The Five "Families" of Basic Skills Progress Monitoring

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Frequent basic skills progress monitoring (i.e., making decisions regarding the benefits of particular instruction to a student), has typically been secondary to other assessment practices, such as eligibility for special programs, screening, and program evaluation and accountability. This lack of attention is unfortunate because a powerful teaching tool is underutilized.

Type of Frequent Progress Monitoring Assessment Question Time Frame Goal Material Frequency Criterion for Acceptable Performance (CAP)
Special Education IEPs Progress toward the IEP annual goal? 1 year or anniversary date Individualized based on Survey Level Assessment (SLA) 1-2 times per week Norm-Based with Value Added Standards-Based to reduce the gap
Special Education RtI Responding to appropriately intensive instruction? Time limited to typically a minimum of 6 weeks Grade-level material 1-2 times per week Norm-Based with Value Added Standards-Based to reduce the gap
Tier 3 Responding to Tier 3 intervention? End-of-school year Grade-level material 1-2 times per week Norm-Based with Value Added Standards-Based to reduce the gap
Tier 2 Responding to Tier 2 intervention? End-of-school year Grade-level material Varies from 1 time per month to 1 time per week Norm-Based with Value Added Standards-Based to make AYP
Tier 1 or Core Instruction Making AYP from core instruction? End-of-school year Grade-level material 3 times per year as part of Benchmark Standards Based to make AYP