The Dark Side of iReady Level Z: What Schools Aren't Telling You!

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Many school districts use Curriculum Associates i-Ready in their classrooms for reading and math, but there appears to be program murkiness. There’s concern that teachers might rely on iReady data for grading rather than their professional expertise. But above all else, the iReady Universal Screener is a dangerous assessment because it is a dehumanizing assessment. The test strips away all evidence of the students’ thinking, of her mathematical identity, and instead assigns broad and largely meaningless labels. Students can use it at any time to complete lessons or practice skills in math or reading. It uses really childish and boring animations that are painful to sit through. But the assessments provide specific information about where students are weak or strong (such as analyzing informational texts). The tests take a long time though. Someone once mentioned to me that this is because your percentile compares you to other test-takers, it is usually urban (lower-performing) schools that use i-Ready. This is sad, of course, but a possible explanation for how “grade level” kids can be in the 95+ percentile. Recently, I’ve heard some teachers suggest that i-Ready is dangerous. At first, I was quite surprised, because “dangerous” is never a word I would use to describe this program. Here’s the thing. As a classified educator in a high-needs school , I have recently spent time proctoring the I-Ready diagnostic in my fourth grade class. Out of concern for my math group, who all had pained looks on their faces, I was able to view some of the math test questions. I was appalled at what I saw. Students dedicate a lot of time to these tests over their high school career, taking the i-Ready diagnostic twice each year. This raises the question of whether they are really worth it.