Director of Elementary Education David Campbell speaks about i-Ready for the Suwannee County School Board on Tuesday, Dec. 8.

Director of Elementary Education David Campbell  and Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Janine Fitzpatrick conducted a presentation on i-Ready for the Suwannee County School Board on Tuesday, Dec. 8.

With i-Ready, students take a diagnostic test at the beginning of the year on reading and math that pinpoints individual student needs down to the sub-skill level, in addition to ongoing progress monitoring to track student progress toward end-of-year targets, according to Campbell.

Based on the diagnostic results, i-Ready automatically places students into online lessons at their level for targeted instruction at students’ highest areas of need. In addition, i-Ready provides classroom instructional resources for grouping options, delivers on and off grade level instructions and reinforces students online instruction. 

According to Campbell, i-Ready is the only software that offers online instruction for the students and they can use online instruction at home. Information from tests and online instruction is provided immediately to teachers about how students are performing and areas students are struggling.

Based on the diagnostic test taken at the beginning of the year, the percentage of  kindergarten to eighth grade students that are on level or above grade level in math ranged from one percent to 32 percent. The percentage of  kindergarten to eighth grade students that are on level or above grade level in reading ranged from 16 percent to 46 percent. 

Fitzpatrick explained to the school board that the percentages are a starting point. The next diagnostic test in January will show how the students have grown since the beginning of the year.

Fitzpatrick also updated the school board on the Digital Classroom Plan. There have been nearly 1,400 new devices installed in schools this year. There will be 25 presentation systems installed this year. Fifteen are already installed and the remaining 10 will be installed at Branford Elementary School.