Hi, DACs, Principals and Psychs.
Below is the 7th installment of "What's New in the HVED Data World." If you think
the rest of your staff would find any of the information helpful, please
forward the e-mail along to them as well.
If you have suggestions for items to include in any of these sections in future
"What's New" e-mails, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thanks. Have a great
day.
Dan
District successes to celebrate
La Crescent High School recently began using the "RtI School Readiness SelfAssessment" to evaluate the progress they have made in transitioning to an effective
RtI system and to gauge their readiness for using RtI SLD criteria. As they began to
discuss the self-assessment, they, like many other districts, found that it raised a
number of questions for them about whether their Tier I general education
curriculum was meeting the needs of a sufficient percentage (ideally 80%) of their
students--a prerequisite to using RtI criteria to identify students not responding to
intervention and eligible for SLD services. During my recent visit to their problem
solving team, they discussed a variety of different approaches they could use to build
consensus within their staff about how best to ensure that the Tier I curriculum was
meeting the needs of most students. I think this discussion and self-assessment
process La Crescent High School was undertaking provide an excellent illustration of
a number of keys to an effective transition to RtI:
1. RtI must be grounded in good general education instruction.
2. The transition to RtI is a long process.
3. Using RtI criteria for determining SLD eligibility is only one small part of the end of
that process.
One tool that could be used to monitor the degree to which the Tier I general
education curriculum is meeting the needs of most students is the iCue Personalized
Learning Profile (PLP) described below.
Data tools you can use (reprinted from 1st installment of What's New emails, with a short update--in purple at end of this section--regarding a new
PLP feature now available)
Several regular education and special education teachers and administrators have
told me during my recent trainings out in HVED districts that they see the iCue
Personalized Learning Profile (PLP) as the most user-friendly tool within the data
warehouse.
If you aren't familiar with the PLP, it not only provides a table showing individual
students' performance across the most recent administrations of several different
measures (e.g., MCA-II Math and Reading, NWEA MAP Math and Reading, AIMSweb
Oral Reading Fluency and early literacy measures) at once, but it also displays
icons for each measure that are color-coded according to the student's level of
proficiency (i.e., BLUE diamond = exceeding standards, GREEN circle = meeting
standards, YELLOW triangle = partially meeting standards, RED exclamation point =
not meeting standards).
Some districts, like Lewiston-Altura, are using this measure to help them identify
students currently in need of small-group, Tier II intervention support. For directions
on accessing the PLP, go to the hved website (www.hved.org), click on Resources,
then Data-Based Decision-Making Resources, then under "iCue Tests and
Assessments Training Materials" click on either "iCue PLP - administrators" or "iCue
PLP -teachers" depending upon your role to download the 1-page training
documents. Feel free to contact me at 507-452-1200, ext. 128, or
dan.hyson@hved.org if you have any questions or concerns.
NEW PLP FEATURE: Teachers and administrators have indicated to me as I have
trained them on using PLP that they would like additional information on students'
relative level of risk, beyond the domain (e.g., test) icon. Since the domain icon is
just based on the lowest level icon the student has earned on any measure within
the domain, a student with only one red exclamation point and a student with 5
exclamation points would both earn a domain icon of a red exclamation point. To
help further differentiate between the relative level of risk of students like these,
domain level icons are now accompanied to the right by a number called a "flag
score." The flag score is calculated by:
1. Adding 2 points to the student's flag score for each of the red exclamation points
the student has earned on any of the measures included in the domain
2. Adding 1 point for each yellow triangle the student has earned
Students with higher flag scores are then considered to be at an increased level of
risk and potentially in need of more intensive intervention.
Resource highlights from the HVED website (selectionreprinted from 5th
installment of What's New e-mails, with a short addition--in orange at the
end of this section)
REMINDER: Your problem solving teams may also (like La Crescent High School) be
interested in the problem solving resources available by going to www.hved.org,
clicking on "Resources," selecting "Responsiveness to Intervention Initiative" and
then choosing "RTI SLD Eligibility Materials." On this page, your teams will find,
among other things:
1. A document entitled "HVED Recs for Districts Transition to RtI" which outlines
HVED's recommendations for districts considering using the new RtI SLD eligibility
criteria for determining if students are eligible for Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
services.
2. Guidelines and a criteria worksheet for using the RtI criteria
3. Problem solving team forms recommended by HVED psychologists for use in the
problem solving process
4. The "RTI School Readiness Self-Assessment" La Crescent High School used in the
example cited in the District Successes to Celebrate section above.