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Overview

i-Ready is a technology based diagnostic (i-Ready Diagnostic) and instruction program for reading. The Diagnostic Assessment (K-12) places students into online instruction at the sub-skill level. The Diagnostic Assessment is adaptive in that it adjusts the difficulty level of the questions presented depending on student response to previous questions. Upon completion of the assessment, the program links the student to lessons to complete online.

i-Ready is a blended learning program. The student learns in part through delivery of content and instruction through digital and online media with some element of student control over path and pacing of that instruction. This is blended with downloadable, teacher-led lessons that correlate with the online lessons. i-Ready has print lessons available in i-Ready Common Core to support instruction on grade-level standards.

• Target Populations K-8

• Adaptive Diagnostic Assessment leads to individualized instruction determined by placement
  • RtI
  • ELL
  • Gifted Instruction
  • General and Special Education

• Instruction Strands

  • Phonological Awareness K-1
    • rhyme recognition
    • phoneme identity
    • phoneme blending
    • phoneme addition and substitution
    • phoneme deletion
  • Phonics K-3
    • letter recognition
    • beginning consonant sound
    • short and long vowel sounds
    • decoding one- and two-syllable words
    • inflectional endings; prefixes and suffixes
    • digraphs and diphthongs
    • vowel patterns
    • decoding longer words
  • High Frequency Words K-3
    • Words from Dolch and Fry lists
  • Vocabulary K-8
    • academic and domain specific vocabulary
    • word relationships
    • prefixes, suffixes, base and root words
  • Comprehension: Literature K-8
    • point of view and purpose
    • cause and effect
    • drawing conclusions/making inferences
    • figurative language
    • story elements
    • summarizing/retelling
    • theme/mood
    • analyzing character
    • determining word meaning
  • Comprehension: Informational Text K-8
    
    • author's purpose
    • categorize and classify
    • cause and effect
    • drawing conclusions/making inferences
    • fact and opinion
    • main idea and details
    • message
    • summarizing/retelling
    • text structure
    • determining word meaning

• Lesson Format

  • Tutorial
  • One or more practice sessions
  • Final Quiz
  • Extra Lesson

• Suggested Usage

  • 15 min/daily or 1 hour/weekly (not to exceed 2,160 min or 36 hrs/yr)

• Reports

  • Class Profile
  • Class Norms
  • Student Profile Overview, Domain Specific, and Lexile Performance
  • Common Core State Standards Report
  • Instructional Grouping Report

Evidence of Effectiveness

• Educational Research Institute of America - Provides Case Study Reports
  Bronx, New York - Case Study: PS 1 Courtland School (no date of study given)
  • Implementation: Average 14 weeks between test 1 and test 2
  • Approximately 1 hour/week on program
  • 340 students in grades 2-5
  • 118% increase in students on or above grade level in reading

• New Middleton, Ohio - Case Study: Springfield Elementary School (2012)
  • Implementation: 6 months
  • 399 students in grades K-4
  • Grade 4 students national percentile rank increased by 20%
  • 37 scale score points increase in reading

• Sacramento, California - Case Study: Edward Kemble Elementary (no date of study given)
  • Implementation: 5 months
  • 93 students in grades 2-3
  • 87% increase in students on or above grade level in reading
  • 145 point increase in Lexile measure

• Culpeper, Virginia - Case Study: Farmington Elementary School (2012)
  • Implementation: 18 weeks
  • 370 students grades 4-5 (Tier 2) and K-3 students in need of foundational skills
  • 30-45 mins/day, 4-5 days/week
  • 75-88% pass rate for Tier 2 students after none had passed the prior year
  • 72% increase in students at or above grade level in reading
• ^*These case study reports looked for measureable growth on the iReady Diagnostic Assessment.

• Evaluation and Training Institute (ETI) - USOE Early Intervention Report FY 2014
  • Implementation: FY 2013-2014
  • 8,102 program students grades K-3 (data taken from 902 program students K-3)
  • Outcome measures for 1st and final diagnostic overall scaled scores: average final test scores 33 points higher (K = 38.84 higher, G1 = 42.61 higher) than on 1st test score
  • Significant relationship between final test scores and the amount of time students' spent on the program across all grade levels
  • For every hour spent on the software, the final test scores went up approximately .8 of a point.
  • This report looked for measurable growth from beginning of year (BOY) DIBELS Next scores and End of Year (EOY) scores for treatment students compared to non-program (control) students. The report does not disaggregate DIBELS Next scores for i-Ready and the 4 other interactive software programs used statewide.

• Research Paper - Todtfeld, D., Weakley, W. (2013). The Impact of Instructional Reading Technology Programs on Student Reading Achievement. Submitted to Department of Educational Leadership, Northwest Missouri State University Missouri.
  • Summary: The purpose of the study was to determine if the i-Ready program made a difference in students' Missouri Assessment Program reading test scores.
  • This research sites the Ohio Case Study where the i-Ready program showed an increase in reading achievement, reported using national percentile rank. (See Educational Research Institute of America- Ohio 2012, above).
  • The findings in this study do not indicate that the i-Ready program is effective in raising Communication Arts MAP test scores in all grade levels. Out the three grade levels studied, only third graders showed a statistically significant difference in MAP Communication Arts scores when the i-Ready intervention was used.

Summary

The i-Ready Reading program offers computer assisted instruction and practice on a students' skill level as determined by the iReady Diagnostic Assessment. i-Ready moves the student through the program by assessing performance on each skill. Extra lessons are programmed for students unable to master a concept or skill. Teachers are encouraged to provide instruction to students using the downloadable lessons that correlate with the skills being reinforced on the computer. Teachers are also encouraged to use the compatible lessons found in iReady Common Core. Many reports and testimonials are available that suggest iReady can be a useful educational tool when used as intended by the developers.