This is a post about AIMSweb, which is what a lot of districts use for progress monitoring within RTI2.
The state of TN says if your child is in tier 2 or 3 of RTI2 then a progress monitoring report should come home every 4.5 weeks. Parents, you have a right to have that information! Now, just because I say you should be getting it does not mean that you will understand what is sent home and this is why I am writing today, to explain what those forms look like and how to read them.
The state of TN says if your child is in tier 2 or 3 of RTI2 then a progress monitoring report should come home every 4.5 weeks. Parents, you have a right to have that information! Now, just because I say you should be getting it does not mean that you will understand what is sent home and this is why I am writing today, to explain what those forms look like and how to read them.
This is what one kind of AIMSweb report will look like. The top is one page, the bottom is usually a second page. The second page numbers are just what the red and green dots in the graph represent.
This report is for a reading fluency probe. I am going to focus on the second page so you can understand what those numbers mean.
This probe is a 1 minute assessment, where a student reads a passage and the teacher times them for 1 minute and marks all errors that the student makes in that minute. If you look at the very first column, it says this child read 47 words correctly in 1 minute, and made 2 errors. These numbers mean nothing to you as a parent if you don't know what is expected of a student in the grade level that is being progress monitored. Every grade level has national benchmark scores, these are the scores that a student at the grade level should be meeting. On the top of that 2nd page it says this student will achieve 78 words read correct. Generally this number is an end of grade number, but not necessarily. This is a team decision on what would be attainable for the student.
Now, Benchmark norms change 3 times a year, there are Fall Benchmarks, Winter Benchmarks (starting around mid November) and Spring Benchmarks (starting around mid March). So, looking at the 3rd grade benchmarks, and looking at the 78 words read correctly goal, Fall benchmark would put this student just below the 50th percentile (87 words read correctly is 50th percentile), Winter Benchmark would put this student just below the 25th percentile (84 words read correctly is 25th percentile, and Spring Benchmark would put this student just above the 10th percentile (73 words read correctly is the 10th percentile). See the huge difference there?
So, how do you know what the benchmark norms are? You don't. Unless you ask. You have the right to ask, so ask away. However, be sure to ask for the right benchmark norms. Many parents have spoken to me to tell me that the school has said the student is doing well, the numbers of words read correctly are increasing, however, that does not mean they are closing the gap. You just saw how the 78 number above changed from around the 50th percentile to the 10th by the end of the same grade school year. You have to be specific about benchmark norms.
An important thing to remember, I was just talking about reading fluency. Benchmarks change not only from year to year but are also very different among the different progress monitoring probes. If your child is being progress monitored with reading comprehension, called MAZE, those benchmark norms are different.
Also, see how those red dots go up and down over and over? That is not making progress at closing the gap. This student is staying pretty stagnant through the whole year.
I hope this helps explain these reports a little better, if not ask me questions, I am here to help. Remember, you are supposed to get these reports every 4.5 weeks if your child is in a tier, or within special education.
This report is for a reading fluency probe. I am going to focus on the second page so you can understand what those numbers mean.
This probe is a 1 minute assessment, where a student reads a passage and the teacher times them for 1 minute and marks all errors that the student makes in that minute. If you look at the very first column, it says this child read 47 words correctly in 1 minute, and made 2 errors. These numbers mean nothing to you as a parent if you don't know what is expected of a student in the grade level that is being progress monitored. Every grade level has national benchmark scores, these are the scores that a student at the grade level should be meeting. On the top of that 2nd page it says this student will achieve 78 words read correct. Generally this number is an end of grade number, but not necessarily. This is a team decision on what would be attainable for the student.
Now, Benchmark norms change 3 times a year, there are Fall Benchmarks, Winter Benchmarks (starting around mid November) and Spring Benchmarks (starting around mid March). So, looking at the 3rd grade benchmarks, and looking at the 78 words read correctly goal, Fall benchmark would put this student just below the 50th percentile (87 words read correctly is 50th percentile), Winter Benchmark would put this student just below the 25th percentile (84 words read correctly is 25th percentile, and Spring Benchmark would put this student just above the 10th percentile (73 words read correctly is the 10th percentile). See the huge difference there?
So, how do you know what the benchmark norms are? You don't. Unless you ask. You have the right to ask, so ask away. However, be sure to ask for the right benchmark norms. Many parents have spoken to me to tell me that the school has said the student is doing well, the numbers of words read correctly are increasing, however, that does not mean they are closing the gap. You just saw how the 78 number above changed from around the 50th percentile to the 10th by the end of the same grade school year. You have to be specific about benchmark norms.
An important thing to remember, I was just talking about reading fluency. Benchmarks change not only from year to year but are also very different among the different progress monitoring probes. If your child is being progress monitored with reading comprehension, called MAZE, those benchmark norms are different.
Also, see how those red dots go up and down over and over? That is not making progress at closing the gap. This student is staying pretty stagnant through the whole year.
I hope this helps explain these reports a little better, if not ask me questions, I am here to help. Remember, you are supposed to get these reports every 4.5 weeks if your child is in a tier, or within special education.
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