The use of progress monitoring can help provide educators with a Essay

The use of progress monitoring can help provide educators with a valuable tool to improve their own teaching - Essay Example According to Thomas (2010), the several types of assessments used in progress monitoring can provide a substantial amount of information regarding the status of the students’ knowledge, skills and abilities. In the TRI model, progress monitoring serves different functions at each tier as described in the following section. Tier 1 of progress Monitoring: In this tier, progress monitoring procedures serve critical functions. According to Thompson and Morse (2004), proactive assessment is, usually, done at least three times annually and is used as a general screening procedure for all students. In this tier, screening helps to identify vulnerable students by making a comparison of their performance relative to a measure criterion. According to Shane and Mathew (2007), progress monitoring helps to show a student’s performance trend over time and to determine whether the student’s performance is appropriate in the effective curriculum. Tier 2 of Progress Monitoring: Thompson and Morse (2004) posited that the objective of progress monitoring is to gauge the extent to which intervention is effective in assisting learners at an optimum rate. In this tier, timely decisions about student progress are essential for long-term achievement (BEESS, 2008). Progress Monitoring in Special Education: According to Fuchs and Hintze (2006), progress monitoring is also crucial in special education. In the first place, it provides systematic and reliable information which can be used to meet the student’s individual needs (Fuchs and Hintze, 2006). In addition, progress monitoring is a requirement of the individualized education program and provides information about student progress toward short-term objectives and annual goals. There are diverse procedures to progress monitoring employed by teachers for student evaluation. According to BEESS (2008), the two main methods of progress monitoring used are mastery monitoring and general outcome