How can teachers use assessment to guide instruction?
Page 2: Progress Monitoring
For Your Information
Although this module focuses on GOM, mastery measurement is another type of progress monitoring. Though similar in a number of ways, GOM and MM serve different purposes. Whereas GOM assesses long-term goals (i.e., the acquisition of skills across an entire school year), MM assesses short-term objectives (i.e., the acquisition of specific skills within a unit of study). To learn more about the differences between GOM and MM, view the following IRIS Information Brief:
Progress monitoring is a type of formative assessment that elementary, middle, and high school educators can use to:
- Frequently and continuously evaluate student learning
- Monitor the effectiveness of their instruction
- Make instructional changes to improve students’ academic progress
When people use the term progress monitoring, they are typically referring to a type of progress monitoring known as general outcome measurement (GOM). GOM, often referred to as curriculum-based measurement (CBM), monitors student growth toward a long-term goal.
GOM is an effective means of assessing and tracking student progress on skills across the entire curriculum. It is conducted on a regular basis—for example, once a week— by giving a short test (i.e., a measure or probe) to a student or a group of students. Typically, each of these tests includes sample items designed to evaluate every skill in the instructional curriculum for a specific grade level (i.e., curricular sampling or curriculum sampling). Because GOM is administered frequently, each test should contain equivalent but different items. These are referred to as alternate versions or alternate forms.
The tests below represent a beginning-of-year measure and an end-of-year measure. Note that they are alternate versions consisting of different but equivalent items.
Beginning-of-year probe
End-of-year probe
For Your Information
Although math progress monitoring measures generally use the curricular sampling approach, reading measures more commonly use the overall indicator approach, in which test scores correlate with overall reading performance. For more information on progress monitoring in reading, check out the following IRIS Module:
Educators do not use progress monitoring to assign grades. Rather, they score probes to measure student progress. Students are not expected to demonstrate immediate mastery of the skills in question. It’s normal for scores to be low at the beginning of the year and improve over time, which is an indication that students are learning.
There are many benefits to using general outcome measurement to monitor student progress. In addition to those already mentioned, educators can use GOM data to:
- Monitor student progress over time
- Determine whether the current instruction is helping students to learn
- Determine whether students are making adequate progress toward their learning goals
- Identify students who are not making adequate progress and to provide additional or alternative instruction
- Check for retention of previously taught skills (i.e., skill maintenance)
- Predict student performance on the year-end assessment
- Effectively communicate academic performance to students, parents, and other school professionals
Did You Know?
GOM can be used to determine whether an educator is providing high-quality instruction. When educators provide high-quality instruction, most of their students will show growth in mathematics skills across the year. However, if many students are not demonstrating sufficient improvement, the educator may need to improve the quality of instruction. For more information on implementing high-quality mathematics instruction, view the following IRIS Module:
Below, Lynn Fuchs talks more about the benefits of using progress monitoring probes that sample the entire year’s curriculum (time: 1:03). Next, Jessica Sellers discusses how she used progress monitoring to evaluate student performance and adjust her instruction in an ongoing manner (time: 0:39).
Lynn Fuchs, PhD
Dunn Family Chair in Psychoeducational Assessment
Department of Special Education
Vanderbilt University
Audio Player
Jessica Sellers, MEd
Behavior Analyst; Former Teacher
Nashville, TN
Audio Player
Research Shows
Research into the effectiveness of CBM has been ongoing for more than 40 years. Below are just a few of those findings.
- Struggling students reported that they enjoyed monitoring their progress in mathematics and felt more motivated to learn. Additionally, their mathematics performance improved significantly as a result of progress monitoring.
(Fuchs et al., 1997) - CBM can be used to predict success in traditional year-end standardized assessments.
(Good et al., 2001) - The performance of all students (high-, average-, and low-achieving students, students with disabilities, as well as those with and at risk for mathematics difficulties) improved when teachers modified their instruction based on CBM data.
(Lembke et al., 2022; Stecker et al., 2005) - When teachers received ongoing coaching and implemented frequent progress monitoring, middle school students with mathematics learning difficulties demonstrated improved performance on algebra outcome measures.
(Powell et al., 2021)
GOM data can also help educators to improve the academic growth of at-risk students or students with disabilities. These data can assist educators in identifying students who may need a change of instruction or additional educational support. Educators can use GOM data to:
- Compare the effectiveness of different instructional strategies
- Identify students who are not making adequate progress in a general education setting and who may therefore require additional supports
- Track progress toward goals outlined in the individualized education program (IEP) for students receiving special education services
- Identify skills with which students are having the most difficulty
Audio Player
Lynn Fuchs, PhD
Dunn Family Chair in Psychoeducational Assessment
Department of Special Education
Vanderbilt University
For Your Information
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Progress monitoring is a key component in a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) or response to intervention (RTI) framework for both elementary and secondary students. The data are collected and graphed to provide an objective way for educators to determine whether students are responding to instruction or intervention. This process can be used by those responsible for each tier of instruction (e.g., general education teacher, interventionist, special education teacher). For more information, view the following IRIS Module:
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Progress monitoring is also a critical component of data-based individualization (DBI), a research-based process for using data to make instructional decisions for struggling learners or students with disabilities. DBI is often used by educators who work with students who receive individualized, intensive intervention in an MTSS or RTI model. A meta-analysis of research studies (Jung et al., 2018) indicates that the use of GOM within a DBI framework is beneficial to students across reading, mathematics, and spelling/writing. For more information, view the following IRIS Module:
The GOM Process
Regardless of whether GOM is used to track the academic progress of typically achieving students, struggling students, or those with disabilities, the overall process of collecting and interpreting GOM data to monitor progress and guide instruction is the same:
- Select a measure
- Create a graph
- Create a goal line
- Administer, score, and graph
- Make data-based instructional decisions
- Communicate progress
The remainder of this module will describe and demonstrate each of these steps in detail.
