Progress monitoring is a process used to assess a student's academic or behavioral response to an intervention. Progress monitoring can be formal (quantifiable, norm-referenced tools) or informal (teacher-developed, formative tools) and can be implemented with individual students or an entire class. The frequency and formality of progress monitoring will increase with the intensity of an intervention. The Wheatland School District uses AIMSweb to monitor progress of students who are placed in academic interventions for reading, writing and math.
Universal screening and progress monitoring are central to an RTI system for all students. Progress monitoring becomes more intense the closer a student moves toward a possible referral or evaluation process to determine the presence of a specific learning disability. As a rule, the criteria of progress monitoring tools becomes more stringent to ensure strict consistency, fidelity and reliability (Wisconsin RTI, 2010).