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ELEMENTARY ARI / AMI SURVEY RESULTS
 Thank
you to all the elementary teachers who took the time to complete the
ARI / AMI Survey and provide
additional comments and suggestions. Your input has been very valuable
to us as we make adjustments and improvements to our intervention
programs for our at-risk students.
Elementary Teaching and Learning will be making the following changes to
the ARI / AMI intervention process as a result of your input. A
synopsis of the comments is shown in blue;
the response from T&L is shown in brown.
For ARI:
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The bi-weekly ARI
monitoring is too frequent to show growth by the student.
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ARI monitoring
will be done every three weeks to allow for student progress.
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A method for
determining the instructional reading level of the student would be
useful.
-
Professional
development this summer will address methods for determining the
instructional reading level of the student.
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The branching logic
in the TPRI testing on the Palm does not allow all the tests or
screenings to be given in kindergarten.
-
For kindergarten
TPRI the branching logic on the Palm will be changed to allow a
teacher to complete all of the tests and screenings. This will
provide a more complete picture of the student’s achievement
level and progress.
-
1st and 2nd
grade teachers would like to be able to select a higher story if
needed.
-
TPRI test
developers were contacted and the data that they have collected
statewide indicates that the word list for story placement
correctly places the students into an instructional or
independent story 95% of the time. The test gives the teacher
an accurate reading of the student’s accuracy, fluency and
comprehension at that particular time point.
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In 1st and
2nd grade the student repeats the same story during
subsequent testing.
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The developers
found no test-retest effects to indicate the students have
memorized the story. Remembering a story does not impact the
fluency rate when the student reads it out loud. Fluency and
accuracy should have improved because more than 60 days of
instruction have taken place since the previous reading of the
story. This type of testing will indicate the progress that has
been made in both accuracy and fluency. Teachers are encouraged
to visit the website at
http://www.tpri.org
to view the technical manuals with research support.
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For some grades the
fluency requirements are too high.
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The fluency
requirements for each grade level are those stated by the Texas
Reading Academies. These were established based on data showing
that the specified fluency level is an indicator for successful
comprehension on grade-appropriate passages.
For AMI:
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It is too early to
test kindergarten students in math at the beginning of the year.
-
AMI testing for
kindergarten students will begin in the middle of the year,
simultaneously with TPRI testing. Elementary Math coordinators
will develop an optional beginning-of-the-year assessment for
use by those teachers who wish to have information as to the
current ability level of their students.
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The AMI tests do not
always follow the district curriculum sequence.
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The AMI tests
will be reviewed prior to the 2005-2006 school year to ensure
that they follow the same sequence as the district curriculum.
Optional tasks, which are not part of specific grade-level TEKS,
will be removed from the assessments.
-
The hands-on AMI
tests are complicated to administer.
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The hands-on AMI
assessments and recording sheets will be streamlined to
facilitate testing.
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