A Review of Progress Monitoring in Schools

Each year, schools administer various progress monitoring tests at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. As a result, schools use progress monitoring to help students in the classroom. However, some parents wonder how this data helps and what they should know about it.

Schools administer several mid-year tests each year. These include mathematics, reading, and writing assessments. Dual Language Immersion classrooms administer Spanish language arts assessments.

Above all, mid-year progress monitoring testing aims to measure student progress and inform instruction. Additionally, the assessments’ results provide teachers with valuable information about student abilities. Schools can also use progress monitoring to compare the beginning-of-year tests to the mid-year test results.

Progress Monitoring Tools

Below are some of the schools’ most common progress-monitoring assessment tools to monitor academic progress.

Assessment	Description
DIBELS	DIBELS is a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. It assesses skills such as phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
NWEA MAP Growth	MAP Growth is a computer-adaptive assessment system that measures students’ academic growth in reading, math, and language usage. It provides detailed information about students’ strengths and areas for improvement.
STAR Test	STAR Reading and STAR Math are computer-adaptive assessments that measure students’ proficiency in reading and math. They provide data on students’ performance levels and growth trajectories.
CBM (Curriculum-Based Measurement)	CBM involves frequent assessment of students’ academic skills using brief, standardized measures directly tied to the curriculum. It provides data to monitor progress and guide instructional decision-making.

Areas Commonly Tested

The above progress monitoring tools facilitate test administration in multiple areas.

English Language Arts

The English language arts assessment measures phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, and fluency. Reading comprehension is assessed based on the student’s grade level.

Reading progress monitoring tools assess various components of reading proficiency to track students’ growth and identify areas for targeted instruction. Here’s a description of what is typically assessed in reading using these tools:

1. Fluency: Fluency measures assess students’ ability to read text accurately and with appropriate expression. This includes factors such as reading rate (words read per minute), accuracy (correctly reading words), and prosody (expression and intonation).
2. Decoding: Decoding skills assess students’ ability to accurately and efficiently sound out words using phonics principles. It includes recognizing and applying letter-sound relationships, decoding multisyllabic words, and using decoding strategies to read unfamiliar words.
3. Vocabulary: Vocabulary assessments evaluate students’ knowledge of words and their meanings. This includes understanding word definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and context clues to determine word meanings within a passage.
4. Comprehension: Comprehension assessments measure students’ ability to understand and interpret written text. This includes identifying main ideas, making inferences, summarizing information, understanding cause-and-effect relationships, and analyzing text structure and author’s purpose.
5. Phonemic Awareness: Phonemic awareness assessments focus on students’ ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. This includes tasks such as identifying rhyming words, segmenting words into individual sounds, blending sounds to form words, and manipulating sounds to create new words.
6. Phonics: Phonics assessments assess students’ knowledge of letter-sound relationships and their ability to apply phonics rules to decode words accurately. This includes recognizing letter patterns, understanding sound-symbol correspondences, and applying decoding strategies in reading.
7. Sight Words: Sight word assessments evaluate students’ recognition and automaticity of high-frequency words that do not necessarily follow phonetic patterns. This includes words that students should be able to recognize instantly without needing to decode them.
8. Reading Comprehension Strategies: Some assessments may also focus on specific reading comprehension strategies such as predicting, visualizing, questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and making connections to help students actively engage with and understand text.

Math

The math progress monitoring test measures a student’s ability to determine student needs. For example, these include numeracy, computation, and problem-solving. These are indicators of the essential skills every child must master to become proficient in math. As a result, small group interventions allow teachers to customize instruction depending on student needs.

Here’s a description of what is typically assessed in math using these tools:

1. Numeracy: Numeracy assessments evaluate students’ understanding of basic numerical concepts, including counting, number recognition, and number sense. This may involve tasks such as counting objects, identifying numbers, and understanding numerical relationships.
2. Basic Operations: Basic operations assessments assess students’ proficiency in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. This includes fluency in solving single-digit and multi-digit problems, as well as understanding the properties and strategies associated with each operation.
3. Problem-Solving: Problem-solving assessments measure students’ ability to apply mathematical concepts and skills to solve real-world or mathematical problems. This includes understanding problem-solving strategies, identifying relevant information, selecting appropriate operations, and interpreting and communicating solutions.
4. Number Sense: Number sense assessments evaluate students’ conceptual understanding of numbers and their relationships. This includes tasks such as comparing and ordering numbers, understanding place value, recognizing patterns, and estimating quantities.
5. Measurement: Measurement assessments assess students’ understanding of units of measurement, conversions, and estimation. This includes measuring length, weight, volume, time, and temperature, as well as understanding concepts such as perimeter, area, and volume.
6. Geometry: Geometry assessments evaluate students’ knowledge of geometric shapes, properties, and spatial relationships. This includes identifying and classifying shapes, understanding geometric transformations, and solving problems involving angles, lines, and symmetry.
7. Fractions and Decimals: Fractions and decimals assessments assess students’ understanding of fractional and decimal concepts, operations, and relationships. This includes representing fractions and decimals, comparing and ordering fractions and decimals, and performing operations with fractions and decimals.
8. Data Analysis and Probability: Data analysis and probability assessments measure students’ ability to interpret and analyze data, make predictions, and understand basic probability concepts. This includes reading and interpreting graphs, tables, and charts, as well as understanding concepts such as mean, median, mode, range, and probability.
9. Mathematical Reasoning: Mathematical reasoning assessments evaluate students’ ability to apply logical reasoning and critical thinking skills to mathematical problems and situations. This includes tasks such as recognizing patterns, making conjectures, justifying solutions, and solving non-routine problems.

Spanish Language Arts

Spanish language arts is another area that schools monitor. In dual-language classrooms, reading assessments measure the Spanish alphabet, letter sounds, blending, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Similarly, classroom teachers assess to figure out areas of struggle using a Spanish language arts assessment.

Below is a description of what is typically evaluated in Spanish using these tools:

1. Oral Language Proficiency: Oral language assessments evaluate students’ ability to communicate effectively in Spanish. This includes tasks such as listening comprehension, speaking fluency, pronunciation, and vocabulary usage. Assessments may include conversations, oral presentations, retelling stories, and responding to questions orally.
2. Reading Fluency: Reading fluency assessments measure students’ ability to read Spanish text accurately, smoothly, and with appropriate expression. This includes assessing reading rate (words per minute), accuracy (correct word pronunciation), and prosody (phrasing, intonation). Students may read aloud passages or sentences of increasing complexity to assess their fluency.
3. Reading Comprehension: Reading comprehension assessments evaluate students’ understanding of Spanish text. This includes tasks such as answering questions about the main idea, identifying details, making inferences, summarizing, and analyzing text structure. Assessments may include passages of varying genres and lengths, followed by comprehension questions.
4. Vocabulary and Word Recognition: Vocabulary and word recognition assessments assess students’ knowledge of Spanish vocabulary and their ability to recognize and understand words in context. This includes tasks such as defining words, identifying synonyms and antonyms, and using context clues to determine word meanings. Assessments may include vocabulary lists, context-based questions, and cloze passages.
5. Grammar and Syntax: Grammar and syntax assessments evaluate students’ understanding of Spanish grammar rules and sentence structure. This includes tasks such as identifying parts of speech, verb conjugation, sentence formation, and punctuation. Assessments may include sentence completion exercises, error identification tasks, and sentence rewriting activities.
6. Writing Fluency and Composition: Writing fluency and composition assessments measure students’ ability to express themselves in writing in Spanish. This includes assessing writing mechanics (spelling, punctuation, grammar), organization, clarity, and creativity. Assessments may include prompts for writing narratives, expository essays, persuasive arguments, or descriptive passages.
7. Listening Comprehension: Listening comprehension assessments evaluate students’ ability to understand spoken Spanish. This includes tasks such as listening to passages, conversations, or instructions and answering questions based on the information heard. Assessments may include multiple-choice questions, short-answer responses, or retelling tasks.
8. Spelling: Spelling assessments assess students’ ability to spell Spanish words accurately. This includes assessing spelling patterns, diacritical marks, accentuation rules, and irregular spellings. Assessments may include dictation exercises, spelling tests, or proofreading tasks.

Progress Monitoring Examples

Progress monitoring is a dynamic process that involves ongoing assessment and analysis of student performance to gauge their learning progress. It can encompass various assessment methods, including formal assessments, informal observations, and data tracking tools.

Below are some examples of progress-monitoring activities that educators use to assess student learning and track progress over time:

1. Reading Fluency Timed Assessments: Students are given short passages to read aloud within a specified time limit. Teachers record the number of words read correctly and analyze factors such as accuracy and rate to monitor students’ reading fluency progress.
2. Math Fact Fluency Drills: Students are given timed drills to practice basic math facts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Teachers record the number of correct responses within the time limit to track students’ fluency in math operations.
3. Weekly Spelling Tests: Students are given a list of spelling words to study each week. At the end of the week, they are assessed on their ability to spell the words correctly. Teachers track students’ spelling accuracy and identify patterns of improvement or areas needing further practice.
4. Running Records: Teachers listen to students read aloud from a leveled text and record their oral reading errors, self-corrections, and fluency. Running records provide insights into students’ decoding skills, comprehension, and reading fluency progress.
5. Math Problem-Solving Tasks: Students are presented with word problems or real-life scenarios that require them to apply mathematical concepts and problem-solving strategies. Teachers assess students’ ability to understand the problem, select appropriate strategies, and arrive at correct solutions.
6. Writing Samples: Students are given prompts or writing tasks to complete independently. Teachers evaluate students’ writing samples for organization, clarity, coherence, grammar, spelling, and punctuation to monitor their writing proficiency and development.
7. Weekly Vocabulary Quizzes: Students are assessed on their understanding of weekly vocabulary words through quizzes or short-answer assessments. Teachers track students’ mastery of new vocabulary and provide additional support as needed.
8. Observational Checklists: Teachers use checklists to systematically observe students’ behavior, engagement, participation, and progress during classroom activities, discussions, or group work. Observational checklists help monitor students’ social and behavioral development over time.
9. Digital Learning Platforms: Online platforms and educational software can provide interactive quizzes, assessments, and progress tracking tools. Teachers can assign digital activities and monitor students’ performance and progress remotely.
10. Exit Tickets: At the end of a lesson or instructional unit, students complete brief assessments or reflection activities to demonstrate their understanding of key concepts or skills. Exit tickets provide immediate feedback to teachers and help assess students’ learning progress.

Use of Assessment Results

Progress monitoring test results play a crucial role in identifying students’ areas of academic need and determining the appropriate interventions to support their learning. These assessments inform educators about students’ strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to tailor instruction to meet individual needs effectively. Based on test results, students may be assigned to small-group interventions focused on addressing specific areas of difficulty.

These intervention groups provide targeted instruction in areas such as naming the alphabet, letter sounds, word blending, vocabulary, and reading comprehension for language arts. In mathematics, interventions may include number counting, multiplication, sequencing, and other foundational concepts based on students’ assessed needs. The goal of these interventions is to provide students with direct instruction and practice to strengthen their skills and improve their academic performance.

In addition to small-group interventions, some schools utilize specific online learning programs to provide additional support in reading and mathematics. These programs offer interactive exercises, tutorials, and practice activities aligned with curriculum standards. Parents can request login information for these programs to access the resources and reinforce their learning at home. This collaboration between school and home provides students additional opportunities for practice and reinforcement, further enhancing their academic growth and success.

Takeaways

Overall, mid-year testing is part of your child’s academic development. Teachers use progress monitoring to guide their instruction and interventions. Meanwhile, as a parent, inquire about these interventions and results. This information helps you provide support from home.

You might also like to read…

• Annual English Language Proficiency Test
• Understanding Spanish Proficiency Level Reports