It’s that time of year again! The recommended winter benchmark assessment window is December 16 – February 6, which means many of you have already completed assessments and many of you will do so in the coming weeks. Here are some helpful resources to utilize as you analyze your students’ data.

Make the Most of Winter Benchmark Assessment Data describes how you can use fall and winter assessment data to analyze a student’s week-by-week growth in fluency so far this year. Compare this data to the norms in the Average Weekly Improvement column of the Oral Reading Fluency Norms table to get a more complete picture of the student’s progress.

It’s also important to set goals for the next round of assessments in the spring. Setting Spring Targets offers detailed instructions on how to use fall and winter data to set appropriate fluency targets for spring. Setting spring targets can help you monitor your students’ weekly growth more closely and ensure that they are on track to meet their goals.

If you’d like to learn more about Read Naturally’s assessment tools: Benchmark Assessor Live, Quick Phonics Screener, and Reading Fluency Progress Monitor, click here. And if you’re curious about the difference between benchmark assessment and Read Naturally placement, read this article.

We hope the winter assessment data you collect reflects your students’ hard work so far this year. Let us know if you have questions or concerns about the assessment process or how to interpret the data. If you’re not seeing the progress you expected, we are here to help you troubleshoot. And if your students are making impressive gains, we’d love to hear about it. Get in touch at customerservice@readnaturally.com, 800.788.4085, or leave a note on our Facebook page or this blog post.