October 2012
Dear Parent(s):Because early reading and mathematicsskills are vital to ensuring your child’s long-term academic success, our school will provide you with well check information three times per year as an indicator of your child’s academic growth and progress. This information will be reported in the fall, winter, and spring using the research-based AIMSweb benchmarking program.
The reading and math benchmark tests are simple and accurate. For the reading benchmark tests, students read three, one-minute timed passages for fluency. There is a three-minute test for comprehension. In Math, there are two eight or ten-minute tests that examine computation and problem-solving skills, respectively. Teachers use the benchmark results to help them plan and individualize instruction. The well check information for your child will be put on a chart like the one below, and your child's teacher would be happy to discuss these results with you.
The chart below shows one student’s reading fluency compared to other classmates in the same grade. The number of words this child read correctly in 1 minute is indicated by a blue dot. The black horizontal line is the score of what the very middle student reads and the green box displays scores of average readers in this grade. Scores within the blue line are above average readers, while scores within the red line are below average readers. This graph indicates the student read about 70 words correctly in 1 minute. The average reader in this grade read about 65 words correct per minute. Your child is being compared to their St. John of the Cross peerson the benchmark tests, but thedark black line below the green box showswhere the national average for third grade readers falls.
In January (Winter), your child's teacher will do another well check to see if an improvement in your child's reading ability has been made. Another chart, similar to the one below, will then be given to you. This chart will indicate what your child's score was in the fall and what your child's score is in Winter.
These reading well checks will be done again during the last several weeks of school (Spring) and the results will be sent home. This will indicate how much reading growth your child has made throughout the year. Depending on the grade level, you may receive a similar chart for reading comprehension and mathematics skills. See the addendum to this document for a brief description of all measures tested at each grade level.
Please note that this is only one indicator of your child’s overall academic achievement. This longitudinal data is just one piece of information that assists the staff in making educational decisions for your child. Please contact your child’s teacher should you have any questions regarding your child’s performance on these measures.
Sincerely,
Erin Udovich
Testing Coordinator
ASSESSMENT DESCRIPTORS ADDENDUM
Early Literacy Assessment (Grade K)
LNF – Letter Naming Fluency – Measures the capacity to visually identify and orally name letters.
LSF – Letter Sound Fluency – Measures the capacity to visually identify and generate a sound associated with individual letters.
NWF – Nonsense Word Fluency – Measures the capacity to decode nonsense words.
Reading Assessment (Grades 1-8)
R-CBM – Reading Curriculum Based Measurement – Measures decoding and fluency skills through reading grade level text.
MAZE – Reading Comprehension – Measures the capacity to comprehend connected text; supplemental measure to R-CBM.
Early Numeracy Assessment (Grade K)
OCM – Oral Counting Measurement – Measures counting fluency from 1-100.
NIM – Number Identification – Measures the capacity to visually identify and orally name numbers.
QDM – Quantity Discrimination – Measures the capacity to identify the larger number from a pair.
MNM – Missing Number – Measures the capacity to identify the missing number within a series of three numbers.
Mathematics Assessment (Grades 1-8)
M-COMP – Math Computation – Measures operational fluency when solving problems involving basic facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) with single and multiple digits, fractions, decimals, and percentages.
M-CAP – Math Concepts and Applications – Measures applied mathematics skills including number sense, operations, patterns/relationships, geometry, measurement, data/probability, and pre-algebra.