Understanding Your Student's i-Ready Assessment Results

 
 
GVA-N’s School Accountability Committee (SAC) made the decision to switch to the i-Ready diagnostic assessment program (replacing NWEA MAP assessments) last spring as it provides a more teacher and family friendly result but primarily to utilize the personalized instructional lessons embedded in the program based on student proficiency levels. Below, you will find information about the program and how we will be using it in the classroom.
 
What is i-Ready?
i-Ready is an online program that will help us determine your child’s strengths and areas for growth, personalize their learning, and monitor their progress throughout the school year. i-Ready allows us to meet your child where they are and provides us with data to inform instruction.
 
The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your child’s needs. Each item a student receives is based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier ones. The purpose of this is not to give your child a score or grade but to determine how to best support their learning.
 
i-Ready Instruction provides students with lessons based on their individual strengths and areas for growth. These lessons are interactive and provide strategic supports to keep your child engaged as they learn.
 
Understanding Growth in i-Ready
Typical Growth and Stretch Growth measures are provided for each student based on their placement on the first Diagnostic assessment of the year. Typical Growth is the average annual growth for students at this grade and placement level. Stretch Growth for below-grade level students is an ambitious but attainable level of annual growth that puts below-grade level students on a path toward proficiency. Stretch Growth for on- or above-grade level students is an ambitious but attainable level of annual growth that puts on-grade level students on a path to achieve/maintain advanced proficiency levels. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This placement chart visually represents a student’s performance on the selected Diagnostic and progress toward their growth measures. 
 
  • 2a: The green band shows the On Grade Level range for this grade and subject. 
  • 2b: The dark green line represents the Mid On Grade Level scale score for the student’s grade level. 
  • 2c: The solid line shows the student’s Typical Growth measure and the dashed line shows the student’s Stretch Growth measure. Both measures are based on the initial Diagnostic placement level. 
  • 2d: The blue bar shows the student’s score and placement level for the Diagnostic. 
  • 3-Placement by Domain: This shows the student’s grade-level placement for each subject domain. 
  • 4a-National Norm: Specifies the student’s position relative to a group of nationally representative i-Ready students who are in the same grade and who took the test at the same time of year as the student. For example, if a student’s percentile rank is 90%, this means the student scored better than or equal to 90% of their peers. 
  • 4b-Lexile measure and range: The Lexile® Framework for Reading uses one scale to measure students’ reading ability and text complexity to help you identify reading materials at each student’s level. A student’s Lexile measure is their reading ability score. The Lexile range indicates the range of texts that will be easy to more challenging but still readable for the student. In i-Ready, students’ Diagnostic for Reading scores are used to approximate Lexile measures and ranges. 
 
Why is my child so far behind their current grade level? 
After looking at the diagnostic summary for your child, you may notice that they are below grade level. This may be the case for a variety of reasons. First, when students start testing under a new platform, it is common for them to score slightly lower than their true knowledge level due to navigating a new platform. Additionally, i-Ready is a rigorous assessment of student knowledge and accurately pairs with student achievement levels on our state mandated assessment, CMAS (Colorado Measures of Academic Success). Also keep in mind that students have not had “normal” school since March of this year. We expect to see gaps and will address them as they arise.
 
If you have any questions about i-Ready, please do not hesitate to contact me or your child’s teacher. You can also learn more about i-Ready by visiting i-ReadyCentral.com/FamilyCenter. 
 
As always, thank you for your continued support and for being a partner in your child’s learning! It is much appreciated.
 
Sincerely,
 
Nicole Wetzel
Principal, GVA Northglenn