I use Reading Fluency Progress Monitor for progress monitoring.
Should I use passages at the student’s grade level or at the student’s instructional level?
The National Center on Student Progress Monitoring makes the following recommendation about using a constant criterion for progress monitoring at a student’s instructional level throughout a year:
"Student’s progress is monitored at the instructional level that is determined during the initial assessment. The purpose of progress monitoring is to document the student’s progress throughout the year using a constant criterion: the student’s instructional level at the initial assessment. Even if a student reads with 100% accuracy as the year progresses, their reading rate usually increases. Advancing the student to more difficult text will not be an accurate gauge of progress because the criterion has been changed to a higher standard."
Based on this recommendation and Read Naturally’s field experience, please modify the "Administration Instructions" in the Reading Fluency Progress Monitor books. On page 12, in the second sentence under Task 1, please cross out the words “or slightly above,” as we think that monitoring at instructional level will produce results more sensitive to growth.