Terms
Tests
Philosophies
Progress Trends
FAQ
100
What are ORF and SRF the abbreviations for?
Oral Reading Fluency
Silent Reading Fluency
100
Which tests compare students against same-aged peers around the country?
Benchmarks
100
Why do we benchmark students 3 times a year?
Each time of the year (fall, winter, and spring) show us a bigger picture of our students' learning and how much growth has been made in incremental times, rather than just waiting until the end of the year.
100
What do the different ticket colors (blue, green, red) mean for progress monitoring?
Blue - test is locked
Green - test is unlocked and ready
Red - a student missed the prior week's test
100
How are students selected for progress monitoring?
Students who fall in the below average range (11-25th percentile) should be progress monitored. Those who fall in the well below average range (1st-10th percentile) should first be survey level assessed, and then a level is chosen for progress monitoring.
200
What does ROI stand for and why is it important?
ROI = Rate of Improvement.
We use "ambitious" ROI goals for our students being progress monitored. The ROI determines the "goal line" and "trend line" on progress monitoring charts.
200
Which tests assess a student's growth relative to their own past performance?
Progress monitoring
200
How do Aimsweb tests instill a growth mindset?
When students are prepared ahead of time, they can utilize strategies to push through frustration. Celebrating even the smallest victories can help students see progress right away.
200
What does a gold star indicate?
Gold star = goal met. The student has achieved three scores at or above the goal score prior to the goal date.
200
Why are only certain tests used for progress monitoring?
These tests (ORF, SRF, MCF, NCF-T) are brief and can be repeated frequently. They are meant to show small growth over time.
300
What is a Survey Level Assessment (SLA)?
For students with well below average skills, we assess them one grade level lower (again and again) until we find a functional level where we can appropriately monitor their progress.
300
Which two math subtests combine to create the NSF score?
MCF and NCF-T
300
Why don't we start Aimsweb until after students learn how to read?
Monitoring the growth of reading's many parts (Scarborough's reading rope) helps us to target instruction and move students from automatic readers to strategic readers.
300
What is the difference between a goal ROI and a trend ROI?
The trend ROI is a student's current rate of improvement. The goal ROI is the average rate needed to improve.
300
Why would an N/A score be given for Silent Reading Fluency?
In addition to the time spent reading story segments, students must also demonstrate sufficient evidence that they have understood a story segment for its reading rate to be scored. If the student does not get three of the four questions correct on at least two of the three stories, then a Silent Reading Fluency score is not provided = N/A.
400
What are NCF-T, MCF, and NSF the abbreviations for?
Number Comparison Fluency - Triads
Mental Computation Fluency
Number Sense Fluency
400
Which tests are timed?
All fluency tests, which include oral reading fluency, silent reading fluency, number comparison fluency triads, and mental computation fluency.
400
Why should we progress monitor students?
Progress monitoring is used to determine intervention effectiveness. Monitoring helps you to determine whether the students are closing the gap between where they are currently performing and where they should be performing based on grade level expectations. If a student is not showing growth through their progress monitoring tests, programmatical changes should be made accordingly.
400
What do the different colored bars indicate about goal status?
Unfilled gray outline: indeterminate; not enough data to project
Green bar: projected to meet or exceed the goal 
Pink bar: not projected to meet the goal
Gray bar: projected to be near the goal
400
Why are students benchmarked at their chronological grade level and not their instructional level?
Regardless of where the student is being instructed, benchmarks provide a realistic view of how the student is performing relative to same-aged peers.
500
What does SGP stand for?
Student Growth Percentile
500
How are the K-1 tests different from the other grades?
They are administered individually, face-to-face with a teacher.
They use a different battery of assessments.
500
Why does Aimsweb used curriculum-based measures and not just mastery tests?
Curriculum-based measures (CBMs) assess a sample of all the skills that are planned to be taught in a single year. Tests taken at different times of the school year can be compared to tell us whether a student is making progress. Mastery tests, on the other hand, assess a student's knowledge or ability on a specific skill or concept and cannot be compared to one another.
500
At what rate do we want to see a student’s SGP? Bonus: Why?
55 or above (this means students are making progress at an above average rate... closing the gap faster than their same-aged peers)
500
What are the ranges for each percentile band?
Well below average: 1-10
Below average: 11-25
Average: 26-74
Above average: 75-89
Well above average: 90-99