Glossary of Testing Terms
AIMSweb is a progress monitoring system based on direct, frequent and continuous student assessment. The results are reported to students, parents, teachers and administrators via a web-based data management and reporting system to determine response to intervention.
CBM stands for curriculum-based measurement and involves assessing students' fluency in reading passages, computing, spelling words, and in writing sentences.
Lexile is a score that helps identify reading material that is at an appropriate difficulty level for an individual student. When a student reads material within his or her Lexile range, that student should read with 75% comprehension.
MAP stands for Measures of Academic Progress (computer-administered tests that result in a RIT score).
Norm-referenced tests compare student performance to that of other students nationwide. They show where students stand in relation to their peers, not to a defined standard of achievement.
Percentile and percentage: "Percentage" is about the number of questions answered correctly; "percentile" is about ranking a student in comparison to other students in the same grade or age group. For example, if a student answered 8 out of 10 ten questions correctly, then the student's percentage would be 80%. If that same student's percentile score is at the 70% percentile, that student scored higher than 70% of the students who took the test.
RIT stands for Rasch Unit scale and is named after the developer of the scale, George Rasch. The RIT scale score shows a student's current achievement level along the curriculum scale.
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