We recently told you about the new IXL Continuous Diagnostic, which captures up-to-the-minute student insights and outlines clear next steps to help learners improve.
Now, we’re sharing some tips and tricks for how to incorporate the Diagnostic into your instruction to help your students succeed!
Explore recommended skills from the Diagnostic Arena
Help your students improve from where they are with personalized skill recommendations from the IXL Continuous Diagnostic. Students will discover these suggestions as they practice in the Diagnostic Arena, and they can click on skill recommendations from their Diagnostic stats page to start practicing immediately. Encourage students to dive into their recommendations if they finish classwork early, or have students work on them during lab time.
Leverage the Diagnostic Strand Analysis
Easily plan for small group instruction with the Diagnostic Strand Analysis! This report groups students with similar levels of proficiency on each strand and shows you the most common skill recommendations for each group. With these insights, you can identify and target potential knowledge gaps early on. Use the report to pull students into small groups where you can spend a few minutes working through their top skill recommendations. Then, have students practice those skills on their own as you supervise their progress.
Keep diagnostic stats up to date
With students completing regular IXL skill practice, it only takes a handful of diagnostic questions each week to keep levels current. To ensure you always have timely insights and recommendations available, have your students visit the Diagnostic Arena for a few minutes each day as bell work or assign diagnostic questions as part of a station rotation model.
What features from the IXL Continuous Diagnostic are you most excited to try out? Share with us in the comments below!
All Comments (16)
Do you have this for Language Arts?
Hi Karen–We are working on making it available for language arts in our U.S. edition! We’ll be sure to announce any news here and on our social media pages.
LOVE the new Diagnostic Tool can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon.
We’re glad you’re enjoying the Continuous Diagnostic, Lisa!
Two questions:
1- Why do many of my student’s Diagnostic Reports not have ANY recommendations for Alg/Alg Thinking even when it is the area where they scored the lowest?
2- Is it typical for students (in SpEd) in the upper elementary grades to have Algebra & Algebraic Thinking scores that lag far behind their Numbers & Ops scores on the Diagnostic Assessment?
I really like the Diagnostic for many reasons, but there seem to be some glitches to sort out, including the recommendation for one of my 4th graders that he work on a Level M skill : )
Hi Jennie–Thanks for your feedback on the Continuous Diagnostic! One reason that your students may not have Algebra recommendations is if their diagnostic levels are not up to date. Levels are up to date when you see numeric levels (circles) rather than a range (bars), and if a student does not continue to diagnose regularly, the numeric levels will revert back to ranges. The Continuous Diagonstic finds scores first, to let you know where a student stands overall, before it finds pinpointed recommendations for that student. If your students diagnose more, they should then receive their recommendations.
As for your second question, it’s not unusual for Algebra scores to lag behind Numbers & Ops. One common reason is that some students can do computations but struggle with solving word problems–their diagnostic levels will reflect knowledge gaps in each of these strands.
We love hearing from teachers who are actively using the Continuous Diagnostic and would be happy to chat with you more or answer any other questions you may have! Please feel free to contact us at support@ixl.com.
We love the diagnostic tool! However, we can’t see the Kindergarteners can do it on the IPad. Am I not seeing it?
Hi Sally–We’re glad to hear you’re loving the Continuous Diagnostic! It is not currently available through our iPad app, though students can still access it through IXL.com on the iPad’s web browser.
A student has a score of 570-650 on the diagnostic. What does this mean? Is there a grade level that this correlates to?
Hi Stacy–When you see a single number as a student’s diagnostic score, that indicates the student’s working grade level. For example, a level of 500 indicates readiness to work on fifth grade level skills. When their score appears as a range like 570-650, it means that the Diagnostic does not yet have enough information to pinpoint a student’s level. If you have any other questions about how best to use the Diagnostic, we’d be happy to help! Feel free to get in touch at support@ixl.com or (855) 255-8800.
Hi IXL Team,
Loving the diagnostic so far! Can you guys tell me what a overall level of 900 would correspond to for grade level? Thanks!
Hi Alex–We’re glad you’re loving the Diagnostic! When you see a single number as a student’s diagnostic score, that indicates the student’s working grade level. So, a level of 900 indicates readiness to work on ninth grade level skills. If you have any other questions about how best to use the Diagnostic, we’d be happy to help! Feel free to get in touch at support@ixl.com or (855) 255-8800.
Hello!
I am unable to access Diagnostic with use of the IXL app. I also am unable to sign in to the IXL site. When I try, I am automatically signed in to the app instead.
Help!
Hi Holly, We certainly want to help you get signed in! If you contact us at help@ixl.com or (855) 255-6676, we’d be happy to look into this for you. In the meantime, the Continuous Diagnostic is currently available only on the IXL website. You can always access it on your mobile device through your device’s web browser!
Is there a diagnostic assessment for ELA yet?
Hi Jennifer–Thanks for your interest in our ELA Diagnostic! We are actively working on making the Continuous Diagnostic available for ELA in the U.S. edition by this summer.