Advanced Progress Monitoring with Aimsweb 2009 Alaska Winter Education Conference Scott Linner 651-366-2731 slinner@hotmail.com If you have any questions feel, free to contact me

Where are we in Alaska with progress monitoring? All districts were surveyed in Alaska with principals (60 %) primary respondents 222 survey responses received 63.7% of respondents indicated “familiar” or “very familiar” with term RTI 73% said that they “use assessments to monitor progress”. Of the 115 that were implementing RTI substantially in… K-5 6th – 8th 9th - 12th Reading 91 54 34 Math 59 38 28 Written Expression 65 45 32 Survey done by Margaret Mackinnon and Jennifer Knutson. The survey was presented at the Alaska Principals Conference in fall of 2008

Alaska training needs…. The respondents rated the “Identifying screening and progress monitoring” as the third highest need… after “Academic interventions” and “Identify funding source and further guidance.” Significant training needs remain RTI (Does not include Progress Monitoring) --15 percent of the staff has had no training on RTI --42 percent of the respondents said that 1 to 24 percent of their staff has had training. In summary, over half of the staff (57 percent) have had no training on RTI…which does not include RTI.

Problems with Progress Monitoring Lack of data points No intervention lines & lack of documentation of intervention (s) Difficulty with survey level assessment and correct goals

Use your “brain”…what might have been the problem?

Progress Monitoring is conducted frequently and is designed to: --Estimate rates of student improvement --Identify students who are not demonstrating adequate progress --Compare the efficiency of different forms of instruction and design more effective individualized instructional programs for learners who need extra help in mastering the curriculum From: Using Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) for Student Progress Monitoring : Presented by Dr. Rebecca Holland-Coviello – www.studentprogress.org

(Lack of intervention lines) Lack of data points and (Lack of intervention lines) A first graders progress monitoring graph

How do we get more data points? --Have one person assigned in building and/or paraprofessional gather the PM’ing --Develop district wide assessment calendar --Explicitly state the expectation for progress monitoring at the school or district level. --Data Team/administrator review graphs at least monthly.

State expectations on PM Universal Screening: 3 X Year Tier II: 2 X Month or greater Tier III: “At least on a weekly basis” Draft 12/23/2008

No intervention lines and lack of documentation of intervention

2. Lack of intervention lines or documentation

Data Decision Guidelines Recommended in RTI draft Data Decision Guidelines Is the student has 4 consecutive data points below the aimline (assuming you are PM’ing on grade level material), ASK THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS (and continue to progress monitor) --Is the intervention being done with fidelity --Is the student in the right level of materials --Has the student been in school? Are they getting enough minutes of intervention per week? Should the intervention be “tweaked”? Changed? Is there a better Intervention to “match” the student needs? Staff should work together to discuss the data, the student, and what intervention changes would have a better chance of success. Minnesota Reading Corp Training Manual

Data Decision Guidelines, Cont’d If the student has some data points above and some below the aimline (doing the “aimline hug”) keep doing what you are doing?

If the student has 4 consecutive data points above the aimline, consider exiting or lessoning the intervention --Note the exit with a chart label --Continued progress monitoring

We need the intervention labels and descriptions to “tell the story” How do we know what is working for this student? How do we know what has already been tried and possibly didn’t work? 07-08MRCtraining

Initial Program Labels and the intervention description Be SURE to include a “Chart Label” and Description of the intervention on your charts! This is CRITICAL! Every time something changes in the student’s intervention (e.g., you change the intervention, the student exits the program) you will add a new label and description Some students start the year off with an intervention – This needs to be documented Practical hint: For grades 4+, put results of the SBA with Initial Program label.

Describing an intervention ‘recipe’ Chart Label is the name of the intervention and if it’s Tier II or III. Description information to include: 1. The full name of the intervention, e.g.,Repeated Reading 2. What the student and adult will do in the intervention 3. Who will do the intervention with the student, member, community volunteer 4. How often the intervention will be conducted, per week, size of the group 5. How much time will be spent in each intervention session

3. Difficulty with correct goals and survey level assessment

3. Difficulty with correct goal Please do not progress monitoring above students grade level. Reading enrichment should not revolve around fluency, but comprehension and vocabulary

Difficulty with Survey Level Assessment With upper grade student, progress monitoring on too easy of probe. Progress Monitoring students with significant academic delays with their grade level material (less of a problem).

The goal is to progress monitor a student at their grade level A fifth grade being progress monitored in second grade probes

Where do you enter the survey level information data Click on button to get graph

6th grade minimum 110 wpm When do you need to survey at a lower level? 3rd grade 56 wpm 2nd grade 29 wpm 1st grade 12 wpm

A common problem with survey level assessment is with upper grade students. 9th grader was progress monitored in fall on 4th grade passage with 112, rather than trying the 5th grade passage. Our goal is to progress monitor on the student’s grade level. Conducting a Survey Level Assessment

When moving up a grade level probe, you must have an Intervention line due to change of measurement.

Are any of you using local cut scores? You have two Goal Choices: Use Aimsweb Norms, which is the 50th percentile on aggregate norms. Research in Alaska has shown that if you are above these targets, your students have over a 90 percent probability on being proficient on the Reading SBA. Develop your own local targets, based on probability of proficiency on your district SBA. Are any of you using local cut scores?

Relationship between HSGQE and 10th grade ORF (8th grade probes) in a bush district Proficiency 287 Correlation .73 Goal 157 Oral Reading Fluency

Alaska 3rd grade SBA and ORF 300=proficiency SBA Reading Score

How to read a Goal Statement 4.91 1.47.

What is an appropriate growth rate? Rate of Improvement Use researched ROI** or Aimsweb Norms Aimsweb Norms 50th percentile Realistic Ambitious 6-8 .3 WRC per week .65 WRC per week 0.4 5 .5 WRC per week .8 WRC per week 0.9 4 .85 WRC per week 1.1 WRC per week 0.8 3 1.0 WRC WRC per week 1.5 WRC per week 1.0 2 1.5 WRC per week 2.0 WRC per week 1.1 1 2 WRC per week 3.0 WRC per week 1.3 ** From the download sections: Progress Monitoring Strategies for Writing Individualized Goals in General Curriculum and More Frequent Formative Evaluation

Determine what your class or school grade growth rate. The average growth rate for a first grader at this School is 2.2 words a week.

Rate of Improvement if the student is to catch up. When setting goals, the student must more than the expected typical student Rate of Improvement if the student is to catch up. Generally, multiply the average Rate of Improvement by a value between 1.5 and 2. If average student is improving at 2.2 words a week, a student to catch up needs to improve be at least 3.3 words per week. Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, Waltz and Germann (1993) or Hasp and Hosp 2003

In the majority of cases, one will use the same goal with all students (i.e. 3rd grader with a spring goal of 110 wpm. If a student has a severe reading deficit and the Rate of Improvement is to steep, the goal needs to be individualized 3.35 to steep 1.58

1.82 -2.09 .27 2.39

Looking at the graphs Thinking is required for progress monitoring!! We need to look at each PM graph as a Team…Grade Level or RTI monthly. “Isolation is the enemy of improvement”

Read the manual

On-line training National Center on Student Progress Monitoring www.studentprogress.org for webinars --The ABCs of Progress Monitoring in Reading --Data Utilization within a CBM Screening and Progress Monitoring System --Monitoring Student Progress in the Classroom to Enhance Teacher Planning and - Student Learning --Progress Monitoring in Mathematics --Using CBM for AYP and other Data Reporting --Using CBM to Progress Monitor English Language Learners --Using Student Progress Monitoring in a Response to Intervention Model