Reading Assistant Growth Visualization
- Forrest Rose
This article explains how you can use Reading Assistant’s reporting to track Reading Assistant’s impact.
Numerous third-party research studies have found that regular practice with Reading Assistant accelerates student fluency and foundational reading skills. The Growth Summary: Usage Impact Report lets you see “Reading Assistant’s difference.” The graph shows the average growth for your:
Students “Exceeding Target Usage”: Students who have read with Reading Assistant at or above the research-recommended dosage.
Students “Not Yet at Target Usage” are students who have not read with Reading Assistant at the research-recommended dosage.
How to interpret the graph:
At the bottom of the graph, you will see the average time between benchmarks in your district. The time is the average weeks between each student’s BOY (Fall) assessment and that student’s MOY (Winter) assessment. For example, if only two students took both BOY & MOY assessments and the time gap for Student A was eight weeks and the time gap for Student B was 10 weeks, the average time shown on the graph will be nine weeks.
The Y-axis represents weeks of reading growth as measured by ARM Score according to Reading Assistant’s national norms. (Read more about the ARM metric here.)
The Green Line represents the average weeks of growth made by Students Exceeding Target Usage in your district.
The Blue Line represents the average weeks of growth made by Students Not Yet at Target Usage in your district. Any student not Exceeding Target Usage is defined in the Not Yet at Target Usage group.
The solid lines on the graph demonstrate growth between BOY and MOY benchmarks. The dotted lines represent a projection for growth if your students remain on their current usage trajectory.
In the sample graph above, the average time between benchmark assessments across all students was 14 weeks. Based on national norms, students keeping pace (making expected growth) should demonstrate 14 Weeks of ARM growth throughout this period. Therefore, a student demonstrating 21 weeks of ARM growth over this period is making 50% greater growth than expected. Students demonstrating 10 weeks of growth are not keeping pace with their national peers. In this example, students “exceeding target use” averaged 19.9 weeks of growth (Green Line), while students “not yet at target use” averaged 14.6 weeks (Blue Line). In other words, both groups of students in the district grew faster than the expected pace of 14 weeks, but students’ reading with Reading Assistant at target dosage grew 36% faster than others.
Definitions & Data
Growth is measured by comparing each student’s ARM Score on benchmark assessments only. Progress Monitoring tests are not considered for these analyses. Only students who took an assessment in two windows AND where test administration is more than five weeks apart are included in the data.
The Exceeding Target Usage category is defined by students who read with Reading Assistant for more than six weeks AND averaged more than four sessions per week. All students who did not meet this threshold are represented in the Not Yet at Target Usage category.
Notably, the “Not Yet” category does not necessarily mean those students read infrequently with Reading Assistant. Rather, it simply means they did not cross the research-recommended threshold for target usage. For example, a student who averaged 3.5 sessions per week would not qualify as “Exceeding Target Usage,” but they are likely still growing at an accelerated pace.
The graph is available for each grade level as long as the n-size in both usage groups is large enough to draw a statistically significant conclusion. For smaller sample sizes, rather than comparing the two usage categories in the district, the graph will automatically show the district's overall growth compared to the expected growth nationwide.
FAQ:
How do I find my Growth Summary: Usage Impact Graph?
In your admin dashboard, click “growth.” Scroll to the bottom to view the graph.
How do I know how many students are in “Exceeding Target Usage” vs. “Not Yet at Target Usage”?
View n-sizes by hovering over the lines on the graph.
If my graph is comparing “overall growth” to “expected growth” instead of the “Exceeding Target Use” and “Not Yet at Target Use” categories, why is that happening?
When the sample size of students for one or both usage categories is not large enough to draw meaningful conclusions, Reading Assistant compares the overall growth your district demonstrated and the national expected growth.
Is this graph available for school-based administrators?
Yes. School administrators can see the graph for their overall student population; however, grade and class-level graphs are unavailable because sample sizes are typically too small.
Is this data from English or Spanish benchmarks? Or both?
As of February 2024, this data set is only available for benchmarks taken in English. The Reading Assistant Data Team is working to release similar summaries of Spanish ARM growth in SY24-25. In the meantime, administrators can contact Reading Assistant Support or their district CSM if they want support interpreting Spanish growth.
Why is the n-size smaller than our roster of students using Reading Assistant? Are any students excluded from the graph?
Students with the following situations are excluded from the growth calculation…
A student who did not complete an assessment in one or both of the last two testing windows, as there is no basis for measuring growth;
A student who has taken both assessments but they were closer than five weeks apart, as that does not provide sufficient elapsed time to measure growth;
A student whose test does not meet quality criteria (usually, this means the student skipped most items in one assessment but not the other).
How often does the graph update?
The graph updates once a week every Monday morning, along with the other data on the Admin Dashboard.
How can I see growth in students?
You can look in the Class Progress Report or the “BOY to MOY to EOY Growth” extract in your admin dashboard. Teachers should leverage the Progress Report to analyze individual students further.
How do I know how my students compare to the expected growth of the national population?
As indicated on the X-Axis, the average amount of weeks elapsed between benchmarks in your school or district also represents the number of weeks of national expected growth. For example, if it says your district averaged 14 weeks between benchmarks, then the national expected growth is also 14 weeks.
What is “Expected ARM Growth”?
It is important first to have a foundational understanding of the Reading Assistant Reading Mastery score (ARM). Read about the ARM or review it here 👉
Using Reading Assistant's national norms (n-size of ~900,000 students), Reading Assistant generates “Expected Growth” for each student depending on their grade level and BOY Percentile Ranking (PR).
For example, a second-grader beginning in the 60th PR is “expected” to grow by 0.4 ARM over the course of four months (16 weeks) to remain in the 60th PR on the MOY Benchmark.
How is “weeks of growth” calculated?
Weeks of growth are calculated using 1) Change in ARM score and 2) Weeks between benchmarks. To illustrate this, consider an example of two 2nd Graders:
Student A and Student B completed the BOY benchmark on September 1st and demonstrated identical ARM scores of 2.29 (the 60th PR).
To remain in the 60th percentile on their MOY benchmark and meet national growth expectations, both students must demonstrate a score of 2.69 ARM four months after the first benchmark.
Student A completed the MOY benchmark on December 1st (eight weeks after their BOYbenchmark), producing a 2.69 ARM Score (good enough to remain in the 60th PR).
Student B completed the MOY benchmark on February 1st (sixteen weeks after their BOY benchmark), producing a 2.69 ARM Score (good enough to remain in the 60th PR).
The students demonstrated the same amount of growth, but Student A achieved it in half the amount of weeks compared to Student B.
Student B grew at the expected national pace, while Student A doubled the expected national pace. In other words, Student A demonstrated 16 weeks of ARM growth when it was only expected for them to demonstrate eight weeks of ARM growth.
The Reading Assistant Growth Summary captures these data by averaging weeks of growth for both usage populations: “Exceeding Target Usage” and “Not Yet at Target Usage.”
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