Special Education Referral and Evaluation Report

1. Special Education Referral and Evaluation Report Oregon RTI Project Sustaining Districts Trainings 2010-2011

2. Review of the RTI Process • All students are screened • The most in need are placed into group interventions and progress monitored • The RTI grade level team meets and reviews students progress using district decision rules • Changes to interventions are made when students do not make sufficient progress

3. Review of the RTI Process • Following district guidelines data are gathered to develop an individualized intervention • typically after two interventions • The RTI team meets to determine if the student made sufficient progress • If student does not make sufficient progress the RTI team makes a special education referral

4. Daisy participates in the general curriculum with strong instruction Team reviews screening data and places Daisy in group intervention Screening data shows Daisy isn’t doing well Second Group Intervention Daisy doesn’t improve Daisy improves How RTI Works from a Student’s Perspective EBIS Team designs individualized intervention Exit intervention? Daisy improves Daisy doesn’t improve Improvement is good and other factors are suspected as cause Intervention is intense and LD is suspected Special Education referral is initiated Parents Notified

5. Special Education Process • Referral • Evaluation Planning Meeting • Eligibility Determination Meeting

6. What should be included in the referral? • The information gathered from the problem solving meeting • File review • Student Intervention Profile • Developmental history • Recent progress monitoring data • ELL information • Data comparing student to intervention cohort • Diagnostic data if needed • Hypothesis worksheet • Completed special education referral

7. What do you do after you receive the referral? • Review referral data to determine what other information is needed to complete the SLD Eligibility Form • Low skills • Slow progress • Documentation of interventions • Observation of student in general education setting • Information about Exclusionary Factors • Set date and notify parents about the Evaluation Planning Meeting

8. Evaluation Planning Meeting • Conduct Evaluation Planning Meeting • Determine if you need to evaluate • Do you need any additional information? • Is the student exhibiting low skills and slow progress across data sources? • Determine and document what additional information you need as a team (Permission to Evaluate Form) • Get parent permission to evaluate in the areas you determined • Provide care giver with Parents Rights brochure

9. How do you know if a student is SLD? • Low achievement and Slow Progress (despite intensive interventions) are the foundation for determining SLD eligibility using RTI. • Also must consider Instructional Need.

10. Determining if the student has low skills: • Data indicating the student has significantly low skills as compared to research-based norms and benchmarks. State SLD Eligibility Form

11. Low skills • Low skills • CBM: DIBELS, AIMSweb, easyCBM • What is the student’s current performance? • Where should the student be at for the grade level? (norm or benchmark) • State Testing: OAKS • What is the student’s percentile? • Achievement Tests: WIAT-2, WJ-III • What is the student’s standard score and percentile?

12. How Low is Low? • General Guidelines (district determines guidelines) • CBMs • Intensive range • Below the 16thpercentile • More than 2 times discrepant • OAKS • Below the 16th percentile • Achievement Tests • Below the 16th percentile

13. What if the data are mixed? • CBM data: indicate intensive range AND • OAKS data: indicate average range • What data do you place more emphasis on? • CBM data • Look at in program assessments too

14. Describing low skills in your evaluation report Example Non-Example Harry struggles with being a fluent reader and is not meeting the 2nd grade reading benchmark. He makes a lot of mistakes and is currently reading at a 1st grade level. He also has difficulties answering comprehension questions at grade level. • Harry (2nd grader) is currently reading a median of 44 words correct per minute (wcpm) (12th percentile) with 89% accuracy when given 2nd grade level text. He also answers an average of 3/10 comp questions correct on weekly in-class tests. 2nd grade students in his school are reading an average of 85 wcpm on 2nd grade text and answering 9/10 comp questions correct.

15. Determining if a student is making slow progress: • Data indicating the student has not made significant progress to close their achievement gap… State SLD Eligibility Form: Slow Progress…

16. What is slow progress? • Data indicating the student has not made significant progress to close his/her achievement gap… • Decision rule about points below the aimline • Typically 4 data points below the aimline • Trendline • What is adequate growth? • National growth rates • Cohort growth rates

17. How slow is slow? • Student data below the aimline Or • Student’s growth rate is far below the expected growth rate

18. National Growth Rates Source: Fuchs et al, (1993)

19. Evaluation Report includes the following: Slow Progress • Progress monitoring data • Chart and graph • Comparison of the expected rate of progress • Interventions provided • In conjunction with the progress monitoring data

20. Determining Instructional Need: • Data indicating the student has an instructional need for special education services (included description of needed instructional supports)

21. How you determine instructional need? • It comes down to the balance: How does the weight of the intervention compare to the rate of progress?

22. Evaluation report includes the following: Instructional Need • Data indicating the student has an instructional need for special education services (included description of needed instructional supports) • Student has been provided with an explicit research based intervention • Student has made limited progress despite receiving the intervention

23. Rita • Rita is placed into an intervention • What is her primary skill need? • Phonics • Protocol shows 3rd grade choices: • Phonics for Reading • Reading Mastery • Read Naturally • Triumphs • Which intervention would you choose? • Time: 30 minutes in addition to core programming • 3rd grader • The level • Rita Fall Screening: ORF 40 (75% accuracy) • Fall Benchmark: 77 • Curriculum assessment • Weekly tests: Average 3/10 on in program assessments • OAKS: 200 (11th percentile) • Are her skills low?

24. Rita • Intervention review • October • Progress monitoring data • ORF 38 (86%), 38 (85%), 39 (88%), 37 (85%) • 4 data points below the aimline • Rita’s weekly gain: 0 wpm • Typical weekly gain: 1.0 wpm • Winter benchmark: 92 • Are her skills low? • Is her progress slow?

25. Rita Phonics for Reading 38 39 40 37 38

26. Rita • October: Change of intervention • Reading Mastery 30 minutes during intervention • Group size: 6

27. Rita • Intervention review • November • Progress monitoring data • ORF: 37 (95%), 39 (93%), 37 (96%), 39 (94%) • 4 data points below the aimline • Rita’s gain: .5 wpm per week • Typical gain: 1.0 wpm per week • Winter benchmark: 92 • Are her skills low? • Is her progress slow?

28. Rita Phonics for Reading RM 38 39 37 39 40 37 39 38 37

29. Rita • November: Change of intervention • Reading Mastery 45 minutes during intervention • Group Size: 3

30. Rita • Reading Mastery assessments • Passing checkouts • OAKS: • 30th percentile • Does Rita appear to have an instructional need? • What should we do for Rita? • Intervention review • December • Progress monitoring data • ORF: 37 (97%), 40 (98%), 38 (98%), 36 (97%) • 4 data points below the aimline • Weekly gain: 0 wpm • Typical gain: 1.0 wpm • Winter benchmark: 92 • Are her skills low? • Is her progress slow?

31. Rita Phonics for Reading RM 30 minutes RM 45 minutes 37 38 39 40 37 39 40 37 39 38 38 37 36

32. Briar • Briar placed into an intervention • What is his primary skill need? • Phonics • Protocol shows 2nd grade choices: • Reading Mastery • Triumphs • Which intervention would you choose? • Time: 30 minutes • 2nd grader • Benchmark Testing: Sept: ORF 22 (accuracy 87%) • Benchmark: 44 • Curriculum Assessment: • Weekly tests: average scores of 4 out of 10 • Are his skills low?

33. Briar • Intervention review • October • Progress monitoring data • ORF 22 (83%), 19 (86%), 20 (84%), 25 (86%) • 4 data points below the aimline • Briar weekly gain: .75 wpm • Typical gain: 1.5 wpm per week • Winter benchmark • 68 ORF • Are his skills low? • Is his progress slow?

34. RM Briar 22 22 25 19 20

35. Briar • October: Change of intervention • Reading Mastery 30 minutes during core • Reading Mastery 30 minutes during intervention

36. Briar • In Program assessments • Reading Mastery checkouts: passing • Does Briar appear to have an instructional need? • Do you change the intervention? • Intervention Review • November • Progress monitoring data • ORF 29 (97%), 32 (98%), 29 (97%), 32 (98%), 40 (98%), 38 (97%), 40 (99%), 38 (99%) • 7 data points around the aimline • Weekly gain: 1.3 per week • Typical gain: 1.5 per week • Winter benchmark • 68 ORF • Are his skills low? • Is his progress slow?

37. RN 30 min RM 60 minutes Briar 22 29 40 38 22 25 32 40 19 29 20 30 38

38. Evaluation report includes the following: Observation • An observation of the child’s academic performance and behavior in a regular education setting (related to the area of concern) State SLD Eligibility Form

39. What is the focus of the observation?: • An observation of the child’s academic performance and behavior in a regular education setting (related to the area of concern) • What observational data do you have that can help instructional planning? • Opportunities to Respond • Correct Academic Responding • Student Engagement (On-Task vs. Off-Task) • Comparison to classroom peers

40. Evaluation report includes the following: • Data indicating exclusionary factors (language, health, another disability, lack of instruction etc) are not the primary cause of the student’s learning deficit

41. How do you determine if there is a lack of appropriate instruction? • Attendance • Instruction Remember……Less than 80% proficient should not prevent you from determining a child’s academic deficits are due to lack of instruction. • Examine classroom instruction • Are students engaged in the instruction? • Is the student engaged in the instruction? • Is it explicit enough?