Grade Level Meetings: Combining an Academic and Behavioral Focus

1. Grade Level Meetings: Combining an Academic and Behavioral Focus Kim St. Martin MiBLSi State Conference April 22, 2008

2. Purpose • The purpose of grade level meetings is to have grade level colleagues analyze grade level, classroom, and individual student data. • Colleagues assume collective ownership for the successes and shortcomings of student performance within the grade level. • Colleagues identify strengths, areas of weakness, in the academic and behavior arenas and strategize ways to improve student outcomes.

3. “Members of a professional learning community recognize they cannot accomplish their fundamental purpose of high levels of learning for all students unless they work together collaboratively. The collaborative team is the fundamental building block of a professional learning community (PLC).” (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, and Many, 2006)

4. Essential Questions • What is it we want our students to learn? • How will we know if each student has learned the content? • What will we do when some students have not learned the content? • How can we extend and enrich the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency?

5. Expectations of a Collaborative Team • Norms: agreements and commitments • Agenda: roles and responsibilities • Goals: be SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, realistic, timely) • Data: used for decision making • Action Plan: written, reviewed, and revised

6. Types of Meetings • Benchmark: meetings that occur following fall, winter, and spring DIBELS assessment windows; or following unit assessments (i.e. math, science, social studies, writing) • Progress Monitoring: meetings that occur in 4-8 week intervals Data is used to guide the conversation at each type of meeting.

7. It wouldn’t be a meeting without….DATA!

8. Using Data to Make DecisionsAcademically and Behaviorally

9. Considerations before report generation • Are the results reliable and valid • Teacher inspection • Retest if necessary

10. Data Interpretation at the School Level

11. Guiding Questions • What is your data telling you? • Are there any recognizable patterns or trends over time? • Is there an upward trend? If so, is the rate adequate to meet the goal? • Celebrations? • Support?

12. Data Interpretation at the Grade Level

13. Guiding Questions • Is the core program maintaining or accelerating skills for your student scoring at or above grade level? (core program for the behavior component is the school-wide or class-wide PBS) • Does supplemental instruction exist for students who are not on track? • Is it targeted, specific to student needs, and intensive? • Is the supplemental instruction bringing kids up to grade level academically and helping to extinguish undesirable behaviors and build skills for desired behaviors?

14. Data Interpretation at the Individual Student Level

15. Guiding Questions • Are all students who perform below grade level “at-risk” being progress monitored? • Are students grouped for instruction to meet specific skill deficits? • Is data being used to make instructional and behavioral decisions? • Are adjustments occurring on an on-going basis?

16. Data Decision-Making Rules • When analyzing student data ask yourself the following: • Are there three consecutive data points below the student’s aimline? • Is there an upward trend? • Are the data points hovering at or above the aimline?

17. Thinking about Literacy and Behavior in the Same Way • Literacy: example-reading is the observable behavior being monitored (correct words per minute) • Behavior: example-social behavior (i.e. asking appropriately for items) is the behavior being monitored • attend to time times the child asks appropriately for items: attention to positives or • attend to the times the child asks inappropriately for items: attention to negative

18. Thinking about Literacy and Behavior in the Same Way • 90-30-30: • Some students perform adequately with only core instruction (schoolwide PBS, defining and teaching behaviors) This would be similar to the 90 minute block • Some students need an additional 30 minutes opportunity outside of the “core” instruction to learn the behavioral skill (re-teach, acknowledge, monitor, correct) • Some need 30 + 30 minutes to learn the behavioral skill where they have opportunities to respond to the instruction and receive feedback

19. Benchmark Meetings • Academic: • Provide global view of schoolwide literacy program (data drives the conversation) • Ensure critical skills are appropriately taught during the appropriate times • Identify “gaps” in curriculum • Action plan ways to bridge the gaps • Group students according to instructional need

20. Benchmark Meetings • Behavior: • Provide global view of grade level behavior data (SWIS) • Identify areas of support to improve grade level behaviors in classroom and non-classroom settings • Define, Teach, Monitor, Acknowledge, Correct • Group students according to behavioral needs Remember: Students are grouped for targeted interventions. The behaviors we are talking about are not the ‘tip of the triangle’ behaviors!

21. Grouping Students for Behavioral Interventions • Quick-Sort Tool: • Behavior Specialist (counselor, social worker, and/or interventionist) lists students who have 2-5 major office discipline referrals on page 1 of the Quicksort Tool. • It is important to identify behavior interventions readily available to the school (tool-kit) • Behavior Specialist and Principal discuss the student needs and potential behavior interventions • Are there resources needed? • Is scheduling going to be problematic?

22. Grouping Students for Behavioral Interventions • The behavioral specialist reviews the SWIS individual student reports ahead of time to try to provide answers for the following things: • operationally defined behavior: a behavior that is observable, describable, and measurable • skill or performance deficit: can’t do-won’t do • function of the behavior: reason, purpose, what are they trying to gain or avoid

23. Grouping Students for Behavioral Interventions • Teacher input is necessary! • Time constraints force the Behavior Specialist to try to have as much information completed on the Quick-Sort tool as possible prior to meeting. • The goal is NOT to dwell on individual student behaviors but to: • Operationally define the behavior • Determine the function of the behavior • (These things can be done quickly with some practice!)

24. Progress Monitoring Meetings • Academic: • Purpose: • To use data based decision making rules to determine the effectiveness of the core, supplemental, and intensive programs for individual student • Celebrate students who are exiting the risk categories (intensive, strategic) • Adjust the instructional plans for students who are not making progress

25. Progress Monitoring Meetings • Best Practices: • Data-based decision making rules • Calculating student’s rate of growth • Adjusting interventions as needed • Noting the changes in interventions with a “phase line”

26. Progress Monitoring Behavioral Interventions • How do we progress monitor behavior interventions? • The goal is to identify an observable behavior and then figure out a way to measure whether the observable behavior is staying the same or decreasing.

27. Progress Monitoring Behavior Interventions • Measuring Behaviors: • Behavior Education Program (BEP) student data • Tally marks • Masking tape on hand to write tally marks • Rubber bands or paper clips to count number of times the behavior being counted occurs • Electronic Daily Behavior Report Cards: Behavioral Progress Monitoring and Response to Intervention (E-DBRC)

28. Goal-setting Be SMART

29. The Value of Teacher-Generated Goals OWNERSHIP!

30. SMART Goals • Specific – clearly defined • Measureable – tied to student learning/behavior data • Attainable – important to you • Realistic – willing and able to do but still challenging • Timely – set specific time frame

31. Action Planning: Where the Rubber Hits the Road

32. Essential Elements of Action Plans • Identify the goal (how much, how well, & by when) • What actions need to be done to accomplish the goal? • Who will be responsible for the action items? • What is the timeline for completing the action item? • What resources are necessary?

33. Final Thoughts • What do you do when no one knows what to do? • Knowledge issue • Seek info, set timelines, try something • What do you do when one or a few people refuse to do? • Belief or attitude issue • Go back to whole-staff consensus, establish behavioral expectations • What do you do when many people refuse to do? • Community issue • Stop and process as whole staff

34. Final Thoughts • How do schools have the time to manage academic and behavior grade level meetings during one meeting? • There is no one-size fits all approach! • The meetings can be conducted separately but some kids may fall through the cracks (i.e. kids who fall in the “academic” are of the Quick-Sort Tool • Common planning time

35. Questions? Do not hesitate to ask! Kim St. Martin, MiBLSi Regional Coordinator-Kalamazoo-RESA kstmarti@kresanet.org