2008 Student Progress Monitoring & Data-Based Instruction in Special Education Data-Based Instruction

2 What is Data-Based Instruction? Data-based instruction  Progress monitoring is vital  Student progress is continually monitored  Approach of “test-teach-test”  Inductive and recursive  Teachers are experimenters  Instruction is individualized Data-based instruction is problem solving

3 What is Data-Based Instruction? Developed within special education Data-based instruction requires special education teachers to:  Understand assessment  Understand instruction  Become “expert” instructors within the school  Become the “go to” person for information about how to work with the most difficult-to-teach students

4 Background of Data-Based Instruction Developed over the last years by researchers and practitioners Benefits of data-based instruction described in hundreds of scholarly journals Utilized in special education Now a major focus because of the Responsiveness-to-Intervention (RTI) movement

5 The Role of Special Education and Data-Based Instruction in RTI We will talk in-depth about RTI tomorrow Two ways of thinking about Special Education within an RTI framework  “Traditional” model  Few tiers (e.g., 3)  Special Education is most intensive tier  “Alternate” models  Many tiers  Special Education may be dispersed among all the tiers

6 “Traditional” Model of Special Education within RTI Most widely researched model Tier 1  General education  Research-validated, whole-class instruction  Progress monitoring used to determine responsiveness-to-intervention Tier 2  General education  Research-validated, small-group or individual instruction  Progress monitoring used to determine responsiveness-to-intervention

7 “Traditional” Model of Special Education within RTI Tier 3  Special education  Research-validated, individualized instruction  Progress monitoring is used to develop and determine responsiveness to instructional programs

8 “Alternate” Model of Special Education within RTI Continuum of general education placements and services in tiers  More than 3 tiers could be utilized Services increasingly intensive across tiers  Special educators as co-teachers in Tier 1, small-group tutors in Tier 2, etc.

9 Using CBM to Individually Tailor the Tutoring Protocol CBM incoming level/slope is used to set IEP goal. CBM is administered weekly. CBM slope is used to assess the effectiveness of varying instructional components for that student and to inductively formulate an effective, individualized program. CBM slope is used to quantify response. On the basis of slope, decisions are formulated about when to exit Tier 3. Goal is to return students to Tier 1 or Tier 2 as soon as possible, but weekly CBM continues so that re-entry to Tier 3 occurs as needed.

10 PM in Tier 3: Designing Individualized Programs Monitor adequacy of student progress and inductively design effective, individualized instructional programs Start with Tier 3 validated tutoring protocol Increase intensity Monitor progress  When adequate, maintain program (with increasing goals, as warranted)  When inadequate, experiment with new instructional component (maintain effective components; eliminate ineffective components)

11 Ongoing Progress Monitoring Example: For a third-grade student with a learning disability and an IEP math goal, curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is collected each week (e.g., 25 problems sampling the 3 rd -grade mathematics concepts and applications curriculum).

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13 Ongoing Progress Monitoring Example: For a third-grade student with a learning disability and an IEP math goal, curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is collected each week (e.g., 25 problems sampling the 3 rd -grade mathematics concepts and applications curriculum). Take baseline and set year-end goal. Draw goal line to represent performance level expected each week of the school year.

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15 Ongoing Progress Monitoring Example: For a third-grade student with a learning disability and an IEP math goal, curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is collected each week (e.g., 25 problems sampling the 3 rd -grade mathematics concepts and applications curriculum). Take baseline and set year-end goal. Draw goal line to represent performance level expected each week of the school year. Special education involves five 30- minute math tutoring sessions per week in dyads. Initial program is a validated tutoring protocol. Weekly progress monitoring continues.

16 Ongoing Progress Monitoring Example: For a third-grade student with a learning disability and an IEP math goal, curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is collected each week (e.g., 25 problems sampling the 3 rd -grade mathematics concepts and applications curriculum). Take baseline and set year-end goal. Draw goal line to represent performance level expected each week of the school year. Special education involves five 30-minute math tutoring sessions per week. Initial program is a validated tutoring protocol. Weekly progress monitoring continues. After 8 weeks, the student’s progress is evaluated against the goal line. The special educator determines whether a revision to the program is needed to boost the student’s rate of improvement. If so, an instructional feature, based on a well researched instructional principle, is added to the validated protocol.

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18 Ongoing Progress Monitoring Example: For a third-grade student with a learning disability and an IEP math goal, curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is collected each week (e.g., 25 problems sampling the 3 rd -grade mathematics concepts and applications curriculum). Take baseline and set year-end goal. Draw goal line to represent performance level expected each week of the school year. Special education involves five 30-minute tutoring sessions in dyads on calculation and word problem skills, deficit areas for the student. Initial program is a validated tutoring protocol. Weekly progress monitoring continues. After 8 weeks, the student’s progress is evaluated against the goal line. The special educator determines that a revision to the program is required to boost the student’s rate of improvement. If so, an instructional feature, based on a well researched instructional principle, is added to the validated protocol. This iterative process recurs over time so that the teacher uses the progress- monitoring data to formatively design an individualized, appropriate instruction (i.e., scientifically-based and intensive special education and related services) that addresses the general education curriculum.

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20 How Data-Based Instruction will Guide this Workshop We will be presenting the most researched RTI model. Under any model, special educators use their knowledge of data-based instruction to guide instructional planning for students who are struggling.

21 How Data-Based Instruction will Guide this Workshop We will discuss the following topics: –Reading and progress monitoring –Mathematics and progress monitoring –How data-based instruction is used to guide instructional planning and make decisions about how to increase student achievement (intervention, placement, etc.) –Responsiveness-to-intervention