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DIBELS and RSA: They Are Not the Enemy. June 5, 2014 Michelle Burks - Elementary ELA Coordinator. What is RSA?. RSA is the Reading Sufficiency Act The purpose it to require early childhood intervention and ensure that students are reading on grade level by 3 rd grade.
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DIBELS and RSA: They Are Not the Enemy June 5, 2014 Michelle Burks - Elementary ELA Coordinator
What is RSA? • RSA is the Reading Sufficiency Act • The purpose it to require early childhood intervention and ensure that students are reading on grade level by 3rd grade. • RSA is the OSDE mandating that we Screen, Monitor and Intervene with all students in grades K-3. • RSA is the OSDE requiring us schools to provide Response to Intevention (RTI). • RSA is the law
Why RSA is a Good Thing? • We need to screen our students for reading difficulties. • Without the law many students would never be screened, progress monitored or tested at all. • Students need to be on grade level be for entering 4th grade if it is within their cognitive abilities. • K-3 is a time where we learn to read, 4th grade is the beginning of “reading to learn” and students need a strong foundation.
Why is RSA Conflicted? • It’s political • It’s additional red tape on something we are already doing • It has become overly complicated • It now has very steep consequences
How Do We Simply RSA? Step 1: Screen all of your students (even students on an IEP). Step 2: Really dig deep into your screening results and make them worth your time. Step 3: Provide your struggling students with intervention and then monitor the progress of that intervention. Step 4: Document what you are doing.
Interventions • Good interventions are targeted, directed and intensive. • A good intervention is skill specific. Ex. Long vowels, digraphs, fluency rate, sight words…etc. • Pick one skill and work only on that skill during intervention until progress is made. • Progress monitor your interventions. Either by using STAR, DIBELS or a teacher created assessment. • Document your time and track what you are doing.
RSA Legislation Update • Students who score in the Unsatisfactory range on the reading portion of the 3rd OCCT will be retained by law IF they do not meet one of the 6 good cause exemptions (GCE). • As of May 2014 a committee can over ride the law and promote a student if they unanimously decide that is what is best for the child. • The committee must have: principal, parent, 3rd grade teacher, 4th grade teacher, reading specialist. The decision to promote must be unanimous.
How does RSA and DIBELS fit together? • The OSDE requires us to choose an assessment, our is the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) • DIBELS is our Universal Screening tool, meaning we screen every student with this assessment to gain a baseline. • We are required by law to benchmark our students 3 times per year and progress monitor at least monthly.
Why we shouldn’t Hate DIBELS • It’s relatively short, and still provides you with oral reading information. • You are provided with a substitute teacher to assist you in your benchmark assessments three times per year. • It gives teachers valid information to determine if a child is AT RISK of a reading difficulty. • It’s just a screening tool, it is not the only assessment to use when making instructional decisions. (STAR, informal class assessments) • DIBELS give you a baseline.
Did You Know? • You can progress monitor after every 4 interventions? • Frequent progress monitoring can speed up the RTI Special Ed referral process. • You can progress monitor with out of level materials? • We receive RSA funds based on every student who does not meet the Fall Benchmark. Test them early, it only makes you look better in the end.
Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork • It is the law that every child who does not meet the Fall and Winter benchmark be placed on an RSA Academic Performance Plan (APP). • This plan states: how the student performed, what you the teacher are going to do for them, what if any additional services the child will receive. • The APP must be signed by the parent in the fall and the spring and kept on file in the students cumulative record. • You must by law document your interventions. • Document, document, document
Using the Website • You must enter your data into www.DIBELS.net after every benchmark and progress monitoring. • You must notify parents of the students progress. • Explain DIBELS to your parents using the Parents Report. • If you have questions check the video tutorials. • Check the DISTRICT website for forms and information.
