Data-Based Decision Making Across Tiers

1. Data-Based Decision Making Across Tiers Rachel Minelli, Educational Diagnostician Allison Whitney, School Psychologist

2. What is Data-Based Decision Making? • Using student performance data to inform professional judgment • Student performance data: • ISAT scores and other standardized tests • Benchmarking and progress monitoring data • Grades and performance on assignments • Objective measurement of student behaviors • Others? • Individual student, classroom, and school level • Across all tiers

3. Review of the Tier System Tier III Individualized Intervention Tier II Small-Group Tier I Core Curriculum

4. Making Decisions Most of our students are not passing the ISAT Despite receiving intensive reading intervention, Sally is still not showing improvement in her reading After looking at the number of office referrals it becomes apparent that 8th grade students are engaging in bullying behavior Billy is engaging in inappropriate behaviors and does not seem to be responding to the general classroom behavior plan

5. Tier I • Types of Data • ISAT data • Benchmarking data • Office referral • Data collected by general education teacher • Questions to answer • How is each student responding to the core instruction? • How many student are at-risk for failure? • Is the current core instruction effective? • What additional instruction is necessary? • Which students may need additional assessments? • What classroom level or school-wide changes should be made?

6. (Cates & Ditkowsky, 2011)

7. Benchmarking • Compare to national norms • Compare to local norms • Predict ISAT scores • Interpretation • School • As a school, are there changes we need to make? (e.g., core curriculum, schedule) • Classroom • As a class, are there changes we need to make? (e.g., core curriculum, schedule, differential instruction) • Individual Student • Which students may need additional instruction? • Which students may need Tier II intervention? • Which students may need additional assessment? • Across all levels, are the changes we’ve made working?

8. Office Referrals • Interpretation • School • Identify specific times of the day or places in the building that are challenging • Do we need extra behavioral support? • Do we need to modify our school-wide behavior policy? • Classroom • Are specific classes having more behavioral difficulty than others? • Do we need to modify the social-emotional curriculum? Or add social-emotional curriculum? • Do we need to modify the classroom behavior plan? (e.g., Good Behavior Game) • Individual Student • Which students are having the most behavioral difficulty? • Which students may need Tier II behavioral intervention? (e.g., check-in/check-out) • Across all levels, are the changes we’ve made working?

9. Classroom Assessments • Short assessments • Administered by general education teachers • Designed to inform instruction and gain information about individual student performance

10. ExampleCORE Vocabulary Screening • Grades: 1-8 • Time: 10-20 minutes • Format: Group or Individual Sample: scream want yell hope (CORE, 2008)

11. Interpreting the Data • Norm-referenced assessments • Compare to other students’ performance • Criterion-referenced assessments • Compare to a specific standard • Example: CORE Vocabulary Screening • (CORE, 2008)

12. Tier II/III • Types of Data • ISAT data • Benchmarking data • Office referral • Teacher collected data • Observation data • Progress monitoring data • Questions to Answer • How is the student responding to the intervention? • Is additional intervention necessary? • Is special education necessary? (only Tier III level) • Has the student met his/her goals?

13. Data Collection and Interpretation • Choose a measurable behavior Reading Words Read Correctly Per Minute Behavior Number of Aggressive Behaviors Per Hour

14. As evidenced by… • Define the behavior in an objective way “As evidenced by…” Aggressive Behavior kicking, spitting, hitting, biting, shoving, grabbing, throwing objects; behavior is directed towards another individual

15. Data Collection and Interpretation • Data collection should be at least weekly • Collect at least 6 data points before making any decisions about intervention effectiveness or changing the intervention Note: If data are collected weekly, then an intervention should be in place at least 6 weeks before making any changes • Graph the data!

16. Example Graph

17. Visual Inspection • Variability • Level • Trend (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007)

18. Variability • Baseline: High • Intervention: Low Baseline Intervention

19. Level • Baseline: Lower • Intervention: Higher Intervention Baseline

20. Trend • Baseline: Flat • Intervention: Increasing Baseline

21. Aimline

22. Let’s Graph!

23. References Cates, G. L., and Ditkowsky,B. (2011). Best practices in data-based decision making within an RTI model. Illinois School Psychology Association Conference. Peoria, IL. Consortium on Reading Excellence (CORE) (2008). Assessing reading: Multiple measures for kindergarten through twelfth grade (2nd ed.). Novato, CA: Arena Press. Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., and Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Merril.