Best Practices in Setting Progress Monitoring Goals for Academic Skill Improvement

Progress monitoring has become a critically important tool for improving the academic outcomes of all students, including students with disabilities. Consistent with the requirements of laws such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), progress monitoring provides direct links between assessment and the instructional process. A large and substantial research literature has emerged since the 1980s showing how progress monitoring can be used across academic areas including reading, mathematics, composition, spelling, and other academic content areas (e.g., Hosp & Hosp, 2003). Among its many uses, progress monitoring can be used to create instructional groups (e.g., Fuchs, Fuchs, & Bishop, 1992), identify specific skill deficits (e.g., Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, & Allinder, 1991; Whinnery & Stecker, 1992), screen students for potential early school failure (e.g., Speece & Case, 2001), assist in eligibility decision making (e.g., Shinn, Habedank, Rodden-Nord, & Knutson, 1993), and evaluate the reintegration process for students moving from special to general education settings (e.g., Shinn, Powell-Smith, Good, & Baker, 1997). Progress monitoring has value when used across all students: those at risk for academic problems, those already identified as in need of special education, and those in general education. Within the field of school psychology, School Psychology: A Blueprint for Training and Practice III (Ysseldyke et al., 2006) defines the roadmap for training and practice. Progress monitoring plays a prominent role in the domains of data-based decision making as well as accountability specifically related to student academic skill development. In particular, as data-based problem solvers, school psychologists need to use data derived through progress monitoring in assisting the instructional decision-making process to maximize student outcomes. Additionally, progress monitoring can play an important role at the delivery of universal, targeted, and intensive levels of the delivery system for school psychological services. Progress monitoring has multiple components: establishing and measuring of academic goals; providing a vehicle for understanding how students are progressing toward established goals; creating opportunities for class-, school-, and/or district-wide screening to identify students potentially at risk for academic failure; and offering data that can provide accountability evidence to parents, teachers, and educators about the impact of intervention programs. When progress monitoring is done on a frequent basis, it offers students themselves a chance to see how they are moving toward goals, offers a clearer understanding of the impact of the instruction they are receiving, and acts as a potential vehicle for communication with parents (e.g., Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, & Whinnery, 1991; Hosp & Hosp, 2003). Interest in the research and practice of progress monitoring has resulted in the funding by the U.S. Department of Education of two large centers, both devoted to providing research, technical assistance, and dissemination about the progress-monitoring process. The National Student Center on Student Progress Monitoring (www.studentprogress.org) is a clearinghouse where progress-monitoring tools developed by commercial publishers have been evaluated for their technical adequacy and impact on student achievement.