The Screener
Follow every student's learning and progress.
The True Progress Screener gives educators a regular view of each student's ELA and math learning, including students who need support, those ready for greater challenge, and those learning well with the school's current provision. For most students, it is the only True Progress assessment they need.
The Screener contributes evidence to Visibility, the first driver of the Student Success System. Educators bring that evidence together with classroom work, observations, and knowledge of the student to understand what is helping and where further attention may be needed.
SUBJECTS
ELA and math, assessed separately
LENGTH
30 questions per subject; about 25 minutes on average
FREQUENCY
Typically three or four times a year
See the Screener in use
Questions adapt to the student's responses, reaching into earlier learning or more advanced material as appropriate. Students in the same classroom can encounter different questions. This overview demonstrates the assessment and shows how educators explore class patterns, individual responses, and progress over time.
Examine the evidence behind a result
A Screener result gives educators several ways to investigate a question. They can move from an overall view to domains, individual questions, and the student's history.
| What educators can examine | What it helps them explore |
|---|---|
| Overall results for a student, class, or grade | The range of learning within a group and which students may need support or greater challenge. |
| Domain results for a class and its individual students | Whether a pattern is shared across the class or concentrated among particular students. |
| The questions presented, the student's responses, and the correct answers | What the student demonstrated on the assessed material and where questions remain. |
| Each question's domain, relevant standard, and time spent | How the responses relate to the learning being assessed and what deserves discussion with the student or teacher. |
| Historical results in the Timeline | Whether a result reflects a continuing pattern or a change that needs attention. |
| Rates of progress for students and classes | How learning is developing between assessment windows. |
For example, a class result in fractions may prompt a closer look. Individual responses can help a teacher determine whether the pattern is shared across the class, concentrated among particular students, or affected by how some students engaged with the assessment. That distinction informs whether to revisit the learning broadly or investigate a smaller number of students more closely.
Reports for shared understanding
Screener reports bring overall results and domain-level learning into a format educators can review with families. Explanations of the assessed areas and learning categories help connect the results to conversations about strengths, intervention, and greater challenge.
Strengths and needs within a subject
The overall math result is Proficient, but the domain results vary from Advanced in Measurement and Data to Beginning in Base Ten. That unevenness gives educators and families more specific questions to explore alongside classroom work. The report also describes each domain and provides considerations for intervention or greater challenge.
An overall result with context
The overview presents the assessment date, time taken, scale score, and overall learning category. Explanations of the score and category give families useful context for discussing the result with educators.
These sample pages describe one assessment. Educators consider the results alongside classroom evidence and the student's learning history; repeated screening helps them follow progress over time.
Consider current learning and progress together
A student learning at a high level may still need greater challenge. A student learning below expectations may be making substantial progress. Repeated screening helps educators consider both the student's current learning and how it is developing, alongside evidence from the classroom.
High achievement, strong progress
What is helping this student continue to grow?
High achievement, limited progress
Would greater challenge or a different approach help?
Lower achievement, strong progress
How is the current intervention helping, and what remains to be addressed?
Lower achievement, limited progress
What needs closer investigation or a different response?
These patterns inform a conversation. Educators also consider classroom work, what has been taught, and the student's assessment experience before deciding on a response.
Follow learning across the year
Full-year Screener reports bring results from successive assessment windows into one view. Educators and families can follow overall learning and patterns within domains, using that history alongside classroom work to discuss progress and where further attention may be helpful.
Overall learning across the year
In this sample, the student’s math scale score rises from 740 to 831 across four assessment windows. The intervening results and changing category thresholds give educators and families context for discussing how learning developed across the year.
Patterns within math
The domain view shows how different areas developed across the same period. Base Ten moves from Beginning to Developing, while Measurement and Data remains a strength. These patterns give educators and families more specific questions to explore alongside classroom learning.
Understand results in your school's context
Classroom and school planning
Looking across classes and grades helps educators understand the range of learners they serve. They can consider where support is concentrated, where students may need greater challenge, and how learning patterns relate to the curriculum. True Progress works with schools to interpret their data in their own context and establish shared criteria for further attention.
Admissions and continuity
Applicants can take the same Screener used with enrolled students, giving admissions and student support a common reference for discussing learning. Results can be considered alongside the applicant's wider record and the school's experience supporting its current students. For those who enroll, admissions results provide an earlier point in their learning history.
When the Screener is enough
When Screener results, classroom work, and educators' observations indicate that a student is thriving and progressing, further True Progress assessment may not be needed. Periodic screening continues. If understanding remains incomplete, a question from either the classroom or the Screener can prompt a closer look.
Diagnostic
The Diagnostic provides more detailed evidence about skills at a particular learning level. It is useful when educators want to investigate a specific area of learning and plan teaching, intervention, or greater challenge.
Inventory
The Inventory examines learning across dimensions and levels within a subject. It is useful when a student’s uneven strengths and needs require a deeper learning profile to inform planning.
The Screener at your school
Bring us a question your school is trying to answer about student learning. It may concern the range within a classroom, a student whose result does not fit what teachers are seeing, whether intervention is helping, students who may need greater challenge, or how learning is changing across the year.
We can consider what the Screener would add to what your educators already know, how the evidence should be interpreted, and whether periodic screening is enough or a closer assessment would actually help.
Schedule a Conversation