended scope and sequence for your grade level (you'll find it on pages 41–43 of the UFLI Foundations manual). Easy. ✅

But if you're an intervention teacher or working with small groups, that's a different story. You'll want to assess exactly what each student needs. And if you're jumping in mid-year, the UFLI Intervention Placement Test is your best friend.

What is the UFLI Foundations Intervention Placement Test?

The UFLI Foundations Intervention Placement Test was specifically designed to identify individual student strengths and needs for intervention using the UFLI Foundations program. This means it’s built directly from the UFLI scope and sequence, ensuring a tight alignment between assessment and instruction.

It's thorough: 210 items across 11 sets of skills, covering everything from short vowels and digraphs to suffixes, prefixes, and other complex vowel patterns. My favorite part? Students read both real words and nonsense words. That means you're seeing their actual decoding skills, not just which sight words they've memorized. 👏

Where can I find the placement assessment?

Good news, it's free. You can download the UFLI Placement Test for Intervention straight from the UFLI website right here.

How do I administer the assessment? 

The test is straightforward and designed to give you clear data for a data-based decision. Here’s the breakdown:

1. Given one-on-one: The test is given to each student individually. But remember, it is only for students that need more than broad, T1 instruction.

2. Set the Stage: Before showing the student material, tell your student: "I’m going to show you some words to read. Some are real words and some are made-up words that may or may not be tricky to read, but please try your best. Remember that some are made-up words, so do not try to make them sound like real words. Ready?"

3. Show One Line at a Time: Don't reveal the whole page at once. That can be very overwhelming for a struggling reader.

4. Mark as you go: Underline correct responses and circle any errors.

5. Know When to Stop: This is crucial! If the student misses 3 words in one line, stop the assessment for that student. 🛑 It saves them from frustration and shows you right where their instruction should begin.

Making Sense of the Results

Here's where it gets easy. After each set of words, you can use the following chart which shows you exactly where to start in the UFLI Foundations program. And you can trust that placement. When the test was validated, 95.3% of students couldn't pass the very next set up from their recommended starting point. That tells you the test isn't placing kids too low or too high; it's landing them right where they're ready to learn.

Check it out below ⬇️

Prior to July of 2025, guidance from UFLI suggested using the Core Phonics Survey alignment chart. Click to see it➡️

CORE Phonics Survey Section	UFLI Foundations Scope & Sequence Unit
Alphabet Skills & Letter Sounds
Consonant Sounds	Alphabet Unit: Lessons 1-34
Short Vowel Sounds	Alphabet Unit: Lessons 1-34
Long Vowel Sounds	VCe Unit: Lessons 54-59
Reading and Decoding Skills
Short Vowels in CVC Words	Alphabet Review & Longer Words Unit: Lessons 35a-41a* *focus on lessons a (target CVC)
Consonant Blends with Short Vowels	Alphabet Review & Longer Words Unit: Lessons 35b-41b* *focus on lessons b (target CCVC/CVCC)
Short Vowels, Digraphs,  –tch*­ Trigraph	Digraphs Unit: Lessons 42-53 *tch trigraph targeted in  Lesson 69
R-Controlled Vowels	R-Controlled Vowels Unit: Lessons 77-83
Long Vowel Spellings	Long Vowel Teams Unit: Lessons 84-88
Variant Vowels	Other Vowel Teams Unit: Lessons 89-94 Diphthongs Unit: Lessons 95-97
Low Frequency Vowel and Consonant Spellings	UFLI Lessons will vary based on errors Long i (igh): Lesson 87 Silent Letters: Lesson 98 Low Frequency Spellings Unit: Lessons 111-118
Multisyllabic Words	UFLI Lessons will vary based on errors Reading Longer Words Unit: Lessons 63-68 -le: Lesson 75 R-Controlled Vowels Review: Lesson 83* Vowel Teams Review 1: Lesson 88* Vowel Teams Review 2: Lesson 92* Vowels Teams & Diphthongs Review: Lesson 97* Affixes Review 1: Lesson 106 *target multisyllabic words in these review lessons

Want to get even more specific?

Once I know a student's starting point, I like to use Fluency Lines to zero in on their exact phonics strengths and gaps. Students read fluency lines of real and nonsense words while I note where they stumble. I keep a copy in the students' files to continually monitor progress throughout the year. It's one of my favorite low-prep tools.

Want to try my blending lines with your own students? Drop your info below and I'll send them your way. 📩

What about Heart Words?

Here's something easy to overlook: if you're not starting at Unit 1, Lesson 1, you'll need to figure out which heart words your student missed along the way. Say the test places them at Lesson 43, the start of Unit 3: Digraphs. That means they skipped right past the heart words taught in Units 1 and 2, so you'll want to check for those gaps before moving on. This is the assessment I reach for: Heart Word Assessment

My print-and-go Heart Word Assessment follows the UFLI scope and sequence for Lessons 1–128, so in 2–3 minutes you'll know exactly which heart words a student already owns and which ones still need teaching.

What about progress monitoring?

Once your students are placed and learning, you'll want to keep an eye on their growth. The Quick Phonics Screener is my go-to for this, and it's free right here. Some schools lean on DIBELS instead, which you can explore here.

And for your core, Tier 1 instruction? Don't overlook the simplest tool you already have: the weekly spelling assessment. Give it every Friday using the dictation words and sentences in the UFLI manual (starting on page 354). The logic is simple: if a student can spell the word, they can almost certainly read it. Those Friday results are gold for forming your reteach groups the following week.

You've got this!

Starting students in the right place is the hardest part, and now you have everything you need to do it with confidence. Before you go, grab my free Ultimate Back-to-School Checklist [here]. It's the easiest way to make sure nothing slips through the cracks as you head into the new year.

And when you're ready for more done-for-you, UFLI-aligned assessments and resources, come see me in my TPT store. I'd love to help make your year a little lighter.

Hope to see you soon! 💛