Presented at the 40th Annual NHSA conference

1. The ABCs of
Progress Monitoring
with Technology
NHSA Conference May 2013
Lilla Dale McManis, M.Ed., Ph.D. Research Director-Hatch Early Learning
dmcmanis@hatchearlylearning.com LillaDaleMcManis@DrLDMcManis
Copyright 2013.

2. Purpose
• This presentation will address how technology can be
used for progress monitoring in ways that are
authentic, behavior-based, and capitalize on what
educators already have in place in their classrooms.
• Learn how technology-based progress monitoring can
facilitate providing the instruction children most
need to achieve positive outcomes.

3. Learning Objectives
• Why it is important to systematically monitor the
progress of young children.
• How technology can help you conduct progress
monitoring in ways that are appropriate and feasible.
• How what you are currently doing with technology
can be utilized as progress monitoring to assess and
guide instruction.

4. Overview
• Why do progress monitoring (PM)?
• What is PM really?
• Why should we use technology-based PM?
• How do we know technology-based PM works
with children?
• How can we effectively use technology-based
PM in early childhood settings?
*Disclaimer: Photos do not imply endorsement.

5. If you don’t
know where
you’re
going, any
road will get
you there.
----Lewis Carroll

6. Why do progress monitoring (PM)?
“Progress monitoring is when teachers assess students’
academic performance on a regular basis (weekly or
monthly) for two purposes: to determine whether
children are profiting appropriately from the typical
instructional program and to build more effective
programs for the children who benefit.” (Fuchs & Fuchs
2002)
Social-emotional and even
physical skills progress
monitoring is very
appropriate as well….

7. What is Progress Monitoring?
• Scientifically-based practice for assessing
children‘s performance and evaluating the
effectiveness of instruction
– Cyclical
– Targeted
– Standardized
– Individualized
*Shares components with Response to Intervention
(RTI) Models and Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM)

8. What are the steps in the PM Cycle?
• Current levels of performance are determined
• Goals identified for learning that will take
place over time
• Performance measured on a regular basis
• Progress toward meeting the goals is
measured by comparing expected
and actual rates of learning
• Instruction is adjusted

9. What are the benefits of PM?
• The children learn more, the decision making
of the teacher improves, and children become
more aware and reflective of their own
performance…
• When progress monitoring is well implemented
the benefits seen can include:
– Appropriate child expectations
– Accelerated child learning
– Documentation of child progress
– More efficient communication with others

10. Why use technology for PM?
Technology-systems
• strengthen the practice of making
instructional decisions based on data and
• allow teachers to better meet the diverse
needs of children

11. Before Progress Monitoring: The Need
• Matched groups
• No significant
differences
between groups
at beginning OR
end
The University of Oklahoma,
Sooner T.A.L.K. (Teachers
Advocating Literacy to Kids),
2002 Early Reading First
Cohort
Upper Case Alphabet
(Maximum 26)
7.4
14.1
7.2
14.0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Pre Test Post Test
Early Reading First
Comparison
11

12. After Progress Monitoring: The Gains
• No statistically significant difference at pretest for ERF and
Comparison but significant differences at posttest between the two
Upper Case Alphabet
(Maximum 26)
20.1
6.7
8.3
13.7
0
5
10
15
20
25
Pre Test Post Test
Early Reading First
Comparison
12
Concepts About Print
(Maximum Score 24)
3.9
9.1
3.2
6.1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Pre Test Post Test
Early Reading First
Comparison

13. How do we know it works?
• PM children statistically significantly better
than control group on decoding, fluency, and
comprehension (Fuchs, Deno & Mirkin 1984)
• PM children showed significant change in contextual
conventions and contextual language
(McMaster, Wayman, Deno, Espin & Yeo 2010)
• PM children’s scores improved significantly for quantity
discrimination and mixed numeracy (Olson & Foegen 2009)
• PM children had average gain of 5.75 normal curve
equivalent units on math assessment-six times the rate of
growth over prior school year (Spicuzza & Ysseldyke 1999)

14. How can we do tech-based PM?
From the outside in…
By helping teachers
• store
• organize
• interpret
• share progress monitoring information
Gathered in traditional and technology-based ways such as
• screeners
• observations
• portfolios
• computer generated reports.
Let’s look at some examples…

15. Checklists

17. Group

18. Individual

19. Various Activities on a Theme

20. Performance/Live

21. Process

22. Finished Product

23. Social-Emotional

24. How can we do tech-based PM?
From the inside out…
Through features within educational
technology programs…
• that monitor children’s progress toward goals
and outcomes
• provide remediation/targeted
instruction for the child

25. Capturing Real Time

26. Cut Scores

27. Change over Time

28. Assessments

29. Tracking Software

30. Built-In Progress Monitoring

31. Built-In

32. Built-In

33. Built-In

34. Built-In

35. Built-In

36. Internal-System

37. Internal-Teacher

38. The
Cloud…..

39. Key considerations
• Now that we have seen the why and the
way…let’s look at the how!
• Following are a set of steps you can follow to
guide progress monitoring with children
…and to help you not
end up like Coop!

40. 1) Get clear
• Decide on the goals/outcomes for the children
and how you will know if they have been met…
• You might use:
– rubrics
– percents
– yes/no mastery
– what do you use?

41. 2) Take an inventory
• Think about the technology you have to use
for taking performance-based indicators…
• Examples might be:
– computer software with progress monitoring
– digital portfolios
– on-line or computer assisted assessment
– teacher created spreadsheets
– what do you use?

42. 3) Be focused and systematic
• Think about the data you need and want for each
child and how you will gather it…
• For example, will you use the embedded progress
monitoring tools and information within
technology-based educational programs for the
children?
• Will you take a photo or a scan of a sample
of every child writing his/her name
when they entered your program
and then throughout the year?

43. • Will you design a short form and observe how
each child is performing on your math
software or lessons over time?
• Will you have each child complete a screener
on a regular basis such as the on-line Get
Ready to Read! Screener
(http://www.getreadytoread.org/)?

44. 4) Set up a calendar
• Determine when the measurements toward
learning goals will be monitored.
• Monthly or quarterly is standard.
• However, if a child is struggling you will want
to consider doing the monitoring more often.

45. 5) Put info in easy-to-use format
• You might make a digital portfolio for each
child on a computer and have an
accompanying spreadsheet
where you can indicate:
– what measures taken
– when
– the performance levels
– how instruction changed
– where the original data is/are located

46. 6) Analyze the information
• Best practice recommends establishing a level
of progress and then comparing how a child is
matching with that
• Are they performing
– above
– at or
– below expectation?

47. 7) Let data inform instruction
• Use the information to continually inform
instruction.
• It will allow you to
reflect on the strengths
and needs of individual
children as well as
forming small groups
of children for focused
instruction.

48. What tools do I need?
• Something like Microsoft Office
– Word
– Excel
– Picture Manager
– PowerPoint
– Outlook
• Digital camera
• Video recorder
• Scanner

49. Special Call Out to Administrators
Teachers May Need Assistance with:
• Finding and/or designing measures
• Setting goals & developing interventions
• Time to both measure and
implement
• Feedback on the process
and progress

50. Staying DAP:
NAEYC/FRC Technology Position Statement
Effective uses of technology and media are:
• active
• hands-on
• engaging
• empowering
• give the child control
• provide adaptive scaffolds to ease task
accomplishment
• one of many options to support children’s learning

51. Challenges?
“There is so much focus on documentation these days.
Many early learner classroom teachers in ece feel
overwhelmed. I think much of this feeling stems from
lack or improper training in using tools put in place to
gauge progress or areas of support for both teachers
and their students. With all of the new research how
can we ensure the classroom teacher is effectively
equipped to take the new challenges?” Pamela Courtney
commenting on Early Childhood Technology Network
LinkedIn Group….

52. Summary…Meeting the Challenge
• Progress monitoring is vital to effective
instruction
• The children benefit from well-executed
progress monitoring
• Technology can greatly enhance progress
monitoring efforts
• Being
thoughtful, intentional, and
focused is key to success
• Practice makes perfect

53. Q & A

54. Action Plan
To help you incorporate the information
from this session, consider this Action Plan:
• As a result of what you have learned in this
session, what are the things you will want to do
differently?
• When you succeed incorporating this new
information, how will it impact your work?
• What kind of help do you need, and from whom, to
implement your new information?
• How might you share what you have learned and your
successes with parents and with colleagues?

55. To Say Thank You….
• eBook
http://hatchearlylearning.com/resources/ebooks/

56. Good places for social connections
• http://www.ecetech.net/
• LinkedIn: Early Childhood Technology
Network
• Twitter: #ecetechchat
–Every other Weds. night @ 9 EST

57. Where we will be next…..
• National Head Start Association Conference April
18 in Nashville
– Using Technology to Support Social-Emotional
Development in Young Children
• McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership
Connections Conference May 10-12 in Chicago
– Evaluating Educational Technology in Early Childhood
• International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE) Conference June 25 in San Diego
– School Readiness: Outcomes and Approaches
Please turn in your
Conference
Connections Card!
We’d like to
stay in
touch…..