Indiana's Response to Intervention Academy - Center of Excellence ...

2009 CELL Futures Conference 

November 2009 

Leah Nellis, Ph.D. 

Associate Professor, School Psychology 

Director, Blumberg Center 

Bayh College of Education 

Indiana State University 

leah.nellis@indstate.edu

“Without data, 

you are just another person 

with an opinion.” 

Boeing Aircraft Company

Essential Components of RTI 

� Scientifically-based, effective core curriculum and 

instruction, 

� Continuum of intervention that align with student 

need, 

� System of assessment that supports monitoring 

progress over time, 

� Data-based decision making. 

3

What is a “system” of Assessment 

� Includes multiple measures or assessment tools, 

� Various purposes of assessment are addressed, 

� Measures or tools are appropriate for a particular 

purpose, 

� Measures are administered in a way that yields valid 

data, 

� Users (teachers, school/district administrators, 

student services staff, families, students) of the data 

understand and can apply the information. 

4

Multiple Measures: 

Recommended and Required 

� National Council on Measurement in Education’s 

(1995) Code of Professional Responsibilities in 

Educational Measurement (section 6.7) 

� AERA, APA, NCME’s Standards for Educational and 

Psychological Testing (Standard 13.7) 

� Title I of the 1994 Improving America’s Schools Act 

� No Child Left Behind 

5

Multiple Measures… 

� Provide a more complete and valid picture of the 

knowledge, skill, or performance construct being 

measured (construct validity). 

� Improves the quality of the decisions we make. 

� Brookhart, S. (2009). The many meanings of “multiple 

measures”. Educational Leadership, 67(3), 7-12. 

6

Levels (frequency) of Assessments 

� Formative assessments are conducted on a regular and 

ongoing basis to assess learning and identify the next 

instructional step. They occur during learning, to inform 

instruction. 

� Interim assessments are administered on a regular, 

preplanned schedule to assess student progress on 

common standards or benchmarks that students must 

master to be on tract to reach end of the year goals. 

� Summative assessments are conducted at the end of a 

learning period (e.g., year, semester, unit/course) and 

summarize the learning that has taken place. These 

assessments occur after learning, as a comparison to 

expected levels/goals of performance. 

Stiggins, Chappuis, & Chappuis (2006) 

7

Huebner, 2009 

8

Purposes of Assessment 

Screening Assessments: Assessments used to determine if 

students are meeting grade level expectations and which 

students may be at risk. 

Diagnostic Assessments: Assessment conducted for 

students identified as at-risk to gain more in-depth analysis 

of a student’s strengths and areas of need. These 

assessments help target instruction and intervention. 

Progress Monitoring Assessments: Assessment conducted 

frequently to estimate rates of student improvement, 

determine if adequate progress is being made, and evaluate 

the effectiveness of instruction and intervention strategies. 

Entitlement Assessment: Assessment used to aid in the 

determination of entitlement to special services. 

9

� Two critical functions/purposes for assessment data in 

RTI. 

� Universal Screening 

� Progress Monitoring 

10

Universal Screening: 

Definition and Purpose 

� Definition: Universal screening is the administration 

of an assessment to all students in the classroom, 

grade, school or district. 

� Frequency: 2-3 times a year 

� Purpose: To determine which students may be 

struggling with certain skills (e.g., phonological 

awareness or reading fluency) 

Adapted from 

http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/rti02_assessment/cresource.htm

Benefits of universal screening 

� Global indicators of the overall academic or behavioral 

“health” of a system and the individuals within the 

system 

� % at risk, % some risk, % low risk 

� Helps identify prevalence and severity of problems so 

resources can be applied efficiently 

� Allows personnel to make judgments about 

effectiveness of supports provided and need for adding 

or reducing supports 

Ikeda, Neesen, & Witt, 2008

Helps Answer Questions such as…. 

� How is each student responding to instruction? 

� How many students are at risk for failure? 

� Is the current core instruction effective? 

� Which students may need additional assessment? 

� What levels of resource support might be needed to 

promote desired (criterion-level) performance? 


Progress Monitoring: 

Definition and Purpose 

� Definition: Progress Monitoring is the 

administration of an assessment to some students in 

the classroom, grade, school or district. 

� Frequency: Usually every week, but at least every 

month 

� Purpose: To determine which students respond to 

intervention and which students are in need of more 

intensive supports 

Adapted from 

http://www.rtinetwork.org/Essential/Assessment/Progress/ar/MutlilevelPrevention

Benefits of Progress Monitoring 

� Accelerates learning because students are receiving 

more appropriate instruction 

� Allows for more informed instructional decisions 

� Documents student progress for accountability 

purposes 

� Yields more efficient communication with families and 

other professionals about students’ progress 

� Promotes higher expectations for students by teachers 

� Leads to more accurate Special Education referrals 

http://www.studentprogress.org/progresmon.asp#3

Helps Answer Questions such as… 

� Is this group of students making adequate progress? 

� Is this student making adequate progress? 

� Is the intervention targeting the correct skills? 

� What else is needed to support this student’s progress 

and growth? 

16

Tier 3: 

• Twice a month to 

once a week 

Tier 2: 

• Monthly to 

twice a month 

Tier I: 

• 2-3 times a year 

Intense, 

Individualized 

Support 

Targeted, Supplemental 

Supports 

Core Curriculum, Instruction, and Learning 

Environment

School Options Regarding Assessment 

� Selection of the assessment instruments 

� Frequency of the assessments 

� Recommendations offered in research 

� Criteria used to determine which students are in need 

of intervention 

Adapted from 


Regardless of the school or district's plan for 

implementing a universal screening and 

progress monitoring process, the school's 

resources need to be organized so students 

who are struggling can be identified and can 

receive the services they need in order to be 

successful. 


Selecting Students in Need of Tier 2 

Intervention 

� Use universal screening data to identify the lowest 

performing students in a class or grade level, 

� Confirm using other measures – teacher observation, 

other assessment data, short term progress 

monitoring, 

� Determine intervention needs – focus and 

intensity. 

Adapted from 


Note: When determining who struggles 

� If the standard is set too high, students who do not 

need intervention may be identified, and the school's 

resources could be strained because too many students 

are receiving intensive, expensive services that they do 

not need. 

� On the other hand, if the standard is set too low, 

students who are struggling may not receive needed 

intervention. 

Adapted from 


Using Data to Determine Progress 

� Not adequately 

responding to 

instruction or 

intervention 

� Different or more 

intense intervention is 

needed 

Adapted from 


Using Data to Determine Progress 

� Benefiting from 

instruction or 

intervention 

� No instructional 

changes required 

Adapted from 


Using Student Progress Data 

� Important to consider the appropriateness of the 

assessment tool, technical properties, culturally and 

linguistically appropriate 

� Important to consider the similarities and/or 

differences between individual students and group 

data 

24

Decision Rules within RTI 

� Decision rules specify how school teams will decide 

whether “adequate” progress has been made. Requires 

a goal and student progress data. 

� Zirkel (2008) and Martin (2009) emphasize the 

importance of determining decision rules (e.g., “what 

will adequate progress look like”) prior to beginning 

interventions. 

� As decisions become more “high-stakes”, more 

sophisticated and valid decision rules should be utilized 

(Hixson, Christ, & Bradley-Johnson, 2008). 

25

Decision Rules Across Tiers 

Tier 3 •Progress monitoring twice 

monthly, at minimum 

Amount of Data Decision Rule 

Tier 2 •Progress monitoring monthly, 

at minimum 

Tier 1 •Progress monitoring 3-4 

times/year 

•Trend AND Level; Dual Discrepancy 

•Trend, using visual analysis and 

4-point data rule 

•Level of performance in comparison to 

benchmarks 

•Summary of effectiveness for 

aggregate data 

26

Interpreting Progress Data 

� Analysis of level (average performance) 

� Insufficient, especially when there’s substantial change or trend 

� Analysis of trend (pattern of change over time) 

� Visual analysis of student progress in relationship to goal line 

� useful when change is obvious 

� Calculate slope or rate of improvement (ROI) and compare to norms 

� improved decision making when sufficient data 

� Analysis of trend and level (dual discrepancy) 

� Combination of the above WITH pre-determined criteria specified 

� Provides a more comprehensive approach to data analysis 

27

120 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 

Willy 42 43 44 44 45 52 53 56 61 62 66 71 75 78 80 82 

Willy 

Level: 

Willy’s ROI = 2.5 

Expected ROI = .90 

GOAL 77 110 

28

120 

100 

80 

60 

40 

20 

0 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 

Wayne 42 43 43 44 45 46 47 47 47 48 49 49 49 49 50 50 

Wayne 

Latest score of 50 at 25 th PR, (Benchmark 66) 

Wayne’s ROI = .50 

Expected ROI=.90 

GOAL 77 110 

29

For data analysis techniques to be valuable to educators, 

the techniques must enhance the chance that educators 

gain insight into student performance and that they 

translate this insight into improved educational 

experiences for children.

Resources for Summarizing and Using 

School Data 

� School Data Tutorials, web-based resource from the 

Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership 

in Education (CASTLE), University Council for 

Educational Administration at the University of 

Minnesota. http://www.schooldatatutorials.org 

� IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University, training modules 

and tools. http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/index.html

Resources for Summarizing and Using 

School Data 

� ChartDog; available from Intervention Central at 

http://www.interventioncentral.org/ 

� Variety of excel documents for graphing and summarizing 

data; available from Measured Effects at 

http://www.measuredeffects.com/index.php?id=23 

� Easy CBM; available at http://www.easycbm.com/ 

� Data Management and Graphing Excel tool; available at 

http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/rti04_alltogether/rti04_02 

_link_elements.html

Resources for Academic Assessments 

� National RTI Center, www.rti4success.org, 

Tools/Interventions Tab 

� National Center on Student Progress Monitoring, 

www.studentprogress.org, Tools Tab & Resources Tab 

� Florida Center for Reading Research, www.fcrr.org, 

Assessment Programs Tab

Key Websites 

IDOE RTI 

http://www.doe.in.gov/Indiana-RTI 

Collaborative Problem Solving Project 

@ the Blumberg Center 

www.indstate.edu/blumberg 

RTI Action Network 

http://www.rtinetwork.org 

National Center on Response to Intervention 

http://www.rti4success.org/

Key Websites 

IRIS Center 

http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/ 

National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational 

Systems (NCCRESt) 

www.nccrest.org 

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning 

http://www.casel.org 

OSEP Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions & 

Supports 

http://www.pbis.org/tools

Questions or Comments? 

leah.nellis@indstate.edu

Indiana's Response to Intervention Academy - Center of Excellence ...

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