Optimizing the Aligned and Integrated Systems of VTSS

1. Optimizing the Aligned and Integrated Systems of VTSS Strand 3 December 2018 Implementation Matrix 3B, 3C, 5E, 1G, 1H

2. Community Norms • Be Responsible: • Take care of your needs • Share your questions with the group • Be Respectful: • Turn volume/sound off on cell phones • Listen to others attentively • Follow up and complete assigned tasks • Be Engaged: • Ask what you need to know to understand and contribute • Share your expertise, information and ideas

3. Thinking Through Our Day We looked at our data and decided that we have students who need a particular tiered support. How do we select those practices? What is quality instruction at advanced tiers? We have some practices. Now, we need to look at them with one more lens of cultural responsiveness and equity. How do we do that? Does our thinking change? We’ve selected practices that are being delivered. We see if they are working. Are fidelity issues involved? Professional learning is cyclical with the above. Did we first teach the practices? How do we continue to use job-embedded learning? We already know that on-going coaching is critical to support staff. Do we have a system in place in our division to support coaches and does our data speak to efficacy and fidelity?

4. Remember… Implementation is iterative Same phases, same processes Different context and new details

5. Where are you in your VTSS Journey? Discuss this with your team? Where are you furthest along? Where is there work to still be done? Are your address all issues at tier I first or focusing on an other areas and developing all three tiers?

6. When last we met… • Data Informed Decision Making • Action Plan • Initiative Mapping • Resource Mapping • Data Audit • Assessment Mapping • Decision Rules • Tier Definitions

7. Today’s Learning Intentions • Identify ways to adopt and support interventions for students requiring support at Tiers 2 and 3 (Matrix 3.B) • Create a clearly defined continuum of supports that is culturally responsive and utilized to ensure an instructional match for all learners (Matrix 3.C) • Utilize evaluation data to determine the impact of interventions and make decisions to change the level of support (Matrix 5.E) • Integrate and align professional learning based on need (Matrix 1.G) • Develop coaching plans and processes to support data, practices and systems (Matrix 1.H)

8. Identify ways to adopt and support interventions for students requiring support at Tiers 2 and 3 Matrix 3.B

9. Characteristics of Intervention • Increased opportunities for instruction and practice • Increased structure and prompts • Connections to core (communication loops!) • Family Engagement • Increased intensity of data collection • Easy in – easy out: efficient systems for access and delivery of intervention • Immediate and increased opportunities for feedback and error correction

10. Important to Remember Appropriate Level of Challenge: The student experienced sufficient success in the academic task(s) to shape learning in the desired direction as well as to maintain student motivation Maintenance of Academic Standards: If the intervention includes any accommodations to better support the struggling learner (e.g., preferential seating, breaking a longer assignment into smaller chunks), those accommodations do not substantially lower the academic standards against which the student is to be evaluated and are not likely to reduce the student’s rate of learning – DO NOT REDUCE RIGOR AND RELEVANCE

11. Remember… Intervention is NOT MORE, LOUDER, SLOWER

12. Can’t Do/ Won’t Do Check Student Problem: • Skill or knowledge deficit (can’t do) • Motivation (won’t do). We have to look at a range of data and have a variety of supports.

13. Students… • Must be engaged and value time invested in intervention (particularly as they age) • Should be able to articulate goals and progress at developmentally appropriate level • Focus on motivation and authentic participation as much as possible – will positive reinforcement be leverage and how do we ensure it matches student?

14. The Process to Choose an Intervention • From your decision making process: • Analyze your data • Identify the issue of concern • Write your precision statement • Develop goals 2. Do we have practices to meet this need in our initiative map and resource maps?

15. The Process Continues 3. If you don’t have practices to meet the need: • Seek out your internal experts • Search the internet, books, and primary resources for interventions • Hint: Use the resources on the selection tool 4. Select an appropriate evidence-based intervention 5. Answer the question(s) on the selection tool to see if it is right for YOU!

16. Remember… Implementation is iterative Same phases, same processes Different context and new details

17. Create a clearly defined continuum of supports that is culturally responsive and utilized to ensure an instructional match for all learners Matrix 3.C

18. Continuum of Supports and Equity Is the continuum of supports equitable and culturally responsive? Why is this important?

19. Equity Ideology Moving away from Deficit Ideology Grit Ideology Moving toward Structural Ideology

20. Authentic Engagement? For students who are not from the dominant culture, the school environment can expose them to unintentional slights, which devalue their backgrounds and diminish school connectedness. (Leverson, Smith, McIntosh, Rose, & Pinkelman, 2016)

21. Responsive Environments Require an understanding of how well our schools support students from varying cultures, and how they can ensure the support and validation of each student. (Leverson, Smith, McIntosh, Rose, & Pinkelman, 2016)

22. Culturally Responsive Practices Cultural Responsiveness includes: (a) Holding high expectations for all students, (b) Using students’ cultures and experiences to enhance their learning, and (c) Providing all students with access to effective instructional and adequate resources for learning (Klingner et al. 2005).

23. Cultural Responsiveness Components • Identity • Voice • Supportive Environment • Situational Appropriateness • Data for Equity

24. School Environment Can • Engage students through validationand affirmation of their identity OR • Disengage them through these unintentional slights

25. Identity • Comprised of multiple aspects including race, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc. • Influences personal/group’s interactions with others. • Identity awareness is important to cultural responsiveness.

26. Voice • Provides authentic engagement in schools. • Ensures inclusion of non-dominant cultural groups. • Values authentic two-way communication.

27. Supportive Environment • Identifies a positive school culture as a top outcome. • Teachers meet student needs and teach necessary/missing skills. • Students see themselves and their experiences on display daily in the classrooms. • Diversity is welcomed and incorporated into interventions.

28. Situational Appropriateness • Teach students the expectations for various settings to ensure positive outcomes. • Take time to learn about students’ cultural identities and validate and affirm cultural differences.

29. Data for Equity • Disaggregate data. • Focus on equity. • Collect fidelity and outcome data. • Look at behavior and academic data. • Problem solve around the system.

30. Remember the Characteristics of Intervention • Increased opportunities for instruction and practice • Increased structure and prompts • Connections to core (communication loops!) • Family engagement • Increased intensity of data collection • Easy in – easy out: efficient systems for access and delivery of intervention • Immediate and increased opportunities for feedback and error correction

31. Thinking About Equity • Increased opportunities for instruction and practice • Family engagement • Immediate and increased opportunities for feedback and error correction

32. Utilize evaluation data to determine the impact of interventions and make decisions to change the level of support Matrix 5.E

33. Self Reflection 1. Individual Student Progress Monitoring 2. Monitoring of Interventions

34. Warm Up! True or False? • Progress monitoring is for Tier 2 and Tier 3 students. • Progress monitoring uses both the rate and the level of learning. • Decision rules are needed to figure out when a student is able to move to a lower tier and less frequent monitoring. • Progress monitoring is ineffective unless it occurs minimally 2-3 times weekly. • Goal setting is a helpful but not a critical part of progress monitoring.

35. A More Concise Definition “…progress monitoring is used to assess student progress or performance in those areas in which they were identified by universal screening as being at-risk for failure (e.g., reading, mathematics, social behavior). It is the method by which teachers or other school personnel determine if students are benefitting appropriately from the typical (e.g., grade level, locally determined, etc.) instructional program, identify students who are not making adequate progress, and help guide the construction of effective intervention programs for students who are not profiting from typical instruction (Fuchs & Stecker, 2003).

36. “All assessment is a perpetual work in progress.” Linda Suske A few key ideas: • There is a difference between making progress and catching up. • The division needs a tool for progress monitoring that is sensitive to small increments of growth and easily administered. • The data from the progress monitoring tool is always considered along with other data. • Any evidence based practice or instruction delivered to a student should have some associated data to monitor effectiveness.

37. Measurement Tools It Is Not “Either/Or” Curriculum-based measurements (CBMs) are standardized assessments, including specific scoring guidelines, usually timed, criterion based. For example, fluency measures serve as a proxy for overall literacy development Curriculum-based assessments (CBAs) are tools developed by teachers that align with the content they have taught. CBAs involve “direct observation and recording of a students performance in the local curriculum…” (Deno, 1987) Definition adapted from Hattie, Fisher, Frey (2016)

38. General IndicatorsThe Medical Analogy Think About Starting with Screening Tools: • Height • Weight • Temperature • Blood Pressure • Pulse

39. Blood Pressure is an Indicator • It is considered to be an indicator of overall health; not a complete picture • It isn’t the only indicator of overall health, and it is used with some other measures • It is brief and reliable • It is a “flag” that there may be risk factors

40. Mr. Smith: Flagged as At Risk Social History Reveals: • Family history of high blood pressure • Exercises on an inconsistent basis • Business travel prevents him from eating healthy meals on a regular basis • Has a demanding work week

41. Other Diagnostic Tests Are Ordered • Blood values • Stress test Mr. Smith has to visit a specialist for some of these tests, while some are administered at the office. (Does this sound like diagnosing the problem in order to make a good instructional match?)

42. The Team Meets Again With the Results and a New Team Member THE PLAN Daily exercise routine with trainer – heart rate monitored each session Low sodium diet; journal of food intake Plot blood pressure on a graph each week Blood pressure medication – common and generic

43. Change the Intervention? How? Suppose you discovered that Mr. James could not lay off the chips, and it turns outthat his trainer had a family emergency and was only able to meet with him for 60% of the scheduled appointments. Would you make a change to the prescription medicine?

44. TIP #1 The first thing you do if the “dots aren’t going in the right direction” is to check the fidelity of assessment and implementation.

45. Tip# 2 Consider having all the reasons for lack of success categorized to make the problem solving process easier: • Was the instruction at all tiers delivered with fidelity?  • Was it a correct instructional match? Was there consistent programming? Is the dosage sufficient? • Is attendance an issue? (Consider attendance of student and adults.) • Is attention the reason the student is not performing well? • Is motivation and engagement an issue?  (Consider the engagement of peers as well.)

46. Now Our Decision May Change Mr. Smith is eating well and exercising, but his blood pressure remains high… time for medication

47. Who is responsible for progress monitoring? • This is a school and division decision. • This decision varies based on elementary or secondary. • Sometimes it is the classroom teacher, the interventionist, a teaching assistant, or a coach or school psychologist. • For students with behavioral interventions, it is sometimes the counselor or a staff member who is not involved in instruction with the student on a regular basis. • Every person who intervenes with a student should have some type of data to share.

48. Where Do I Find Tools to Progress Monitor? http://www.intensiveintervention.org

49. How often do we progress monitor? How soon do we need to know if it is working? • If using a CBM, generally not more than once a week, and maybe every other week. • If using programs such as Check In Check Out, then progress is monitored daily. • A general rule is that the greater the gap, the more frequent monitoring. • If using something programmatic, the frequency is oftentimes pre-determined. • If a student is below benchmark, once a month is typically not sufficient if more than one data point is needed.

50. Summarize the LessonUse Your “yes” and “no” Response Cards • WOW! This turned out to be a lot more complex than I realized! • We use the phrase “it is always the WHO and never the WHAT.” • We always use our progress monitoring data with other data. • If you are making progress, you are reducing the gap. • My school/division has a system in place to carefully monitor the progress of all students receiving a tiered support. • Resource mapping and clear decision rules are systems pieces that make progress monitoring more effective and efficient.