Progress Monitoring in the Classroom: Easier Thank you Think! By Kit Giddings

1. Progress Monitoring In the
Regular Education Classroom
Kit Giddings
Salt Lake Community College

2. Today’s Objectives
• Understanding the role of progress
monitoring
• Types of progress monitoring
• Using progress monitoring data to
guide curriculum

3. What is Progress Monitoring?
• An on-going, non-diagnostic assessment
used to evaluate how much or how well
a child is learning across time (Salvia
& Ysseldyke, 2004)
• Allows teachers to quickly identify which
children need extra support, assess
student’s academic performance, and
evaluate the effectiveness of instruction
(Torgesen, 2003)

4. Progress Monitoring Allows
Teachers to…
• Determine if changes should be
made to improve instruction on a
daily basis as teachers measure
student performance over time (Grek,
Howard, & Hook, 2003)

5. Maze & Cloze Passages

6. • Cloze Tests
– Omits key words from a story and
requires a child to provide the
appropriate response
• Maze Tests
– Also omits key words but provides
three alternative responses for each
deleted word

7. Creating Maze & Cloze
Passages (University of Minnesota)
• Select a passage from the student’s
curriculum (basal reader, newspaper, etc.)
• Delete every 7th word. For maze passages,
create 2 distracter words as choices (distracter
words should have the same # of letters as the
correct word, + or - one letter. Distracter word should
be a different part of speech & should NOT be a
possible choice for that sentence.)
• If the 7th word is a name, skip that word and
use the next word

8. Scoring Maze Passages
Score any skipped items as incorrect or
when more than 1 choice is circled
If a student makes 3 consecutive errors,
stop scoring and return to the last correctly
chosen word.
Count the # of correct choices including and
before the last correctly chosen word. Do not
count any choices after the last correctly
chosen word.

9. Informal Reading Inventories

10. Informal Reading Inventories
• IRI’s are passages of increasing
difficulty (200 words) that are unfamiliar
to student
• Estimates reading ability at three levels:
– Independent Level
• 98-100% words read correctly
• 90-100% accuracy in comprehension
– Instructional Level
• 95% words read correctly
• 75% accuracy in comprehension
– Frustration Level
• <90% words read correctly
• <70% accuracy in comprehension

11. DIBELS

12. • DIBELS measures a child’s ability
to orally segment words into their
individual phonemes in a one
minute timed assessment
• Once a child’s phonological
awareness skills are identified,
he/she can apply them to the
decoding of letters and words

13. Curriculum Based
Measurement

14. Curriculum Based Measurement
(CBM)
– An alternative method of monitoring
student rate and accuracy levels
besides commercial instruments
(Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, & Ferguson, 1992)
– Quick and easy to administer
– Inexpensive to produce
– Demonstrates strong validity (Fuchs,
Fuchs, & Maxwell, 1988)

15. Reading CBM
• Reading CBM is a one minute
timed oral reading passage that
measures the number of words
read correctly and provides a valid
and reliable assessment of oral
reading rate (Fuchs & Deno, 1992)

16. One Minute Timed
Reading Passage
• Select material students are expected
to master by the end of the school
year:
– 200 word passages from a 4th grade
level basal reader (no poetry)

17. Administering a Reading CBM
1. Randomly select a passage from the material you
want student to master
2. The student and examiner each have a copy of the
passage
3. Ask the student to read orally for 1 minute
4. Score the student’s performance by adding up the
# of words read correctly out of total # of words
read
# words read correctly
total # of words read

18. Spelling CBM
• Select material students are expected to
master by the end of the school year:
– All words from a 4th grade spelling
curriculum divided into alternate test forms
– May be used in place of traditional weekly
spelling tests (weekly tests do not separate a
students actual spelling ability versus being able to
memorize words)

19. Creating a Spelling CBM
• Choose different but grade level
equivalent spelling lists
• Each list should have the same # of
words per list and the same # of total
letters
• 12 words for 1st and 2nd grade
• 17 words for 3rd grade and above
• Allow students 2 minutes per test (Hosp, Hosp, &
Howell, 2007)

20. Math CBM
• Select material students are expected to
master by the end of the school year:
Alternate forms of 36 randomly selected
computation problems that represent the 4th
grade curriculum

21. Creating Math CBM
• Student is given 2 minute time limit
• Count # of correct digits, not
correct answers
• Math problems should represent
the skills students are expected to
master by the end of the school
year

22. What Does CBM Data Tell
Us?
• Who are the low performers
• Who needs special instruction
• How to organize instructional
groups
• How to plan instructional programs
• What long-range goals to set

23. How Often Should I use
CBM?
• Daily when student progress is rapid
• Daily when student behavior fluctuate
and frequent adjustments are needed
• Weekly or biweekly when student
progress is slow
• Weekly, biweekly, or monthly when the
student has mastered the skill and all
you are doing is monitoring progress (Kerr
& Nelson, 2002)

24. Teacher Attitudes Influence
Student Success
• We must believe that:
– It is NEVER too late - Older students can become far
more literate and intervention can work if we do it right
– There is no BEST program - Use what works for
you. Look for solid, research based programs that have been
proven effective
– Intensity of instruction is key - Group students by
need, smaller group sizes, be well prepared, and dedicated
– Students learn what they are taught - Use
good materials, re-evaluate your teaching practices regularly

25. Resources
• www.aimsedu.org
• www.updc.org (Math Corner & R•EA•D•ING)
• www.dibels.uoregon.edu
• www.proquest12.com
• www.judywood.com
• www.fcrr.org/activities
• www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12
• www.howard.k12.md.us/langarts/Curriculum/strategie
• www.Literacy-on@lists.scoe.org
• www.scoe.org
• www.readnaturally.com
• www.studentprogress.org
• www.scholastic.com

26. Questions? Comments?
kit.giddings@slcc.edu