Progress Monitoring Goals: Understanding Rates of Improvement for Reading and Math Assessments

FastBridge progress monitoring goals are calculated when a progress monitoring schedule is created using the following formula:

Goal Score = Screening Score + (Rate of Improvement x Number of Weeks)

--or--

G = SS + (ROI x N)

The screening score comes from the screener that the student completed in the most recent universal screening period.  If the progress measure is not the same as the screener, then the teacher needs to administer the screening version of the progress assessment to obtain a screening (i.e., start) score. 

The FastBridge system includes a range of rate of improvement (ROI) growth levels for progress measures. The ROI values are based on the average (typical) amount of growth that was made by students in the national normative group. In order to help teachers set appropriate goals for their students, FastBridge categorizes ROI levels into four groups. 

• Very Realistic: growth that is less than 80% of the average
• Realistic: growth that is between 81% and 100% of the average
• Ambitious: growth that is between 101% and 120% of the average
• Very Ambitious: growth that is between 121% and 150% of the average

The FastBridge system default ROI for each progress measure is set at the top end of the Realistic range of ROI values for that measure. This default value equates to the average rate of growth. Users can change the ROI value when creating a progress monitoring schedule so that a lower or higher student goal will be calculated.  Here are examples for CBMreading. 

The Goal is calculated using the formula above and the higher the ROI value, the higher the goal. It is important to consider how likely a student is to reach the goal in relation to the intervention provided.  More frequent and intensive interventions are likely to result in higher growth and goal attainment. The FastBridge Goal score formula is designed to help teachers set goals that students can reasonably attain during the current school year. 

The tables below show the ROI ranges and corresponding national growth percentiles, derived from the aggregate growth norms, for FastBridge reading and math progress measures. 

Using Letter Sounds as an example, we see that the Very Realistic range corresponds to an average weekly gain, ROI, of less than 1.51 letters per minute.  The top end of the range,1.51 corresponds to the 67th national growth percentile. The Realistic range extends from 1.52 through 1.89. The top end of the Realistic range is the default ROI value displayed in the progress monitoring setup to determine an end of year performance target. As shown above, users can change the ROI value when creating progress monitoring schedules so that the student’s goal is based on the expected ROI.

ROI Values and Percentile Ranks for FastBridge Progress Measures in Reading

ROI Values and Percentile Ranks for FastBridge Progress Measures in Math

*Correct per 10 min on PM report