According to the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring, Progress monitoring is a

scientifically based practice that is used to assess students academic performance and evaluate
the effectiveness of instruction. It can be implemented with individual students or an entire class.

My supposition about student progress monitoring is that its about the big picture. This big
picture is about the students mastery of the skills required to be learned that school year rather
than their mastery of the weekly teachers unit test. According to research, every probe contains
the full complement of learning skills required for the year not as in the teachers unit test that
seeks mastery of the unit taught that week. So according to National Center on Student
Progress Monitoring, to begin this process, the educator determines the students current
academic level, where he needs to be by the end of the school year, the rate of progress necessary
to get him there and then designs a clearly articulated instructional path to achieve this goal. The
rate of learning, (example: high school students range from .2 to 1 .5 units per week) (Foegen,
Jiban, & Deno, 2007) is fused into the planning process in order to expedite minimum growth
necessary to achieve mathematical proficiency at that level. Additionally, because the tool is a
beautiful fit into the classroom environment, with brief and easily administered probes, the
regular weekly or monthly monitoring of the students progress can be easily done by the teacher.

The other thing that was fascinating to me was the rigidity of the structure of the materials in this
process. The Math CBMs: Progress Monitoring Measures speaks to the 25 items per probe, the
consistency of same skill problems: identical in number and location from page to page (p.16).
Preparation of these tools sounds like a work of art! I didnt understand the deep and scope of
work involved in the preparation of these type resources! Indeed, now I have a better
understanding and appreciation for my math resources. I guess this is why student progress
monitoring is not my random question teacher unit test! lol

Archilene @Bahamas