The Extraordinary Educators Podcast

The Power of Through-Year Assessments with Rachel Porter

• Hayley Browning • Season 7 • Episode 16

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In today's episode, Rachel Porter, a digital curriculum integration specialist from Indiana, joins us to unpack how through-year assessment can turn scattered checkpoints into a steady engine for student growth. Rachel shares what changed when her district moved beyond one-and-done testing toward domain-level diagnostics that map exactly where each learner stands, and where to go next.

We talk about the deeper, domain-by-domain guidance i-Ready provides. That clarity allows teachers to group students purposefully, plan targeted lessons, and track progress more efficiently. Rachel also walks us through her district’s post-COVID rebound—how timely data, focused interventions, and consistent habits helped them return to pre-pandemic performance and keep climbing.

Rachel goes on to talk about how she incorporates celebrations for students and teachers across the board. She outlines three simple weekly habits tied to growth: about 45 minutes of personalized instruction, at least two passed lessons, and a pass rate above 70 percent. She then explains how monthly recognition builds momentum for every learner, not just the usual high achievers. Add in midyear check-ins and end-of-year growth goal celebrations, and you get a culture where effort turns into measurable progress!

SPEAKER_01:

Curriculum Associates, an education technology company and the makers of iReady, presents the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. Join host Haley Browning to hear tips, best practices, and successes to improve your teaching and leadership and drive student growth and learning. We believe all educators are extraordinary and we are here to support you. Hi everyone, welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators Podcast. Today I am joined by Rachel Porter. Rachel is a digital curriculum integration specialist at Southwest Park Community Schools in Indiana. She brings a ton of experience to this conversation, having been in the profession since 1997. With that, we talk through some unique challenges that her teachers that she works with face, specifically looking at Indiana and her state standards. Along with that, we dive into some changes that she's experienced in student growth, especially in the wake of COVID and figuring out how to deal with that with her teachers and her students. And we wrap up with some great recommendations for some celebrations that you can use in your own classrooms to celebrate growth with all of your students and your teachers. With that, we hope you enjoyed today's episode with Rachel. Hi, Rachel. Welcome to today's episode of the Extraordinary Educators Podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you, Haley. I'm happy to be here. Curriculum Associates is one of my favorite companies. So anytime I get to interact with you guys, it makes me happy.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, we're so honored to have you on today. And Rachel, you wrote a really wonderful blog that we'll make sure to put in the show notes for our listeners all about this idea of through-year assessment specifically in Indiana and why it's so important to have in your classrooms. And so we're going to dive into that a little bit today. Rachel, I'd love to have you introduce yourself and talk a little bit about how you got to where you are today before we really dive into this idea of through-year assessment.

SPEAKER_00:

So take it from here. Sure. Thank you. Well, I have been working for the same rural corporation in Indiana for 28 years now. I spent the first 15 of that in teaching middle school science, which I absolutely loved. But then our school decided to go one-on-one with devices and they needed someone to help lead that charge, help teachers to know what to do with computers in their classroom. And so a position was created and I moved up to administration. And that has continued and evolved over time so that now I'm doing both the ed tech side and the curriculum side in our district here in rural central Indiana.

SPEAKER_01:

That's really awesome. And you have so much great experience. It's all really great. With that, Rachel, I'm curious for our listeners that maybe aren't familiar with the term, could you explain what through year assessment means?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so it just means that we are going to do different data checks assessing student progress throughout the school year from the very beginning of the year to see their progress as the school year goes on, obviously wanting to make sure that we hit the end goal. What are they supposed to know by the end of fourth grade? Are we on track to get them there? If not, what do we need to do to adjust that and be able to reach that target or get as close to it as possible by the end of the year? So if we if we only do an end-of-the-year assessment, we don't have all the information we need to accomplish that. But through your assessments help us to gauge that and adjust things along the way. Nothing ever leaves the plate. And teachers are just constantly trying to juggle more and more things. So one of the things I love so much about iReady is that I feel like it streamlines a lot of the workload and makes, you know, actionable data just very accessible to them. And once you know how to run and read the reports, everything you need to know from preparing for a classroom lesson to deciding how to group your students for intervention time and what to do with them during that time, it's all right there at your fingertips. And teachers don't have to spend hours digging through and analyzing the data to try and figure that all out themselves. And that's huge because when that workload is taken off of them, they can spend their time actually teaching, which is what we want them to be able to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, for sure. I know you talk a lot about the power of iReady, specifically looking at the Indiana specific edition in your blog. And so I kind of want to jump off of that a little bit. How does iReady overall support teachers and students in your district?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm pretty passionate about this question and this answer because I think this is what really makes the difference. You know, our state is now giving us three-year assessments as well, the iLearn Indiana checkpoints. And the difference, there is a difference because the state assessment is a grade level assessment and it's adaptive and it'll tell us if the student is approaching or below, but it just doesn't go as far as we need. With iReady, you know, I'll give an example. You know, let's say we have an eighth grade student who is performing below grade level on state assessments, but that could mean anywhere from kindergarten to sixth grade. iReady does the next step for us. They tell us exactly where in that massive range that student falls, and not just overall, but in every single domain. And so it gives us that next level information that we really need to have to fully bring students up to the Indiana expectations. Um, so that's that's what I love about it, and why I feel like even though we're also doing a state through level assessment, we still need the depth of insight that the iReady diagnostic gives us to truly be able to pinpoint and meet our student needs.

SPEAKER_01:

Really powerful. And obviously, we're glad to support your students and give them what they need over the course of the school year. So thank you for sharing that, Rachel. I'm curious if you could talk a little bit more about the changes that you've seen in your students. So, are you seeing growth? Is there better conceptual understanding? What are these things that you're noticing as you're implementing this through your assessment in your classrooms?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a good question, too. So we're on our eighth year of using um curriculum associate ReadyMath and iReady. So uh we've been doing this for a while. And definitely over that time period, we have seen a progression. I'll be completely transparent that the first year was hard. Um, switching to a conceptual approach to education, to teaching math is really hard for teachers to wrap their heads around, for students to adjust to, for parents to understand why we're teaching math so differently than we used to. Um but over time, as you stay with that, you start to see students who are mathematical thinkers. I love that phrase. We're not just, and I'm stealing this from Christina Tondevald and some other big math gurus, but we're not just making walking calculators, you know, where students can can compute something. We are teaching them how to think mathematically. And that that makes a huge, huge difference. It's it's the difference between being able to get a good grade in school and be able to actually use math in your real life someday. And that's what I hope all of our educators want. We want to prepare students for for real life, um, not just getting through school. So it takes time, it takes so much time to make those adjustments and really start to see that progress. But yes, we are growing. Um, it's been baby steps, but we are definitely seeing an upward trend. And probably the thing that really stood out to me the most was when we hit COVID and everyone took steps backwards, we have been able to bounce back. We've been able to get back to our pre-COVID levels and close that gap up and then start to make those baby steps forward again. Um, I even had a couple other schools reach out to me and said, okay, everyone's scores dropped, but yours dropped less. So, how how did you do that? What are you doing? Um, and so it was it was great to be able to share that we have this incredible program that really teaches conceptual understanding of math that is giving our kids deeper roots in mathematical understanding.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, Rachel, that's so powerful. And it says so much that others were coming to you for help and support. Um, so first off, hats off to you and your students for your great growth. Um, and with that, I wanted to touch on a little bit. You had talked about in your blog this idea of celebrating success. And that's such an important piece. So I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about how you celebrate success, maybe some quick tips for our listeners that they can start implementing in their schools.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so this is this is the fun part for me because in my role, you know, I'm curriculum directing and I'm running data and all this stuff that um, you know, people might think is boring. But once a month, I get to take all that data analysis and I go into classrooms and I celebrate kids that are are doing the work. You know, I ready in our training has given us a few things that that they say research shows that if you if you get 45 minutes a week, um there's actually a range, but I I nail it down to a specific number. If you get 45 minutes a week in on your differentiated program, if you pass at least two lessons a week, if you have a pass rate over 70%, um, those are the things that are going to lead to growth. And so those are the things that I monitor. And I go into the classroom once a month and we celebrate every kid who has done all of those things for the month. Um, because that's what's going to get them to see some closing of their gaps and to improve in their learning. So it's really fun to go in there and recognize these kids for their hard work. And I love it because it's since it's differentiated, you're not just going in and rewarding the top students in the class that get rewarded all the time and already feel like they're smart. You know, you're going in and you're recognizing any kid who is doing the work that it takes. If they're completing their lessons, they're putting the time in, they're passing, they're they're getting that work done, they're going to get recognized in that level up program. And then you watch it pay off when it comes time for the next diagnostic and they see the growth there. One of the other celebrations we do is with the growth goals. We have, you know, students are working towards their growth goal. And if they are on track for that after the mid-year test, we make a big deal about it. And if they reach it at the end of the year, we make a big deal about that because they're they're closing the gaps. So that's the fun part. We have a little budget set aside and I do a different like theme every year, and we just we just make it really fun. It also lets me support the classroom teachers because they're saying this all day long, every day, you know, you need to get your work done, stay focused on your lessons, all that. But then they've got my my support in that, you know, hey, if you're not doing your what you need to be doing, you're not going to make Mrs. Porter's level up list at the end of the month. So it's just, I think it's worked well to just up the accountability for students and have a positive uh momentum going towards the IRETY work that they're doing.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so great, Rachel. And it's clear you're doing so much for your students and your teachers. And I love how you're so focused in the growth aspect. Like that is so important. And as you said, it's very powerful to celebrate all of the students, not just those that maybe typically get that recognition. So applause to you. You're doing all of these incredible things, and we so appreciate it.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And with that, Rachel, we're gonna go ahead and wrap up for today. But thank you so much for your time. We are so happy to have you on. Well, thank you, Haley. It's been a pleasure to talk to you. Get inspired by following us on social, and please tag us in your posts on X at Curriculum Association and on Instagram at my iReady. If you have feedback about the podcast, a topic of interest, or want to be a guest, email extraordinaryeducators at caink.com. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if you'd like to help more educators like you join the conversation, please leave us a review. Remember, be you, be true, be extraordinary. The Extraordinary Educators Podcast is produced by Curriculum Associates. Curriculum Associates believes that with the right supports, all children can reach grade level. We provide evidence-based high-quality instructional materials and world-class implementation services to classrooms across the United States. Editing completed by Shane Lowe, social media by At City Hannon, guestbooking and production by Hailey Browning. This podcast is copyrighted materials and intellectual property of curriculum associates.