Quantitative Evidence
My students participate in the i-Ready® Diagnostic assessment three times a year. This assessment is computer adaptive diagnostic for reading and mathematics that isolates student needs down to the sub-skill level, and ongoing progress monitoring shows if students are on the path to achieve end-of-year goals. In terms of reading, students are assessed for vocabulary, reading comprehension and fluency which adds up to an overall score. The scores are not differentiated. This assessment is helpful because I can see exactly what each student needs to meet their end of the year goals. In addition, i-Ready provides materials that support each need of the student. Moreover, i-Ready is a useful assessment, if the data is used correctly to enhance and differentiate instruction to promote dramatic academic growth.
Table of Contents
1. Overview of i-Ready
2. i-Ready Sample Questions
3. i-Ready Scoring Chart
4. Data and Analysis
5. Individual Examples of Dramatic Academic Growth
6. Conclusion
Overview of i-Ready
i-Ready is a nationwide popular computer-based assessment. i-Ready assesses students within their grade level. i-Ready is an adaptive diagnostic test, which changes to each student's answer and increases in difficulty as the student progresses. This assessment then creates goals based on their results along with a plan. The results allow students to know their strengths and weaknesses on the test and along with goals for the year.
To measure student growth in reading, I depend on their numerical score provided after each i-Ready test. These scores show student growth within different parts of literacy. i-Ready provides teachers and parents with a full and easy-to-read examination of every student’s ability levels. Reports detail which services students have shown proficiency in and those skills to organize next for instruction. (curriculumassociates.com, 2018).
Explaining i-Ready scores to parents is simple because the data is organized into categories such as vocabulary and reading comprehension. The scores are also colorized either by green, yellow and red representing their grade level. i-Ready also provides a detailed description of the needs and how to support the child.
To learn more, visit the website at https://www.curriculumassociates.com
i-Ready Sample Questions
The document below includes i-Ready sample reading questions and shows how the questions align with a standard. Each sample question provides students an idea of what the i-Ready assessment has to offer. I create questions based on the sample questions. i-Ready does not provide practice tests for students to prepare, instead, they provide resources and materials after the student takes the test.
i-Ready Scoring Chart
i-Ready provided scores are categorized to meet a norm for a grade level. These norms or ranges culminate from scores of many categories; phonics, vocabulary, high-frequency words, comprehension of informational text and literature and phonological awareness. To provide parents and students with the simplified context to i-Ready scores, i-Ready provides a chart for simple data comparison. The purpose of these norms is to set a standard for progress in this assessment and to provide academic goals for that student.
As seen in the score chart below, a student who is "on-grade-level" in my 3rd-grade language arts class should score a 511 at the beginning of the year, a 545 at the middle of the year, and a 561 at the end of the year. Although there are three testing windows, I only provided two because many students did not test for the middle of the year assessment due to inclement weather.
i-Ready Data Analysis
Below, I included my students' i-Ready data from the beginning and end of the 2017-2018 school year. The data below from beginning-of-year (BOY) to end-of-year (EOY) show dramatic academic growth. BOY data indicate that the overall reading level of Grade 3 was low, with 62% of students classified in the lowest scale. However, by the year’s end only 20% of students tested at the lowest level. In addition, my highest scale increased in number as well. At the beginning of the year, 19% of the class was in the highest scale. By the end of the year, 48% of the class was in the highest scale.
Moreover, my 3rd-grade language arts students grew from an average score of 469 at the beginning of the year to a 502.5 at the end of the year. This growth of 33.5 points showed dramatic growth and moved my students from scoring well below grade level to scoring at grade level by the end of the year.
The document below includes i-Ready data from my 3rd grade (301 and 302) class. The average reading level for my class was 469, well below the early 3rd-grade range for i-Ready which is 511-544.
The document below includes the EOY i-Ready data from my 3rd grade (301 and 302) class. The average reading level for my class was 502.5, which is nearly on grade level for the entire class.
Analyzing BOY and EOY data provide a scale into the growth of each content strand that was tested in language arts. Through great instruction, I was able to incorporate informational text into my instruction to prepare them for PARCC which uses a lot of information text. Due to my instruction, the area of Comprehension: Informational Text showed an increase in student comprehension. At the beginning of the 2017 school year, 60% of students tested were categorized as Low; by the end of the year, only 20% of tested students were in this category.
Content that my students were familiar with showed dramatic growth. For example, BOY data reveal that 55% of students were in the lowest tier for Comprehension: Literature; whereas this strand showed that only 18% of the EOY students tested were Low. Similarly, the Vocabulary data indicates a 30% improvement with only 25% of the students tested remaining in the lowest category. Both of these categories are areas I focused on with explicit instruction in grade 3.
I also analyzed longitudinal data for each student. As displayed below, I selected 4 students to show increased comprehension of a variety of language arts contents. The first page is beginning of the year testing and the last page is the end of the year testing.
As shown above, student #1's vocabulary and comprehension of an informational text were on a level two at the beginning of the year. By the end of the year, this student's phonics level tested out and the two previously spoken areas are on a level three.
Student #3 and #4 were on a level for in phonics and comprehension of literature at the beginning of the year. At the end of the year, student #3 tested out in phonics and gained to level three in vocabulary and comprehension of informational text. Student #4 tested out in phonics, gained to level 3 in vocabulary and gained to level 2 incomprehension of informational text.
Student #2 started on a level one in the category of comprehension of informational text. In addition, this student was on level 2 in three categories; phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension of literature. By the end of the year, this student tested out in phonics and gained to level three in two categories; comprehension of literature and informational text.
Individual Examples of Dramatic Growth
When using i-Ready data, I can assess each student individually and plan instruction according to their needs. The below documents are Individual Student Growth Profiles from 2017-2018. Individual student profiles give a clear image of how a student improved in certain contents throughout the years. This profile allows me to create specific small groups, communicate with parents about their child's progress and address further needs.
In addition, these profiles follow students from year to year and I can see patterns in growth if I teach the student in the future. I cannot use past data for instruction because my school does not test 2nd graders in the language arts iReady. As shown on the Student Growth Profiles below, I am able to reflect on how my students performed throughout their year with me and can set goals when I continue to teach them the next year because of looping.
Below are four examples of individual dramatic growth.
Conclusion
I effectively implemented the i-Ready assessment to increase dramatic academic growth for all of my students. I analyzed data for individual students and the entire class. With the data, I differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all of my students which caused immense academic growth.
My students as a whole grew from a mean score of 469 to 505.2 by the end of the year. Although the entire class just missed being on grade level, my students grew immensely. This growth can give my students to be successful inside and outside of the classroom.
This assessment is used to assess reading levels for students and their understanding of various aspects of reading as stated earlier. My school uses this data when creating small groups, reading interventions, IEP's and classes for every grade level every year. In my opinion, this assessment is accurate and gives me a gauge on how to differentiate teaching my students.