Guide Parents in Understanding Istation’s At-Home Progress Monitoring

Istation provides formative assessments, known as Istation’s Indicators of Progress (ISIP™), for progress monitoring in reading, math, and Spanish literacy. Istation will route a student to a place in the curriculum based on their score on the formative assessment. Istation also provides an at-home curriculum known as Ipractice, which allows students to select activities that are appropriate for their reading or math ability. Istation made progress monitoring available at home shortly after schools closed in March and April of 2020.

How can parents help their children with at-home learning with Istation? 

General Information

• Istation has provided instructions for accessing the program at home. They are available at www.Istation.com/Home/SchoolClosures.
• Students should have access to a computer or tablet with a reliable internet connection. If the internet goes out during the assessment, the student can complete the assessment, and the data will be uploaded to Istation when they log back in.
• If the student is using headphones or earbuds, make sure they are working properly, and check the volume level.

Progress Monitoring

• The progress monitoring assessment will appear the first time a student logs in to Istation during a calendar month.
• The assessment will be in progress until the blue ISIP in Progress bar disappears.
• Make sure the student completes the progress monitoring before they log out.
• If a student logs out or there is a problem with the Istation app, the assessment will pick up close to where it left off, and the student can complete the assessment.
• While it is preferable for a student to finish the assessment in one sitting, if a student has fatigue or is distracted during the assessment, they can log out and finish it later when they have better focus.
• Parents, siblings, and other household members should not assist a student with any of the test questions.
• The ISIP assessment is computer adaptive and will adjust to the student’s pattern of responses.
• Providing assistance with the assessment will yield unreliable results, and if the student is using the curriculum, they will receive lessons that are too difficult. If a student asks for help with a test question, encourage them to do their best.
• The testing and learning environment should be quiet and free of distractions.
• Provide scratch paper for the math assessment.

Istation Curriculum

• The student’s instructional path automatically appears as soon as the assessment is complete.
• Remind the student that clicking on wrong answers means the lesson will redirect to a reteach piece. To move through the program, students must work to the best of their ability.
• Tell the student not to click on the stop sign until you tell them to or the timer on-screen reads 20-30 minutes. For pre-K and kindergarten students, the time can be reduced to 15-20 minutes.
• Establish a set location and time of day for students to participate in Istation instruction.
•  Allow some choice of activities within Istation, Books, Ipractice, Writing, etc.
• Check your child’s progress regularly through the Parent Portal or their classroom teacher.

Resources Available for Parents

• Istation has a Parent Portal available with the following resources:
• Printable lessons, books and passages, and games appropriate for your child’s reading level
• Lexile levels that can help you find books for your child (Most public libraries have books available online.)
• Reports on assessment results and Istation usage

Videos are available on Facebook and YouTube to help you with at-home learning.