Progress Monitoring and Goal Writing

1. Section 2: Curriculum-Based Measurement and Writing Individualized RTI or IEP Goals. Progress Monitoring and Goal Writing

2. Progress Monitoring Research has demonstrated that when teachers use formative evaluation [progress monitoring]for instructional decision-making purposes: • students achieve more • teacher decision making improves • students tend to be more aware of their performance (e.g., see Fuchs, Deno, Mirkin, 1984; L. S. Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, & Ferguson, 1992; L. S. Fuchs, Fuchs, Hamlett, & Stecker, 1991; Stecker, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2005)

3. Progress Monitoring Tools • Used to monitor progress from one year to the next • Sensitive to effects of an intervention • Can be used regardless of curriculum (e.g. Harcourt, Scott Foresman) • Useful to inform teaching • Quick to administer & easy to score • Provides instant data to graph • Easily understood by teachers and parents

4. What is CBM? • Curriculum-based measurement, or CBM, is a method of monitoring student progress through direct assessment of academic skills. • CBM can be used to measure basic skills in reading, mathematics, spelling, and written expression. • Instructor gives the student brief, timed samples, or "probes," made up of academic material taken from grade-level curriculum. • Performance on a CBM probe is scored for speed, or fluency, and for accuracy of performance.

5. CBM covers… • Reading (Early Literacy skills, Reading Fluency and Comprehension) • Math (Early Numeracy skills, Math Computation/ Basic Math facts) • Writing (Spelling and Written Expression) • Probes contain a mixture of problems that represent skills to be mastered by the end of the year • NOT like traditional mastery/chapter tests

6. Previous Goal-Setting Strategies: • Use “data” from standardized achievement tests like WIAT-II, WJ-III ACH • Use data from Mastery Tests (e.g. chapter tests) • Refer to state standards • Use a sample goal-bank • Suggestions on classroom observation of skills (subjective)

7. Pitfalls of Previous Strategies • Standardized Tests (WIAT-II, WJ-ACH): • Lack of alternate forms • Less sensitive to short-term gains • Reliance on age or grade equivalents ≠ accurate • Ex. Students with 1 year delay typically not considered “significantly discrepant” from their peers, and may not qualify for special education. • Mastery tests do not reflect maintenance or generalization of skills over the course of the school year • Little guidance in selecting goals from state standards/ goal-banks: • No consistent evaluation tool to measure goals written from standards or goal banks!

8. Pitfalls, continued… • Examples of Previous Goals/Objectives: • “Student will perform spelling skills at 3rd grade level.” • “Student will master basic math facts with 80% accuracy.” • “Student will read 1 story per week.” • “Student will read aloud with 80% accuracy and 80% comprehension.” • Little research supports that these types of goals relate to improved educational outcomes. • Difficult to consistently measure over time. • Tendency to write un-ambitious goals in hopes that student will show “some” progress over the year.

9. To improve our goal writing: • Remember: goals are statements about the power or impact of our instructional programs. • Goals need to be more clearly defined. • Identify specific skills deficits through universal screening measures using CBM. • Target a few, but important goals and objectives. • Ensure goals are measurable and linked to validated progress monitoring approaches.

10. CBM to write IEP and RTI goals • CBM scores from Universal Screenings are easily translated into goals for RTI intervention and IEPs. • Using CBM to write goals lets us accurately compare performance later in the year because: • Test administration of CBM is consistent (and quick!) • Scoring procedures are consistent • Difficulty level of test is always consistent

11. RTI: Who needs a goal? • A desirable goal for all students is to achieve a score at or above the 50th%ile on the Universal Screenings (Fall/Winter/ Spring). • WOVSED recommends that students below the 25th%ile are considered “At-Risk.” • Use AIMSweb site to schedule PM. • Students who perform in between the 25th and 50th%iles may need “Strategic Monitoring.” • Consider monitoring these students, just less often. • Option to do this through AIMSweb site.

12. 75-80% of students Progress Monitoring (< 25th%ile) (Every two weeks or weekly) Strategic Monitoring (25th-50th%ile) (Monthly) Universal Screening (Three times per year) Level of Intervention and Monitoring Frequency Tier 3 Tier 2 Tier 1

13. Components of our Goals • Current/Present Level of Performance • What the student is currently able to do in the targeted area. • Taken from Fall, Winter, Spring Universal Screenings • Works with whatever CBM tool you are using (DIBELS/AIMSweb, etc). • Intervention Goal/Annual Goals and Objectives • Growth anticipated for specific time period • Should be ambitious • Must be specific • Must be measurable

14. Example of Current Levels Statement Student’s Score 50th %ile score

15. IEPs: Annual Goals • CBM probes represent a range of skills to be mastered by the end of the year. • CBM-based annual goals are easily understood by parents.

16. Annual Goal-Line X

17. Not at Grade Level? Universal screening data does not always reflect accurate measurement of skills. In some cases, Universal Screening data show that grade-level passages are too frustrating for some students. What do we do to get a better understanding of a student’s current performance level?

18. Survey Level Assessment (SLA) • Process to determine Current Performance Levels when student is not working at grade level. • Can be used for RTI or IEP purposes. • Student is tested in successive levels, beginning with current grade placement, until he/she scores anywhere within the “Average range.” • Create SLA table, using Aggregate Norm Tables. Find score at or above the 25th%ile for the particular grade and time of year. • Scoring anywhere within the “Green” on AIMSweb Individual or Comparison reports.

19. Create Survey Level Assessment Table • Sally is a 4th grade student who was tested in the Fall. • Use AIMSweb Aggregate Growth Tables (next slide). *Using Survey Level Assessment, Sally’s performance is Average given a 3rd grade AIMSWEB R-CBM probe (Fall).

21. Third Quartile (50th- 74th %ile) Median or Middle Score First Quartile (0-24th%ile) Using AIMSweb Individual or Comparison Reports: Box Plots Fourth Quartile (75th – 100th%ile) ¼ of scores Above Average ¼ of scores Average Second Quartile (25th-49th %ile) ¼ of scores ¼ of scores Below Average

22. John5th grader:5th grade passage 26/12 John3rd grade passage62/4 John4th grade passage49/7 Conducting a Survey Level Assessment

23. Guidelines for administering SLA probes • Administer probes from successive grade-levels, beginning at the student’s current grade placement or one year above the student’s functioning level. • Reading-CBM: Use median score of 3 probes. • Rule of Thumb on R-CBM: If WRC is 20 or fewer, stop administering probes on this level and move one level below. • (For middle/high school students, suggested starting point is 6th grade passages. Survey levels higher or lower as needed).

24. Creating the Goal: 5-Steps • Step 1. Document Current/Present Levels of Performance: “Sally’s Current Performance on a 4th grade AIMSweb R-CBM probe is 51 Words Read Correctly, while the expected performance level is 103 Words Read Correctly (50th%ile Target).” “Using Survey Level Assessment, Sally’s performance is Average for Fall when given a 3rd Grade AIMSweb R-CBM probe.”

25. Creating the Goal • Step 2. Decide how you will determine the desired goal level. • Two options: • Use Benchmark scores • Compared to School/District • Relate to High-Stakes Tests • Use Norms • Percentile (and associated score) • Growth Rates/ Rates of Improvement (ROI)

26. Benchmark: Options • Benchmark for success on some outcome measure, (ex. 71 WRC/min.) Correlates from high-stakes testing.

27. Norms • Percentiles and corresponding score: • Students at the 25th%ile (lower end of the Average range) read 81WRC/min. 81WRC/min

28. Growth Rates (Rate of Improvement/ ROI) • How much growth students make in a week’s time. (ROI for students whose scores are entered into AIMSweb) • Formula to determine how much growth you would like to see in a specific amount of time. *Goal = ________________________________ + Current Performance Level (___________________ X ____________________) # weeks until goal reviewed Growth Rate (use chart)

29. Growth Rates (Rate of Improvement) Ex. 3rd grader Ben’s median R-CBM score = 35. • 12 weeks until the end of the school year. • Team would like to see Ben make progress at a similar rate to his peers (1.0 words/week). 35WRC/min+ (12wks x 1.0) = 47WRC/min This is the goal by the end of the year!

30. Benchmark, Norm or Growth Rate? • Are you more concerned with a specific outcome (i.e. on high-stakes tests), or how one student performs compared to a population of others (local or national?) • Are you working with a student with a well-documented learning style? • Using the Rate of Improvement is not always ambitious: • Based on progress made by students in general ed. classroom who are NOT receiving additional intervention. • Point of RTI is to help kids catch up • ROI will never be help students catch up because they will be learning at the same pace as students receiving no intervention; students receiving intervention need to learn at a faster pace.

31. Setting the Goal Level • Step 3. Team decides what an appropriate goal will be! • Be ambitious! Select the level that you want to see the student achieve within a specific amount of time. • Research has shown that ambitious goals can lead to better student achievement: • How ambitious you are should depend on: • How often you can feasibly provide services • How confident you are in the power of your instructional programs and resources

32. Selecting Length of Time • Step 4: Team must determine how much time to allow until the goal can be feasibly reached. • RTI goals written to reflect length of intervention: • Depends on how long interventionist needs to effectively teach skill. • Individualized based on student need. • Depends on how often you will progress monitor. • Need 7-9 data points to plot a trend-line. • IEPs: • Will have an annual goal (apx. 36 weeks) and short-term objectives.

33. Suggestions for Writing Objectives Annual goal - Minus current performance / Divided by number of weeks between baseline and goal = Short term / Weekly objective.

34. Writing the Goal • Step 5: Write goal into a standard format. • Same/similar format can be used for RTI/IEP goals. • Facilitates process of goal-writing. • Easily understood by general, special and remedial teachers. • Can be used for any deficit area pertinent to a Specific Learning Disability • Basic reading, reading fluency, reading comprehension, math calculation, math reasoning, written expression.

35. Sample RTI Goal Written w/AIMSwebEarly Literacy Goal (Kindergartener) Current Performance:Lizzie’s current level of performance on a Kindergarten AIMSweb LSF probe is 2 Letter Sounds/min, while the expected level of performance is 14 correct Letter Sounds for Fall. Goal:At the end of 8 weeks, when given a K AIMSweb LSF probe, Lizzie will say Correct Letter Sounds with an expected performance level of 22 LS/min.

36. IEP Goal Written with AIMSweb Basic Reading Skills Goal (Second Grader) Current Performance Level: Terrance’s current level of performance when given an AIMSweb 2nd Grade R-CBM probe is 40 WRC/min, while the expected level of performance is 82 WRC/min, (50th%ile target). Goal: In 30 weeks, when given an AIMSweb 2nd Grade R-CBM probe, Terrence will achieve a median score of 100 WRC/min with less than 4 errors. Objective: Each week, when given an AIMSweb 2nd Grade R-CBM (Reading Fluency) probe, Terrence will increase his score by 2 Words Read Correctly.