Department of Special Education
August 3, 2010
iSTEEP Follow-up & Training
Presented by:
Raecheal Vizier, M.Ed.
Special Education Program Effectiveness Liaison
Introduction
“If You’re Riding A Horse and It Dies, Get OFF”
Why iSTEEP?
“System to Enhance Educational Performance”
1. Identify or develop practices that have scientific
merit.
2. Develop materials that make the practices "doable"
and within reach of all types of schools.
3. Provide implementation services to help schools to
use the practices with fidelity.
• Benchmarking is the Universal Screening
aspect of RTI. It allows teachers to see where
their special education students performed in
comparison to the whole school. Teachers can
assess benchmarking data three times per
year.
• Progress monitoring allows teachers to
specifically monitor students on their targeted
area of need (fluency, comprehension, etc.).
This will allow teachers to determine if
intervention is working and make adjustments
as needed.
Identifying Needs
• Universal screening will be done by the RTI
team using iSTEEP benchmarking materials for
all middle school students and all 9th grade
high school students.
• The benchmarking maze is a 3 minute timed
assessment which evaluates students reading
comprehension skills.
Identifying “At Risk” Students
• After grading the benchmarking, data will be
entered in the iSTEEP computer system. This
will be done three times per year. (fall, winter, spring)
• The iSTEEP system will determine the
placement of students in levels/zones:
– Red (frustration)- lowest performers
– Yellow (instructional)- performing at instructional
level
– Green (Mastery) performing above level
Special Education Component
• Get the school wide report identifying zones
(red, yellow, green).
• Identify where your special education
students are.
• Those who placed in the green and yellow
zone will be monitored using the iSTEEP
comprehension maze twice a month.
Progress Monitoring: Maze
• Teachers & trained paras will give the
comprehension maze to students twice a
month.
• Follow the instructions for Maze Assessment.
• It is a 3 minute timed maze (students do not
receive modifications/accommodations on
probes).
• The hard copies of all probes will be kept on
file for each student, not in the IEP folder.
Maze Continued:
• All progress monitoring data will be placed
into the iSTEEP computer system in a timely
fashion each month.
• If you determine that the student didn’t do
there best, repeat the maze (can’t do/won’t
do). Follow instructions for that process.
• Once you are finished with benchmarking and
you have determined the intervention
program, teacher, how often, and time, you
must complete the iSTEEP instructional
planning worksheet. This must be done on all
students.
Progress Monitoring: Fluency
• All red zone students will have to complete
the middle school fluency probe.
• Teachers and trained paras will have to
complete the “Finding the Reading Level” on
all students who placed in the red (frustration)
level.
• This is done one-on-one with each student.
Start at Passage 5a and go down. Remember
you must take the medium of three probes
and following the guidelines on the form.
Fluency Continued:
• Once you have completed the “Score Entry
Form Finding the Reading Level”, you have
determine the oral reading fluency level to
which probes will be done.
• You will need to complete the iSTEEP
instructional planning worksheet outlining
data, intervention program, teacher and time.
• Fluency probes will be done at least twice per
month. Each students will complete three
ORF probes and you will take the medium of
the three scores.
Fluency Continued:
• The special education mandate is to progress
monitor fluency twice a month. However, if
any student is reading at or below a 3rd grade
level, you are encouraged to progress monitor
those students weekly. You will need to
carefully monitor these students progress.
• Data will be enter into the iSTEEP computer
system in a timely fashion.
• Hard copies of progress monitoring probes will
be kept on file not in IEP folders.
Data Driven Decisions
• The iSTEEP system allows you to collect,
analyze, and print data in a timely fashion.
• Teachers should carefully monitor and assess
students’ progress monitoring data points.
• Using the data, teachers determine whether
program/strategy is working or if it needs to
be changed.
• Once a student has three data points under
the aim line, an adjustment must be made.
What do I do with data?
• Teachers are encouraged to review graphs with
students in an effort encourage them to monitor
their own progress (watch the points go up or
down).
• Teachers are encouraged to send graphs home
each nine weeks in report cards. Parents are
more likely to understand a graph then written
paperwork.
• Teachers should use graphs during IEP meetings,
re-evals, RTI meetings etc.
• All graphs and reports should be printed and
placed in the IEP folder at the end of each school
year.
For Math…
• Follow the same procedures:
– Benchmarking three times per year
– Progress monitoring twice per month
• Basic facts or mixed probes
– Input data in to iSTEEP computer system
– Print graphs as noted before
Specific to High Schools
• Benchmark 9th grade for reading and math
• Follow the same procedures as noted before.
• If students test out based on the
benchmarking, then progress monitoring
should occur through their intervention
programs.
“You Know You’re a Teacher If…”
Closure
• iSTEEP Contact Person: Specific to each school
(Literacy Coach/Interventionist)
• Questions
• Comments
“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if
you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he
will continue the learning process as long as he
lives.”
~Clay P. Bedford