Progress Monitoring

A systematic process of using data for instructional decisions can improve teachers’ ability to meet their students’ learning needs. Using data to improve instruction is part of a cyclical process. This process involves teachers: (a) collecting and preparing data about student learning from a variety of relevant sources (including annual, interim, and classroom assessment data); (b) interpreting those data and determining factors contributing to students’ performance; (c) using those factors to determine specific actions to meet students’ needs; (e) implementing changes to their instructional practices and watching to see the effect they have; (f) then, collecting and interpreting student performance data again to evaluate educators’ own instructional changes (IES Practice Guide: Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making, 2009).