Benchmarks, Norms, and Expected Student Growth – FastBridge

By: Kirsten W. Newell, PsyS, NCSP

Many teachers are in the process of conducting fall universal screening with all students in their class. Universal screening involves having all of the students in each grade complete assessments showing their current proficiency with grade-level skills. These screening scores can provide information about which students are on track, and which students might need extra support. Renaissance Learning publishes a number of different screening measures for reading, math, and behavior. On the FastBridge Group Screening Report, teachers can view these screening scores along with benchmark and normative information.

Benchmarks and Norms

To briefly review, a benchmark is a goal or target that students should meet to be successful. For example, a 3rd-grade student should be reading greater than 90 words correctly per minute on the fall CBMreading assessment. Students who are not yet meeting this goal might be at risk for not meeting end-of-year goals in reading or on other assessments. A norm, on the other hand, is a peer comparison. A teacher can view how a student’s score compares to other same-grade students in the class, grade, district, or even nationally. On the FastBridge Group Screening Report, benchmark information is provided via exclamation points, and normative information is displayed via color-coded percentile ranks.

The symbol and color-code key for benchmarks and norms in the Group Screening Report.

Access Benchmarks and Norms

Teachers often want to access the benchmarks, or targets, outside of a report. Knowing the benchmarks for different grades and assessments can be helpful in instructional planning or goal setting.

The Training & Resources page, with the Training & Resources tab labeled as step 1, and the Benchmarks & Norms option labeled as step 2.

To access benchmarks and norms, select the Training & Resources tab.
Select Benchmarks & Norms.

The Benchmarks and Norms page, with the options to view Benchmarks or Norms labeled as step 3, Select Assessment labeled as step 4, Select Grade Level labeled as step 5, and Submit labeled as step 6.

Select whether to search for Benchmarks or Norms.
Select the Assessment to view benchmarks or norms for.
Select one or more Grade Levels.
Select Submit.

An example Benchmarks page, with the loaded Benchmarks for CBMR English labeled as step 7, Download Use & Interpretation Guidelines labeled as step 8, and Generate PDF labeled as step 9.

A table containing the benchmarks or norms for the selected assessment and grade levels loads.
For those who may be interested in the development and interpretation of the FastBridge benchmarks and norms, select Download Use & Interpretation Guidelines for more details.
You can also generate a PDF of the selected benchmarks or norms by selecting the Generate PDF button in the top right corner. This will generate a document that is formatted for printing or sharing. The PDF could be useful to bring to team planning or goal-setting meetings.

Student Growth

So, benchmarks and norms can provide a way to classify student skills or risk levels now. But what about growth or improvement over time? The FastBridge Group Growth Report provides a student’s average weekly or monthly growth.

The Group Growth Report widget.

For example, if a student had a score for CBMreading in the fall and winter of the school year, the Growth Report would determine the average weekly growth between those two scores. This is called the Rate of Improvement (ROI). ROI is also reported on some individual student reports. The ROI can be difficult to interpret on its own. Therefore, the Growth Report also provides an ROI Percentile Rank. Similar to the percentile rank on a Screening Report, a student’s ROI is compared to the ROIs of other students in the same class, school, and district, as well as nationally.

The ROI percentile ranks compare the student’s growth to the growth of other students in the same class, grade, district, and across the U.S. For example, a 3rd-grade student’s ROI from winter to spring would be compared to other 3rd-graders’ ROIs from winter to spring. The ROI ranking shows how much growth a student made as compared to other similar students. Growth norms are also accessible through the Benchmarks & Norms described above.

In contrast to the Screening report, which displays student performance at one point in time, the Growth report is useful for understanding student growth over time. With this report, educators can identify students who are “beating the odds” for their start score. For example, a student with a start score or initial screening score in the At Risk category, but whose ROI percentile rank is 70, is growing as well as or better than 70% of students in that group. Something is working well for that student. In contrast, a student who did not start at risk, but has a very low ROI percentile rank of 5, is growing as well as or better than only 5% of students in that category. Such a student might have started out on grade level, but not make enough progress to stay on grade level. You might choose to watch that student more closely. Keep in mind that frequent progress monitoring is the best way to closely track a student’s growth.

To summarize, FastBridge provides easy access to benchmark information, as well as normative or peer comparison information. These two types of information are available by assessment and grade, through the Benchmarks & Norms interface, as well as through Group Screening and Group Growth reports. By understanding a student’s level rate of growth, you can most effectively allocate your teaching resources to improve your students’ outcomes.

Kirsten Newell is a school psychologist and doctoral student at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. She worked in schools for four years before she became a part of Renaissance Learning's research team for the past three years. She has contributed to the development and refinement of various FastBridge training materials, reports, and interfaces.