Special Education Referral and Evaluation Report Oregon RTI Project Sustaining Districts Trainings

Review of the RTI Process All students are screened The most in need are placed into group interventions and progress monitored The RTI grade level team meets and reviews students progress using district decision rules – Changes to interventions are made when students do not make sufficient progress

Review of the RTI Process Following district guidelines data are gathered to develop an individualized intervention – typically after two interventions The RTI team meets to determine if the student made sufficient progress – If student does not make sufficient progress the RTI team makes a special education referral

Daisy participates in the general curriculum with strong instruction Screening data shows Daisy isn’t doing well Second Group Intervention EBIS Team designs individualized intervention Exit intervention? Daisy doesn’t improve Daisy improves Daisy doesn’t improve Daisy improves Intervention is intense and LD is suspected Improvement is good and other factors are suspected as cause Special Education referral is initiated Team reviews screening data and places Daisy in group intervention Parents Notified How RTI Works from a Student’s Perspective

Special Education Process Referral Evaluation Planning Meeting Eligibility Determination Meeting

What should be included in the referral? The information gathered from the problem solving meeting – File review – Student Intervention Profile – Developmental history – Recent progress monitoring data – ELL information – Data comparing student to intervention cohort – Diagnostic data if needed – Hypothesis worksheet Completed special education referral

What do you do after you receive the referral? Review referral data to determine what other information is needed to complete the SLD Eligibility Form – Low skills – Slow progress – Documentation of interventions – Observation of student in general education setting – Information about Exclusionary Factors Set date and notify parents about the Evaluation Planning Meeting

Evaluation Planning Meeting Conduct Evaluation Planning Meeting – Determine if you need to evaluate Do you need any additional information? Is the student exhibiting low skills and slow progress across data sources? – Determine and document what additional information you need as a team (Permission to Evaluate Form) – Get parent permission to evaluate in the areas you determined – Provide care giver with Parents Rights brochure

How do you know if a student is SLD? Low achievement and Slow Progress (despite intensive interventions) are the foundation for determining SLD eligibility using RTI. Low achievement and Slow Progress (despite intensive interventions) are the foundation for determining SLD eligibility using RTI. Also must consider Instructional Need. Also must consider Instructional Need.

Data indicating the student has significantly low skills as compared to research-based norms and benchmarks. Determining if the student has low skills: State SLD Eligibility Form

Low skills – CBM: DIBELS, AIMSweb, easyCBM What is the student’s current performance? Where should the student be at for the grade level? (norm or benchmark) – State Testing: OAKS What is the student’s percentile? – Achievement Tests: WIAT-2, WJ-III What is the student’s standard score and percentile?

How Low is Low? General Guidelines (district determines guidelines) – CBMs Intensive range Below the 16 th percentile More than 2 times discrepant – OAKS Below the 16 th percentile – Achievement Tests Below the 16 th percentile

What if the data are mixed? CBM data: indicate intensive range AND OAKS data: indicate average range What data do you place more emphasis on? – CBM data – Look at in program assessments too

Example Harry (2 nd grader) is currently reading a median of 44 words correct per minute (wcpm) (12 th percentile) with 89% accuracy when given 2 nd grade level text. He also answers an average of 3/10 comp questions correct on weekly in- class tests. 2 nd grade students in his school are reading an average of 85 wcpm on 2 nd grade text and answering 9/10 comp questions correct. Non-Example Harry struggles with being a fluent reader and is not meeting the 2 nd grade reading benchmark. He makes a lot of mistakes and is currently reading at a 1 st grade level. He also has difficulties answering comprehension questions at grade level. Describing low skills in your evaluation report

Data indicating the student has not made significant progress to close their achievement gap… Determining if a student is making slow progress: State SLD Eligibility Form: Slow Progress…

Data indicating the student has not made significant progress to close his/her achievement gap… – Decision rule about points below the aimline Typically 4 data points below the aimline Trendline – What is adequate growth? National growth rates Cohort growth rates What is slow progress?

How slow is slow? Student data below the aimline Or Student’s growth rate is far below the expected growth rate

National Growth Rates GradeRealisticAmbitious 12.0 words/week3.0 words/week 21.5 words/week2.0 words/week 31.0 words/week1.5 words/week 4.85 words/week1.1 words/week 5.50 words/week.80 words/week Source: Fuchs et al, (1993)

Example of Slow Progress 3 rd grade student Fall benchmark: 42 wcpm Winter benchmark: 47 wcpm 3 rd grade expected growth per week: rd grade ambitious growth per week: 1.5

20 Aimline Amy Chase Mary Isaiah Cohort Data

21 Aimline Amy Mary Isaiah Cohort Data Chase

Evaluation Report includes the following: Slow Progress Progress monitoring data – Chart and graph Comparison of the expected rate of progress Interventions provided – In conjunction with the progress monitoring data

Data indicating the student has an instructional need for special education services (included description of needed instructional supports) Determining Instructional Need:

How you determine instructional need? – It comes down to the balance: How does the weight of the intervention compare to the rate of progress?

Data indicating the student has an instructional need for special education services (included description of needed instructional supports) – Student has been provided with an explicit research based intervention – Student has made limited progress despite receiving the intervention Evaluation report includes the following: Instructional Need

3rd grader The level Rita Fall Screening: ORF 40 (75% accuracy) Fall Benchmark: 77 Curriculum assessment Weekly tests: Average 3/10 on in program assessments OAKS: 200 (11 th percentile) Are her skills low? Rita is placed into an intervention – What is her primary skill need? Phonics – Protocol shows 3 rd grade choices: Phonics for Reading Reading Mastery Read Naturally Triumphs – Which intervention would you choose? – Time: 30 minutes in addition to core programming Rita

Intervention review – October Progress monitoring data – ORF 38 (86%), 38 (85%), 39 (88%), 37 (85%) – 4 data points below the aimline – Rita’s weekly gain: 0 wpm – Typical weekly gain: 1.0 wpm Winter benchmark: 92 Are her skills low? Is her progress slow? Rita

Rita Phonics for Reading

Rita October: Change of intervention – Reading Mastery 30 minutes during intervention Group size: 6

Intervention review – November Progress monitoring data – ORF: 37 (95%), 39 (93%), 37 (96%), 39 (94%) – 4 data points below the aimline – Rita’s gain:.5 wpm per week – Typical gain: 1.0 wpm per week Winter benchmark: 92 Are her skills low? Is her progress slow? Rita

Rita Phonics for Reading RM

Rita November: Change of intervention – Reading Mastery 45 minutes during intervention – Group Size: 3

Intervention review – December Progress monitoring data – ORF: 37 (97%), 40 (98%), 38 (98%), 36 (97%) – 4 data points below the aimline – Weekly gain: 0 wpm – Typical gain: 1.0 wpm Winter benchmark: 92 Are her skills low? Is her progress slow? Reading Mastery assessments – Passing checkouts OAKS: – 30 th percentile Does Rita appear to have an instructional need? What should we do for Rita? Rita

Rita Phonics for Reading RM 30 minutes RM 45 minutes

2 nd grader Benchmark Testing: Sept: ORF 22 (accuracy 87%) Benchmark: 44 Curriculum Assessment: – Weekly tests: average scores of 4 out of 10 Are his skills low? Briar placed into an intervention – What is his primary skill need? Phonics – Protocol shows 2 nd grade choices: Reading Mastery Triumphs – Which intervention would you choose? – Time: 30 minutes Briar

Intervention review – October Progress monitoring data – ORF 22 (83%), 19 (86%), 20 (84%), 25 (86%) – 4 data points below the aimline – Briar weekly gain:.75 wpm – Typical gain: 1.5 wpm per week Winter benchmark – 68 ORF Are his skills low? Is his progress slow? Briar

RM Briar

Briar October: Change of intervention – Reading Mastery 30 minutes during core – Reading Mastery 30 minutes during intervention

Intervention Review – November Progress monitoring data – ORF 29 (97%), 32 (98%), 29 (97%), 32 (98%), 40 (98%), 38 (97%), 40 (99%), 38 (99%) – 7 data points around the aimline – Weekly gain: 1.3 per week – Typical gain: 1.5 per week Winter benchmark – 68 ORF Are his skills low? Is his progress slow? In Program assessments – Reading Mastery checkouts: passing Does Briar appear to have an instructional need? Do you change the intervention? Briar

RN 30 minRM 60 minutes Briar

An observation of the child’s academic performance and behavior in a regular education setting (related to the area of concern) Evaluation report includes the following: Observation State SLD Eligibility Form

An observation of the child’s academic performance and behavior in a regular education setting (related to the area of concern) What observational data do you have that can help instructional planning? – Opportunities to Respond – Correct Academic Responding – Student Engagement (On-Task vs. Off-Task) – Comparison to classroom peers What is the focus of the observation?:

Data indicating exclusionary factors (language, health, another disability, lack of instruction etc) are not the primary cause of the student’s learning deficit Evaluation report includes the following:

How do you determine if there is a lack of appropriate instruction? Attendance Instruction Remember……Less than 80% proficient should not prevent you from determining a child’s academic deficits are due to lack of instruction. Examine classroom instruction – Are students engaged in the instruction? – Is the student engaged in the instruction? – Is it explicit enough?