Specifications include, but are not limited to: The contractor shall provide Missouri Reading Assessment services for the local education agencies (LEAs) on behalf of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. At a minimum, the contractor’s Grade K assessment must assess for the following: Oral language/phonemic and phonological awareness . . Word level . Ability to recognize words in a sentence . Ability to recognize alliteration and rhyming words . Distinguishing orally presented rhyming pairs from non-rhyming pairs . Recognizing spoken alliteration or groups of words that begin with the same onset or initial sound . Syllable level . Ability to identify sounds in spoken words . Isolate the initial, medial, and final sounds in spoken words . Onset-rime/Blending – ability to blend the first sound in the word (onset) and the rest of the word (rime) . Segmenting – divide words, syllables, and phonemes . Manipulating – ability to delete/add/change an individual phoneme to form a new word