We’re starting this Q&A section with a great question submitted by Jen on 2011/07/15 at 2:57 pm as a comment on the following post:

http://rateofimprovement.com/roi/2011/02/22/nasp-convention-2011/#comments

I am in charge of RtI for our district and this year we are going from use of AIMSWeb, which made this simple, to use of DRA and Fountes and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System. These systems, unlike AIMSWeb, only offer guided reading levels, but will not be helpful in progress monitoring more frequently unless we can determine a productive rate of improvement. We are looking to have our students gain 1.5 years in 1.0 year. Any thoughts on how we can create a formula for this for teachers to use so they aren’t just guessing. DRA and F& P by the way do not go by 1 level at a time but more like 2, 4, 6 and they are not the same. I was thinking to look at 1.5 years ahead of whereever the student is currently at and expect that for the entire year and then break that down by the # of weeks in the year to determine where the student should be at each week.

Your thoughts?

We also wanted to figure out a way to calculate in the strategies expected at those levels, such as this book level, but also this many (2) strategies every 2 weeks.

Again, your thoughts?

Thank SO much!
Glad I found this site!
Jen