1. RTI: Response RTI Assessment Tools for ELLs

2. ACHIEVEMENT TOOLS Measuring Response to Intervention

3. CBM Considerations Extent to which curriculum is culturally representative of the student. Student’s previous participation in bilingual education/ ESL Known or suspected sensory or communicative impairments Information on formal former education. How often has the child moved and how often does child attend school?

4. CBM Considerations Students level of acculturation English language proficiency What skills are needed to answer the items that are not related to item performance. Experiences outside of the school setting that support or detract from academic success.

5. CBM: Spanish Materials Brigance Diagnostic Assessment of Basic Skills, Spanish – K-6 – Readiness, Speech, Word Recognition, Oral Reading, Reading, Comp., Word Analysis, Listening, Writing, Alphabetizing, Numbers and Computation, and Measurement DIBELS has a Spanish version that is like the English version. This can be found on the DIBELS website.

6. Suggestions: Non-English and Non-Spanish CBM Informal methods or CBM methods should be utilized in combination with parent/ teacher interviews, class observations, and child interviews. As very few CBM measures are available in languages other than Spanish, you may have to create your own CBM instruments.

7. Making Your Own CBM: Operationalize the Curriculum Establish what is the MOST IMPORTANT in the curriculum and change these concepts into questions from the materials. Determine what is most typical for most students. Attempt to avoid floor and ceiling problems by making items too easy or too hard (best to err on too easy).

8. Collect, Analyze, and Describe the Data For classroom, median is only stat needed. For larger data collection groups, organize scores by grade using Means and Standard Deviations. Use percentile ranks if N>100. Normal range is that 2 out of every 3 score in that group (16th - 84th percentile).

9. Local Norms: Classroom Classroom: – Usually a small number of students (5-10). – Only gross estimates of variability are available. – Limited to screening and prioritizing student w/in class needs. Sampling: – Obtain sample from class at large – OR Obtain a sample from students considered to be typical in that classroom. – OR Obtain combination from class on group tasks and a smaller sample on individual tasks. – Class of 40-45, sample of 5 is fine, 10 preferred.

10. Error Analysis Finally, you need to analyze the errors. Determine if skills that are missing can be made up in general education mainstreaming. Determine what objectives need addressing in the intervention.

11. Reading Assessments Obtain basal readers for different levels in English and in the other language Have the child read in each language. Score fluency by marking reading end point after 1 min and 2 min. Ask the child to retell the story to indicate passage comprehension. Basic reading can be evaluated by the number of errors made while reading the passage.

12. Math Assessments Basic math: direct translation of instructions and actual items from a normative test (do not use norms). Applied math: direct translation of items from a normative test (do not use norms). Do an error analysis of types of problems and see if these carry across languages.

13. Written Expression Develop an age appropriate writing prompt (e.g., “I was walking down the street and suddenly I saw …”). Have the child write a story based on this prompt. Have a translator given a similar prompt in the native language. Work with the translator to determine total number of words, grammar spelling, and understandability for BOTH language tasks.

14. BEHAVIORAL/ EMOTIONAL TOOLS Measuring Positive Behavioral Supports

15. PBS: Data Collection Internalized Behaviors Rating Scales Checklists Externalized Behaviors Time Sampling Event Sampling

16. Rating Scales & Checklists Rating Scales: Use quality judgments (e.g., good, poor, etc.) instead of concrete descriptors. Checklists: Use yes/no to describe whether or not a criteria was met. You can use existing checklists/ rating scales but choose specific items for what you are measuring (Volpe & Gadow, 2010)

17. Systematic Observations Time/event appropriate Operationally define the behavior Have a planned recording technique May want to have more than one setting. May want to have more than one observer. Generally works best for high incidence behaviors. Can take place in a planned (forced) situation or in a natural situation.

18. Designing an Observation How many times will you observe? How long will you observe? When/ where will you observe? What behaviors will you observe? How will you record the data?

19. Recording Data Use a specific form to collect the data. – Anecdotal record form: You write the time and a description of each significant behavior following a narrative section on settings, patterns, and opportunities. – Quantitative record form Interval recording (time sampling, interval sampling, & interval time sampling). Event recording (event sampling)

20. Time Sampling: Types Partial Interval Time Sampling – Record the behavior if it happens once during a set time period. For example, if it occurs at all during a 60 second period. Whole-Interval Time Sampling – Record the behavior if it occurs during the whole interval. For example, if it occurs lasts from the first second to the last in a 60 second interval. Other time sampling methods – Other methods are available but not often used.

21. Time Sampling: Example Targeted Behaviors @10 sec @20 Sec @30 Sec @40 Sec @50 Sec @60 sec

22. Time Sampling: Example Targeted Behaviors @10 sec @20 Sec @30 Sec @40 Sec @50 Sec @60 sec Out of his seatXXXX Making noisesXX Not workingXXXXXX Partial-interval

23. Event Sampling Record every time the client performs a certain action. For example: Targeted Behaviors Number of times In 3 min period Out of his seat||| Making noises|||| ||| Not working||

24. Observation: Data Frequency: How many X in Y minutes (e.g., 3 times per min). Duration: How long is this happening (e.g., he cried for 3 min). Duration: What percentage of time is this happening (e.g., he cried for 45% of the time). Latency: How long does it take between the stimulus and the response. (e.g., he started crying 20 seconds after his mother left)

25. BEYOND RTI/PBS ASSESSMENT Evaluating English Language Learners

26. ELL and Assessment Cognitive Assessments: – Use the MAMBI to help guide your assessment plan. – Use confidence intervals with “normative” data instead of just the score because of the reliability issues for ELL. – Consider all normative data as suspect. Verify any test data against observation and interview/records review data. – Even nonverbal assessments can have biased content.

27. ELL and Assessment Achievement: – You need language proficiency data. It needs to be current. – If applicable, you need some estimate of achievement in L1 and L2 YOU CANNOT HAVE SLD IN L2 AND NOT HAVE IT IN L1 – Sometimes good normative data is not available. You may have to change the basic structure of how you assess and diagnose.

28. ELL and Assessment Social, Emotional, Behavioral, and Adaptive – These constructs are culturally loaded. – Be careful when using translations that do not have normative changes as well. – Parental and child interviews may not illicit much information unless they feel comfortable with you. – For informal information, you may need a “cultural ambassador” to help you talk with clients and families. – Keep in mind that mental illness manifests differently in different cultures.

29. Psychologists and SST Report Writing What will be in a report: – Reports need to be written to include all of the data collected. – Your reports will often feel more “qualitative” instead of “qualitative” in nature. – You may have to go into specific tests to examine response patterns down to the item level. Language of a report: – Most districts do not require a “home language” translation of a report or meeting notes. – You may want to record the translator’s description of the report during the meeting for the family to review later.

30. Final Thoughts Most assessments for ELL will take 2-3 times as long as their English-only equivalents. Most meetings for ELL will also take 2-3 times longer. When making a diagnostic decision, examine the preponderance of the evidence. Parents and families play a crucial role in these assessments BUT they are often unavailable, difficult to reach, and/or not comfortable with school personnel. Families across cultures are more alike than different. – There is not a single cultural group that does fails to love their children.