Faculty, Progress monitoring has been defined as “a practice that helps teachers use student performance data to continually evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and make more informed instructional decisions” (Safer and Fleischman, 2005, p. 81). In academics, progress monitoring involves: (1) direct measurement of a student’s current level of performance across all critical skill areas using curriculum-based or direct performance measures; (2) determination of desired performance outcomes for each skill area to assure Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the student; (3) establishment of aimlines that define the required pace or rate of skill acquisition necessary to achieve AYP; (4) monitoring and assessing a student’s pace or level of skill acquisition at frequent (usually weekly) intervals; and (5) accelerating instruction if achievement is greater than expected or modifying instruction if achievement is inadequate. Professionals engaged in progress monitoring use a variety of measures to track student performance and to assist in instructional decision making when data indicate a need for change (Deno, 2003; Fuchs and Fuchs, 2007; Olinghouse, Lambert, and Compton, 2006). Mastery measurement and curriculum-based assessment are approaches to progress-monitoring with longstanding support.
