Districts have long searched for an online tool to support all assessments. Serving as a diagnostic Swiss knife, the online program should measure mastery of skills, remediate as necessary, challenge where appropriate, and provide fine-tuned data to allow a grade-level team to address learning gaps. For many districts, these tools also serve as criteria for gifted selection.
Curriculum Associates, founded in 2011, aims to “develop instructional and diagnostic solutions like i‑Ready that support you as you help every learner grow to their personal best,” according to their website. Outside organizations as well as the company’s own white papers have shared findings supporting the accuracy of their diagnostic tools, and the majority of teachers I speak to agree that it provides an accurate measurement of ability. In terms of research, one example is the 2019 dissertation of K.D. Bruce, who found that the iReady Reading and Math diagnostics served as accurate predictors of state assessment scores, indicating alignment between state standard expectations and those measured by the iReady platform.
When considering iReady to identify high-ability or high-potential learners, how does this tool measure up? The company released its own white paper on this topic, Using i-Ready Diagnostic to Address Gifted Identification Needs. Three points in this paper seem highly relevant to using iReady in the selection process: the content proficiency element, the norm-referenced criterion, and the ability to measure accelerated growth.
First, the ability of iReady to measure student proficiency in terms of content mastery can allow a selection committee to understand student ability within grade level expectations. If a student scores at an 8th grade level in math at the start of 6th grade, there is both a clear demonstration of high ability as well as the need to provide differentiated learning for that student.
Second, the norm-referenced criterion demonstrates the student’s standing nationally in that content area. In fact, some schools specify that all students who score at or above a given percentile on iReady immediately join the pool for the gifted selection process or, in some cases, gain direct admittance to a gifted program. For example, the Hamilton Schools in Maryland note on their website: “Those Talent Development Kindergarten students who scored at the 90th to 99th percentile on the NNAT3 and then hit at least the 90th percentile on the i-Ready mathematics assessment are then formally identified as Gifted learners.”
Finally, Curriculum Associates suggests that a student’s accelerated progress on iReady can serve as a sign of high potential and a useful tool for gifted identification. This can provide for a window into student ability in the context of other obstacles to recognition such as ELL status or lower opportunity to learn in the context of socioeconomic status. For example, if a student meets or exceeds the iReady designated Stretch Growth Target, “a number of points that represents a high standard of growth after 30 weeks of instruction,” in ten weeks rather than 30, the educational program for that student should be revisited for accelerated or enrichment learning in a gifted program.
After years of cycling through assessments such as STAR, LinkIt and MAP, teachers I’ve spoken to view iReady as a more accurate diagnostic tool to measure student progress. In this respect, it could serve as one of several tools to help with gifted identification for a school or district, particularly if those scores can be revisited for accelerated improvement during the year, indicating students with high gifted potential.
Top Image: Courtesy of The Fluco Beat
Bruce, K. D. (2019). Online Formative Assessments as a Predictor of State Summative Scores. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. https://onesearch.library.northeastern.edu/permalink/01NEU_INST/87npqb/cdi_proquest_journals_2425847162
Curriculum Associates. (2022). Using i-Ready Diagnostic to Address Gifted Identification NeedsCurriculum Associates Assessment Brief. https://www.curriculumassociates.com/-/media/mainsite/files/i-ready/iready-gifted-identification-guidance-overview.pdf
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