The Difference Between Monitoring Progress and Progress Monitoring

Monitoring progress and progress monitoring are not the same thing, but we need both in schools.

Progress monitoring is a formal system where a teacher will collect data for students who participate in intervention each week while the student is participating.

In order for progress monitoring data to be reliable and valid, it needs to be conducted with a standardized assessment, so that we can see growth in real time. This is a very important part of how we track student progress in schools.

However, it’s not the same as a more informal approach that teachers use when they monitor progress. Teachers do monitoring of progress every day, when they’re scanning the room and seeing who’s engaged or who’s not, who’s done, and who’s not ready to move onto another activity.

We need teachers to do that kind of monitoring of progress, but we also need progress monitoring data so that we can make decisions about whether students are reaching goals we’ve set for them.

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Illuminate Education equips educators to take a data-driven approach to serving the whole child. Our solution combines comprehensive assessment, MTSS management and collaboration, and real-time dashboard tools, and puts them in the hands of educators. As a result, educators can monitor learning and growth, identify academic and social-emotional behavioral needs, and align targeted supports in order to accelerate learning for each student. 

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