i-Ready: Information for Parents

by Chante Brown -- B'ville Buzz staff

Standardized testing is often a nightmare for all involved. Parents, students, and teachers all dread the seemingly pointless tests. The tests are often impersonal and serve no purpose in the day-to-day class environment. However, the i-Ready test is a modern standardized test tailored to your student's needs in the classroom.

What is i-Ready?

i-Ready is an online benchmark assessment and instructional tool  designed to monitor the growth of your student throughout the year. It is a computer-based assessment focusing on mathematics and reading. Three tests will be administered throughout the year to evaluate your child's strengths and weaknesses.

Why use i-Ready?

i-Ready, as an assessment, is one of the few standardized tests made to adapt to your student's level. Iready will change the difficulty of each question depending on your child's past answers. If the student gets a question wrong, i-Ready will take that into consideration when choosing the difficulty for the following question. This allows for a proper evaluation of your student based entirely upon their own personal capabilities in the subjects rather than that of a basic standardized test which is made to assume your student's level in the beginning.

This evaluation will help our teachers mold special curriculum for your student in the classroom based on their individual scores. Students who lacked in the individual subjects will no longer be immediately grouped together, but rather with other students who ranked similarly to them on the same subject. This allows for specialized teaching that targets specific subjects the students struggled with rather than less tailored (and therefore less helpful) lessons.

Other perks

i-Ready is not only an assessment but also an instructional tool teachers can use to assign specialized work depending upon the student's current needs. This allows for an even more personal learning experience as it lets teachers tackle each individual student's weaknesses inside the subject they struggle with. This way, the student can get the newest content possible throughout the year without unnecessary recycling of content they're already familiar with regardless of the subject.

i-Ready is also available to parents through a login you'll be given once your student is officially set up on the website. You will be able to communicate with teachers about your student's current level, and you can even ask to assign your student work on particular subjects you feel they're struggling with.

i-Ready was not made to define your student based on the same content as every other student, but rather to help them blossom individually. i-Ready was created with your student's future in mind, and the one and only goal is to help your student excel. With i-Ready, your Barbourville student can learn to go above and beyond.