Correction on PMA

The post from earlier today talked about the Progress Monitoring Assessment being for "Math, Reading, and Science." It should have said "Math and Reading." There will be no Science PMA again this year.

Reminder of Start Date for PMA

On September 4, all Alabama schools using Stride began the window for the Progress Monitoring Assessments. PMA assesses students in Math and Reading with approximately 30 questions per subject. When students are in PMA, the student interface says "Assessment Mode."

PMA will diagnose students' skill gaps, provide differentiated intervention and continuously monitor student growth over the school year. PMA data reports will be available via the "Reports" tab once your students have completed the assessments.

Off to a Great Start

Stride is a program students can start using immediately. Three years ago, Ohatchee Elementary 2nd graders started working on Stride the same day their teachers first learned about the program.


Here, you see them in the library answering questions and enjoying the games.

As they left the library, students asked:
"Can I use this on a laptop?"
"Can I use this on my tablet?"
"Can I use this on my smartphone?"

In each case, the answer is yes. If the device will access the Internet, you can use Stride with it!

Progress Monitoring Assessment Dates Reminder

In the sidebar of this blog, you will see the dates for this year's Progress Monitoring Assessment. Neither you nor your students need to do anything special to take the PMA. When students log in on September 4th, they will automatically be taken to PMA.

The students do not have the finish PMA in one session. The next time they log into Stride, they will pick up where they left off. When a student finishes PMA, he or she resumes the normal questions provided by the Stride Adaptive Engine.

You may want to put the beginning dates for each PMA date on your calendar. Ideally, you should never worry about the ending date for a PMA. If your students are using the program, they will finish PMA far before the ending date.

Welcome to a New School Year With Stride

I am looking forward to working with the schools in Calhoun County again this year. The past two years.

Throughout the year, this blog will serve as my vehicle for sharing with you information about Stride and celebrating the ways you and teachers like you are embracing this tool as a way to help students learn.

I'll pull some posts from the past and re-post them at well-chosen points in the year. All of us need review from time to time.

Get the new stuff in your email

Are you reading this post in your email? If so, that's perfect. Reading your email is something you do anyway. When these come to your email, it keeps them from being "one more thing to do."

Are you reading this post on the blog because someone told you about it? If so, let me make this suggestion:

See the little box that says "Get New Posts in Your Email"? Enter your email address. You will receive a verification email. If you don't receive one, check to see if it went into spam Once you verify that it was indeed you who signed up, every time I post something new here, it will be sent straight to your email. You never have to remember to come directly to the blog again. One less thing to have to remember to do!

If you signed up for the updates last year or the year before, you are most likely reading this post as a result of an email you received. If you signed up before and your email address has not changed, you do not have to sign up again.

I look forward to working with you during this school year!

Stride Will Be Down August 4-7

Each year, Stride archives the student data from the previous school year. That process will happen between August 4 and August 7. During that time, the program will be unavailable.

As soon as the archive is complete Corey Murray will begin the process of setting up your classes. Check back here on progress.

If you have a question about the information in any blog post, you can always ask it in a comment at the bottom of the post. Chances are if you have a question, others will have that question as well.

Progress Monitoring Assessment Dates

The Progress Monitoring Assessment dates for this school year are as follows:

PMA 1: Sept. 4-Oct. 13

PMA 2: Nov. 6-Dec. 1

PMA 3: Jan. 8-Feb. 9

PMA 4: Mar. 5-Apr. 6

You will see a text box in the sidebar that also gives you those dates. That box will remain there throughout the school year for your convenience.

Things to remember:

1. PMA will take a student approximately 30 minutes per subject.
2. When a student logs into Stride, the program automatically takes the student into PMA until PMA is completed. 
3. If a student has completed PMA and you have scheduled a quiz with Quiz Builder or StrideXchange, the student will automatically be given the quiz.
4. If the student has completed PMA and any scheduled quizzes, the student receives the regular Adaptive Engine quizzes.
5. PMA happens only at school. When the student goes home, he or she gets the regular questions from the Stride Adaptive Engine. (That being said, on your Quiz Builder or StrideXchange quizzes, you have the option on any of them to allow the quiz to be taken at home. For example, you might schedule a quiz as a formative assessment prior to a "big test" and let the students take it at home

Don't wait until the last minute

The start date for PMA is something you should put on your calendar. You would want to avoid scheduling a quiz at that. The students would not see your quiz. They would have PMA instead.

Best practice is to schedule your own a narrow date range at the beginning of the PMA period and have everyone complete PMA then. You are then able to let students know how they did and use the data to let you know what to re-teach. You'll also be able to schedule Quiz Builder quizzes.

The ending date for PMA should be irrelevant. If you are using the program the way it's intended, students will be done with PMA far before ending date. 

If you find yourself pushed to have students complete PMA by the end of the PMA period, realize PMA is all they are getting. They are missing out on the most important part of the program, the Stride Adaptive Engine.