easyCBM: Online Progress Monitoring System

1. easyCBM: Online Progress Monitoring System

2. Clarence Central Schools K-5 RtI FrameworkUniversal Screening Benchmark Assessments Given by SWAT (School Wide Assessment Team) 3X/Year – Fall, Winter & Spring STAR Early Literacy (Grades K-2) STAR Reading (Grades 2-4) SRI (Grade 5)

3. Clarence Central Schools K-5 RtI FrameworkProgress Monitoring Tier 1 May be by the classroom teacher given bi-weekly for students failing to progress STAR Early Literacy, STAR Reading and SRI Tier 2 Given by the interventionist bi-weekly to all Tier 2 Easy CBM (appropriate probes/grade level & need) Tier 3 Given by the interventionist bi-weekly to all Tier 3 – but other assessment would need to be given on opposite weeks Easy CBM (appropriate probes/grade level & need) STAR Early Literacy, STAR Reading, SRI or other tool

4. What is Curriculum Based Measurement? Direct observation/assessment of academic skills Probes Curriculum appropriate material Standard directions, time & rules for administration Assess performance (fluency & accuracy) Sensitive to small amounts of growth Results charted over time

5. Brief History of easyCBM Development started in January 2006, with a federal grant for a Model Demonstration Project on Progress Monitoring in Early Literacy in a Response to Intervention Framework Initially, covered K-4 reading Now includes K-8 reading and mathematics Illinois, with 3429 accounts, is 3rd in number behind Florida (5113) and Georgia (5065). As of September 20th, 2010, 74,848 teachers had easyCBM accounts, and almost 2.5 million tests had been administered.

6. Assessments to Facilitate Instruction Which version is right for your needs? • District easyCBM is designed to provide a reliable screening measure aligned seamlessly to measures for monitoring progress, and as the name implies, it is designed to be EASY to use! Most appropriate for districts with at least 1000 students, K-8. • Teacher easyCBM uses the same progress monitoring measures as the district version, but is not designed for system-wide applications.

9. The idea behind easycbm • Schools have limited resources; they need to be able to identify students for additional instructional supports AND monitor the effectiveness of those supports regularly, making adjustments as needed. • The easycbm system gives schools this tool. It can facilitate all parts of the process: Train Testers (administration & scoring); Benchmark Tests (to ID); Group for Support (teach); Monitor Progress (every 2 weeks); Evaluate Effectiveness of Intervention (using 3 – 5 data points); Adjust Intervention / Grouping as needed; Make a difference for kids!

10. Universally-Designed Assessment • Computer format designed to be easy to access • Reduce need for fine motor skills by making ‘buttons’ easy to hit when selecting answers • Language demands and cognitive complexity reduced in math items • Available as ‘read aloud’ for grades K & 1 • Particular attention paid to characters in PRF and MCRC reading measures – representative of diverse populations (urban / suburban / rural)

11. Assessments • Reading • Early Literacy • Phoneme Segmenting, Letter Names, Letter Sounds • Fluency • Word Reading Fluency, Passage Reading Fluency • Comprehension • Vocabulary (District version only so far) • Read to Perform Task / Informational Text / Vocab PM being piloted Oct. 15 – Nov. 15, 2010! • Mathematics • Based on NCTM Focal Point Standards

12. Reliability of the Assessments Alonzo & Tindal, 2009 • Alternate Form Reliability Coefficients • Phoneme Segmentation: .86 - .91 (High) • Letter Names: .82 - .89 (High) • Letter Sounds: .76 - .88 (Moderately High to High) • Word Reading Fluency: .87 - .96 (High to Extremely High) • Passage Reading Fluency: .87 - .97 (High to Extremely High) • MCRC: .39 - .59 (Moderate)

13. Relation between easyCBM and Oregon State Tests Correlations above .60 for all reading measures; above .72 for all mathmeasures (definite relation!) The combination of easyCBM reading screeners and demographic variables predicted 57% to 69% of the variability on state test score, across grades (Tindal, Nese, & Alonzo, 2009) easyCBM fall and winter math screeners predicted 63% – 73% of the variability on state test score, across grades (Alonzo, Nese, & Anderson, 2009)

14. Grade 7: Oregon Test Students who score at or above the 50th percentile on easyCBM in the fall are very likely to meet the state benchmark on OAKS math. 20th percentile 50th percentile exceeds Students who score below the 20th percentile on easyCBM in the fall arevery unlikely to meet the state benchmark on OAKS math meets

15. Grade 7: Washington Test Students who score at or above the 50th percentile on easyCBM in the fall are very likely to meet the state benchmark on the math test. Students who score below the 20th percentile on easyCBM in the fall are very unlikely to meet the state benchmark on the math test meets exceeds 20th percentile

16. Developing Literacy • Alphabetic Principle • Recognizing letters (if someone can’t name 41 letters in 60 seconds, the chances of him/her being able to read well are slim) • Learning the sounds that letters can make (the building block of phonics) • Understanding how to manipulate sound units to form words / sentences • Assessed with Phoneme Segmenting (only appropriate for your students who are basically non-readers) / Letter Names / Letter Sounds • Instructionally, address skill deficits with structured phonics program, delivered one-on-one or in small groups with students at same skill level. Requires INTENSIVE intervention that should be delivered in addition to regular English / Lang Arts instruction.

17. Developing Literacy • Fluency • Brain internalizes ‘rules’ about grapheme (written words) / phoneme (sound units) relationships. • Repeated exposure to words = move to sight word vocabulary bank • +/-150 CWPM needed to read with comprehension • Assessed with Passage Reading Fluency (a.k.a. PRF and ORF) tests • Appropriate for students who are not yet reading at the 150 CWPM rate • Instructionally, address skill deficits with fluency-building programs such as Read 180, Read Right, Read Naturally, choral readings, repeated readings, small group and individual interventions in addition to core English / Lang Arts instruction

18. Developing Literacy • Comprehension • Literal (what is ___ ?) • Inferential (why did __ do __ ?) • Evaluative (what is the ‘best’…what is __ mostly about?) • Linked closely to vocabulary knowledge • Varies tremendously depending on text features (is the text describing something the student is interested in / familiar with, etc.) • Assessed with Multiple Choice Reading Comprehension • Instructionally, address skill deficits with guided reading activities, reciprocal reading strategies, and guided practice using maze-type measures to model the use of meta-cognitive skills related to reading. Develop interest in reading for pleasure.

19. Developing Literacy • Vocabulary • New Measure, piloting Oct 15 – Nov 15 • Vocabulary words embedded in sentences, with three possible answer choices

20. Developing Literacy • Read to Perform a Task / Informational Text: New Measures, Being piloted Oct. 15 – Nov. 15, 2010!

21. Mathematics • This subject area has not received as much attention as reading in the research literature • Focal Point Standards derived from years of work analyzing critical concepts, knowledge, and skills students need to become competent users of math • Assessed with Math (focal point) Measures • 16 items per test • Items increase in difficultly from 1 – 16 EXCEPT item 5 and 16 have been switched. If a student gets Item 6, 7, 8 correct, but Item 16 wrong, it’s probably more an issue of attention than math knowledge • Instructionally, address skill deficits with manipulatives, additional practice in building fluency with number skills, concept-based instructional interventions • http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/interventionista/interventionista_intv_list.php?prob_type=mathematics

22. How do I know where to begin? • Train & Administer appropriate screening tests (see chart) • Determine who is ‘on target’ and who may need additional intervention • Group students for intervention / instructional support based on: • Need – who needs most help; download data to Excel, sort by score; select your lowest scoring students for intervention • Specific skill deficits • Available resources

23. Training Page Training sections for individually-administered measures include video clips

24. Easycbm Screening Tests

25. Additional Screening • If older students score at or below the 25th percentile on PRF, consider evaluating for lower-level access skills (alphabetic principle); for example, deficits in Phonemic Segmentation or Letter Sounds. • Phonics / Word Attack skills may be at the root of the problem.

26. Progress Monitoring Assessments • Alternate forms MUST be comparable! If they are not, there is no way to interpret the information from this graph meaningfully.

27. The easycbm assessments • The progress monitoring assessments available on easycbm were developed using Item Response Theory (IRT), a state-of-the-art statistical procedure (the same stats used by the makers of the SAT, the GRE, and most major large-scale assessments). • IRT differs from classical statistical approaches in that it involves much more complex mathematics, simultaneously estimating the ability of the student and the difficulty of each item based on the pattern of responses across all items taken by all students.

28. The easycbm assessments • IRT allows a test developer to understand not only the difficulty of a particular item, but also the relative difficulty of each of the possible answer choices.

29. The home page!

30. Student Organization Tab

31. Measures Tab

32. Group Reports

33. This report provides information helpful for grouping students and insight into the item types on which they need more work

34. Individual Student Report This report provides information helpful for judging the effectiveness of interventions for a particular student.

35. Interventions Screen

36. http://www.brtprojects.org/

37. Questions? The easycbm assessment system was developed as part of a federal grant from the Office of Special Education to Behavioral Research and Teaching at the University of Oregon. We were one of three federally-funded National Centers on Response to Intervention and Progress Monitoring in Reading. The system was launched in September of 2006 and continues to be refined as educators suggest improvements. Comments, questions, and suggestions are warmly welcomed. Julie Alonzo & Gerald Tindal Behavioral Research & Teaching University of Oregon support@easycbm.com

38. Now… a guided tour of easycbm • Please share computers and help each other out. • Follow along as we walk through the different features available on easycbm.com • To begin, you’ll need to open an internet browser: • Mac? Please use Safari or Firefox • PC? Please use Firefox or Internet Explorer • Log on to easycbm.com and follow me through the demo!