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a ready-to-run workshopProgress Monitoring
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Progress Monitoring (Workshop)

When a student needs extra support, how do you know if it's working? Progress monitoring, measuring a specific skill briefly and frequently and charting the trend, tells you whether an intervention is helping or needs to change, before months are lost.

Key takeaway

Progress monitoring, brief, frequent measures of a specific skill, charted over time, shows whether an intervention is working, so you can adjust early instead of losing months.

Format
PLC / team meeting
Length
45 minutes
Group size
Any (works 4-40)
Who can run it
A teacher-leader or coach
You will need
Slides (5)Printed handoutA student receiving supportA timer
Aligned to
Learning Forward: Transformational ProcessesInTASC 6: AssessmentResearch on progress monitoring
Share / assign

Why it works

Progress monitoring is the practice of assessing a targeted skill briefly and frequently (often weekly or biweekly) and charting the data to judge a student's rate of progress against a goal. Research, especially in reading and math intervention and MTSS, shows it lets teachers tell early whether support is working and adjust if the trend is flat, rather than waiting for a unit test or a year-end result. It is about an individual student's trajectory, not a class snapshot.

The research: Research on progress monitoring and intervention (RTI/MTSS).

The run-of-show

Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.

    The core activity: set up progress monitoring for one student

    Teachers leave with a monitoring plan and a trigger to adjust the intervention.

    Watch the trend, adjust earlyProgress monitoring charts a student's trajectory on a targeted skill so you know, early, whether support is working. If the trend is flat, change the intervention.

    Facilitator notes

    Waiting for the unit test loses monthsIf you only find out an intervention failed at the unit test or year-end, you have lost months. Monitor the trend and adjust early.

    Adapt it

    Participant handout

    One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.

    K12 Academics · Professional Learning

    Progress Monitoring: watch the trend

    <b>Adjust early:</b> a brief, frequent measure of one skill, charted against a goal, with a trigger to change course.

    1. The student and the specific skill to monitor:
    2. The brief, consistent measure and frequency:
    3. The goal and how I chart the trend:
    4. How I adjust if the trend is flat:
    5. Who I collaborate with (specialist, team):

    Make it stick

    Trend and adjust:

    Common questions

    How is this different from data-driven instruction?
    Data-driven instruction analyzes assessment results to guide class teaching; progress monitoring tracks one student's progress on a targeted skill frequently to judge whether their intervention is working. Different grain size and purpose.
    How often should I monitor?
    Frequently enough to see a trend, often weekly or biweekly for a student receiving intervention, using a quick, consistent measure. The trend line is what matters.
    What do I do with the data?
    Chart it against the goal. If the trend is on track, continue; if it is flat, change the intervention. The point is adjusting early, not waiting.

    Go deeper

    Build it into a bigger day

    Workshop
    MTSS & RTI
    Workshop
    Data-Driven Instruction
    Workshop
    Assessing Reading