Hi Kiah,
Depending on how we define what “grade-level” means, yes- this is absolutely possible. In fact, it happens enough that we have the phrase “wait to fail” to describe students who are identified as at risk but denied needed support because they currently appear “on grade level.” We also have the expression “fall through the cracks” in acknowledgement of the numerous students who would have benefited from support and intervention much earlier, but were not identified due to not initially falling far enough behind to be flagged.
Take, for example, a bright first-grade student who is skilled at memorizing word chunks and also has a strength in oral language. This student also, however, has poor knowledge of letter-sound correspondences and weak blending skills. He might perform well on many reading measures because his exposure and learning of many high-frequency words give him access to most texts written for his age, and his language and reasoning skills allow him to sufficiently guess at the printed words he is not familiar with, as well as answer comprehension questions on the simple passages he is expected to read at his age.
However, this student’s weak decoding abilities will more than likely begin to cause difficulties for him in the coming years. He will be exposed to unfamiliar printed words with increasing frequency, which, without appropriate intervention, he won’t have the strategies to read. Additionally, the texts he will be reading will become increasingly complex, decreasing his ability to guess at unfamiliar words and reason his way through comprehension questions. He might eventually be identified as needing intervention in third or fourth or fifth grade, but it is not because he first began needing support in these upper elementary grades. Instead, his intervention needs become more conspicuous as he ages, meaning in the school system, his skills start to show up as sufficiently below grade-level and begin to trigger a concern.
Some of this can be ameliorated with a strong universal screening measure. Unlike broad grade-level benchmarks or classroom performance alone, screening tools are designed to identify the underlying skills that place students at risk for future academic difficulties, even when they are currently performing adequately in class. These measures can help schools identify students whose compensatory strengths may be masking foundational weaknesses before those weaknesses become severe enough to significantly impact grades or standardized test performance.
Language skills, background knowledge, attentiveness, compliance, and motivation can all be very positive attributes in a student while simultaneously delaying the identification of their academic needs. Similarly, classroom scaffolds, after-school tutoring, and parent support with assignments might also be a double-edged sword in terms of helping students be successful at school while also contributing to masking the extent of their difficulties.
Much of this, however, is contingent on how we define grade-level skills. A student’s grades might be heavily influenced by assignment completion and homework that they may have received help with. Grade-level standards can vary by state and alone are not sufficient indicators of reading difficulties, as they are not set up to include any foundational reading skill expected to be acquired in earlier grades (obstructing any continually missing foundational skills that students need to build upon). Moreover, state standards reflect the knowledge and skills expected to be taught in each grade, which are not necessarily the same skills and knowledge that are most indicative of reading struggles. For example, rapid automized naming (RAN) is a strong predictor of reading skills for young students, but this would not be an instructional target in classrooms or a standard for grade-level learning.
Regardless of student performance in their grades or adherence to state standards, psychometrically strong screening measures and diagnostic tests would be the most appropriate way to determine whether or not a student would benefit from additional support.
