Progress Monitoring
What is Progress Monitoring?
Progress Monitoring is a tool for checking student progress and accountability. It is a systematic way for teachers to collect, graph, and analyze data on students’ progress toward individual and annual goals. Progress monitoring can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction and increase achievement. With progress monitoring systems in place, educational staff and parents can determine whether adequate progress is being made and adjust instruction, materials, and programs based on individual student performance.
What do the Norms mean?
The norms are generated by random sampling of students for each grade level on specific skills. The scores are then ranked by percentile. The 50th percentile represents the average score of a child on the same instructional level for a particular skill. A student who scores at the 50th percentile has scored higher than 49 percent of his/her peers. South Western School District uses AIMSweb to monitor the progress of all their students in grades K-12.
Why does South Western do Progress Monitoring?
Progress monitoring enables schools to meet legal requirements. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA ’97) requires that progress toward annual goals be measured for each student who has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). IDEA ’97 further requires that parents be informed of their child’s progress on a regular basis. Progress monitoring provides teachers and parents with skills and tools to record meaningful data and use the data to make instructional decisions, ensuring that students are making adequate individual progress. Progress monitoring enables teachers to analyze their instruction and communicate clearly with parents and students.