Inquiry Team Eydie Wilson, Ph.D. Math Coach November 3, 2009

Overview What is an Inquiry Team? Purpose Selection of Students Data Sources The TEAM Roles Responsibility Work of Inquiry Team

What is an Inquiry Team? A team within each school that uses a multi- disciplinary, collaborative approach to assess a student’s specific areas of academic need, e.g., decoding, fluency, life skills, computation, graphing, problem solving etc. School-based issues e.g. behavior plan, schedule, instruction and/or instructional schedule

The Purpose - Student The Team will focus on … School-based issues (planning, instruction, schedule, behavior plan) OR A target population of students that experience similar barriers to success. This allows them to dive deeper into instructional questions than the AIS team.

How are Students Selected? DATA … The Team.. Will consult data as a guide to identifying students in need of instructional intervention Student – academic, behavior Students who receive a level 1 or 2 on their State exams must receive academic intervention Apply a case management, problem-solving process to support student achievement

What are the Sources? The team uses multiple data sources of evidence to identify students for behavior and/or academic intervention services at all levels Data Sources (some examples): Brigance ECLAS-2 Functional Behavior Assessment NYS - ELA, Math, Science & Social Studies

Roles: The Team The team should have expertise in the areas of differentiated academic strategies – include: Three to six members (depending on the size of the school), including the Principal or Assistant Principal Lead Teachers/Coaches of Literacy and/or Math AIS Teachers / Grade Level Teachers Related Service Providers D75 Coaches (if assigned to school) School Testing Coordinator / IEP Coordinator

Responsibility: The Team Team and administrator will Identify eligible students (strengths and needs) Establish systems to collect and analyze data Discuss each identified student and make recommendations of targeted intervention for success (frequency, duration of services, benchmarks)

Work of Inquiry Team Team looks within the school site/ school-wide to identify: Issues and/or a target population who share a deficiency in academic skills Prioritize students for AIS For example, your team may decide that amongst the school-wide focus - students having reading comprehension difficulties, they want to target a group that needs support with their decoding skills. (specific skills) Actively link assessment with instruction Become familiar with and recommend research-based instructional practices and programs to provide targeted intervention

Work of Inquiry Commits to the overarching goals of intervention as set forth by the Department of Education Ongoing communication, information dissemination, isolation reduction, replication of best practices Continuously Monitors targeted student Ensuring consistent implementation of revised instructional practices for all students Sets, for example, monthly targets for all target population students and monitor their progress throughout the year

Conclusion - Questions … Identify school issues or a group of students School-based issues Examples: behavior plan, schedule, instruction and/or instructional schedule and planning Student Examples: academics through data, behavioral Issues, transitions

Conclusion - Questions … Construct Team - Who should be on the team? Diverse group - members with different expertise (ELA, Behavior Management, etc)

Conclusion - Questions … Team Collaboration – Identify Activities to be implemented? Define actions of the team List strategies Aim: improve identified issues