Strand A: How Can We Make Intensive Intervention Happen? Considerations for Knowledge Development, Implementation, and Policy Strand Leaders: Louis Danielson, Ph.D.

Rebecca O. Zumeta, Ph.D.

National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) American Institutes for Research, Washington, DC

Strand Objectives

 Understand how intensive intervention may be applied to academic and social behavior contexts.

 Learn about a tool for monitoring implementation, and common implementation barriers and solutions  Connect intensive intervention to current education policy initiatives, including Results Driven Accountability (RDA) 2

Today’s Sessions

(Download slides at www.intensiveintervention.org

)

Time

8:00 –9:00 a.m.

9:15 –10:15 a.m.

10:30 –11:30 a.m.

1:30 –2:30 p.m.

Session Title

What Do I Do Now?: Intensifying Academic Interventions When Standard Approaches Flop Practical Solutions: Using Intensive Intervention to Improve Behavioral Outcomes for Struggling Students From Know-How to Action: Assessing and Improving School-Level Implementation of Data Based Individualization Improving Results for All: The Role of Intensive Intervention in Federal Education Policy 3

What Do I Do Now?: Intensifying Academic Interventions When Standard Approaches Flop

Rebecca O. Zumeta, AIR Devin M. Kearns, University of Connecticut Nicole Hitchener, Coventry School District Lynn S. Fuchs, Vanderbilt University

Today’s Presentation

 Rationale for intensive intervention  Overview of the data-based individualization (DBI) process  Examples from the field 5

What is Intensive Intervention?

Intensive intervention

addresses

severe and persistent

learning or behavior difficulties. Intensive intervention should be:  Driven by data  Characterized by increased intensity (e.g., smaller group, expanded time) and individualization of academic instruction and/or behavioral supports 6

What Intensive Intervention…

Is…

 Individualized based on student needs  More intense, often with substantively different content AND pedagogy  Comprised of more frequent and precise progress monitoring

Is Not…

 A single approach  A manual  A preset program  More of the same Tier 1 instruction  More of the same Tier 2 instruction 7

Why Do We Need Intensive Intervention?

Low academic achievement Dropout rates Arrest rates

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Why Do We Need Intensive Intervention?

More Help More Practice

Validated programs are not universally effective programs; 3 to 5 percent of students need more help (Fuchs et al., 2008; NCII, 2013). Students with intensive needs often require 10 –30 times more practice than peers to learn new information (Gersten et al., 2008). 9

Who Needs DBI?

 Students with disabilities who are not making adequate progress in their current instructional program  Students who present with very low academic achievement and/or high-intensity or high-frequency behavior problems (typically those with disabilities)  Students in a tiered intervention system who have not responded to secondary intervention programs delivered with fidelity 10

What is NCII’s Approach to Intensive Intervention?

 

Data-Based Individualization

(DBI): A systematic method for using data to determine

when and how

to provide more intensive intervention:  Origins in data-based program modification/experimental teaching were first developed at the University of Minnesota (Deno & Mirkin, 1977).

It is a process, not a single intervention program or strategy.

It is not a one-time fix, but an ongoing process comprising intervention and assessment adjusted over time.

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DBI Assumptions

Students with disabilities who require special education need specially designed instruction to progress toward standards.

A data-driven, systematized approach can help educators develop programs likely to yield success for students with intensive needs. 12

DBI Assumptions

DBI is a distinctively different and more intensive approach to intervention, compared to primary prevention’s (Tier 1’s) core program and secondary prevention’s (Tier 2’s) validated, supplementary programs (NCII, 2013). In a longstanding program of field-based randomized controlled trials, DBI has demonstrated improved reading, math, and spelling outcomes, compared with business-as-usual special education practice (e.g., Fuchs, Fuchs, & Hamlett, 1989). 13

DBI: Integrating data-based decision making across academics and social behavior

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Intensive Intervention and Results Driven Accountability

All components of an accountability system will be aligned in a manner that best support States in improving results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities, and their families.

Shift from Compliance to Results + Compliance

Slide adapted from: OSEP Slides to Explain Results Driven Accountability (RDA) Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/rda/index.html

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•

Evaluation

of progress annually • Adjust plan as needed

SSIP

• Initiate

Data Analysis

• Conduct broad

Infrastructure Analysis

• Identify problem area

SSIP Phase III How well is the solution working?

What is the problem ?

SSIP Phase I SSIP SSIP Phase I SSIP Phase I and II What shall

• Search/evaluate evidence based solutions (Exploration Phase) • Develop action steps (address barriers/use leverage points) • Develop

Theory of Action

• Develop

Plan for Improvement

(Implementation Framework)

we do about it?

Why is it happening?

• Conduct root cause analysis (including infrastructure) to identify contributing factors • For each contributing factor, identify both barriers and leverage points for improvement Slide from: OSEP Slides to Explain Results Driven Accountability (RDA) Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/rda/index.html

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Intensifying intervention when standard approaches flop: lessons from the field

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What to do when standard approaches flop? Overview of strategies

 Systems: • • Set your district and school up for success Conduct team meetings efficiently and effectively  Data-based individualization: • • Create strong intensive intervention plans Monitor progress correctly • • • Diagnose carefully Adapt thoughtfully and track meticulously Iterate

Systems: Set your district and school up for success

   

Keys to District Success

Have a rigorous readiness checklist … making sure the team is ready to implement Start small with potentially successful buildings and scale up slowly Determine how to help children as they transition from elementary to middle school (still a problem for many schools) Make sure key personnel buy in (SpEd director, superintendent, curriculum director)

Coventry Public Schools and NCII

School A 2012-2014 School B 2012-2013 •Administrators indicated interest •Self-assessment •Set goals •Streamlined NCII work with current initiatives •Relied on school-based team support •ELA focus •Initially willing, but lacked readiness •School-based team unable to support •After starting training, decision was made to discontinue involvement in the NCII initiative School A 2014-2015 •Build capacity through team membership changes •Behavior focus School C 2014-2015 •Whole school indicated interest •Self-assessment •Set goals •Streamlined NCII work with current initiatives •Relied on school-based team support •ELA focus •Moved at school’s pace School D 2014-2015 •Streamlined NCII work with current initiatives •Relied on school-based support •ELA focus •Moved at school’s pace

Keys to School Success

 • Make Intensive Intervention a central focus for the building Avoid Christmas Tree syndrome (Fullan, 2001)  • Introduce all staff to Intensive Intervention initiative Make sure this is not a side project “just for special education”

Systems: Conduct meetings efficiently and effectively

Efficient Meetings

 Have a specific time to meet and meet frequently  Follow scripts and have roles ( http://www.intensiveintervention.org/tools support-intensive-intervention-data meetings )  Use technology to • Collect and easily access student information • • Show student data to the whole team at once Make the plan-creation process transparent and clear          ROLES: Facilitator Recorder Time Keeper Jargon Buster/ Norms Historian Behavioral Data Scheduling Meeting Reminders Teacher Consult

Google drive to house process/documents Plan meeting dates ahead of time Project data/plan

Effective Meetings

 Have time for the team to plan (beyond student meetings) • • Create calendars Talk through changes to process, etc.

 Encourage parent involvement  Build capacity • • Systematize introduction to Intensive Intervention for new staff Have team meeting "alternates" to help when there is turn-over in the team  Carry DBI approach over to formal IEP meetings

Parent Involvement

• • • • Invite parents to meetings Include an agenda and list of common terminology Incorporate parent feedback in the process Follow up with parents not able to attend

DBI: Create strong intensive intervention plans

Start with a strong Tier 2

 Secondary prevention program • • • • • Not an approach or a loosely structured set of activities Research-validated program (tested by researchers) Clear sequence of lessons Explicit instruction (I do, we do, you do) approach (Archer & Hughes, 2011) Fidelity of implementation

Kelsey’s secondary prevention program

Research-based (Fuchs, Kearns, et al., 2012) Explicit Systematic Focused on Foundational Skills

Sight words Sound-symbol correspondence Decoding Spelling Reading level-appropriate texts 30

Use Fidelity Checklists

Intensifying Secondary Prevention: Quantitative Changes

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DBI: Monitor progress correctly

Begin progress monitoring early

 Allows you to individualize expected growth for the student (need 8 data points to do this)  Allows you time to choose the right measure for the student (instructional level, not grade level)

Use a valid and reliable progress monitoring tool

   • Reliable and valid measure (evaluated by researchers) Use “Academic Progress Monitoring Tools Chart” available at intensiveintervention.org • • Easy-to-administer measure Takes little teacher and student time Easy to score • • Measure can be given weekly Enough parallel forms Designed for regular administration

Some Popular Measures Are NOT Progress Monitoring

Running Records Program-specific mastery measures

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On Running Records

“results indicate that … passage might exhibit a sizable Running records cannot tell you reliably whether students are making progress Running records can provide possibly useful diagnostic data about texts near student’s level (Fawson, Reutzel, Smith, Ludlow, & Sudweeks (2006), p. 121 37

On Program-Specific “Progress Monitoring”



Mastery

measures • • Answers the question “Are students doing well in

this

program?” Somewhat similar to running records 38

Administer correctly!

 Administration fidelity problems Sometimes I give her 5 minutes for the Maze so she can finish it. But, if she’s having a tough day, we just do 1 minute.  Misunderstanding: We’ve been doing List 1 for four weeks. Should we move to List 2 now?

Why can’t we use guided reading levels to measure growth?

We started giving him extra encouragement and had him do it in the library.

More information at the

DLD Showcase

2:15-3:15 Today San Diego Convention Center Room 032A

DBI: Diagnose carefully

Diagnosis Can Be Simple

   Analyze progress monitoring data Use readily available information Identify error patterns

Do Informal Diagnostic Assessment

Error analysis of PM data Classroom assessments and work samples Standardized assessments (if possible)

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Use the Assessment Results

1.

Review the diagnostic assessments 2.

Come up with a theory about what might be causing the student’s academic difficulty 3.

Start considering adaptations

Spellings include all sounds

knife twin

Good sight word knowledge PM errors are mainly

spin … IDK count?

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Use a MODIFIED form of miscue analysis

Traditional Miscue Analysis

 Graphophonetic  Semantic  Syntactic De-prioritizes errors in graphophonetics because it is not clear what characterizes effective use

Evidence-Based

 Decoding error analysis  Have students pronounce nonsense words and determine what kinds of letter-sounds they struggle to read  This focuses on the alphabetic nature of the language

DBI: adapt thoughtfully and track meticulously

Make pedagogical (how you teach) changes

           Give more explicit explanations using clear, concise language Repeat the explanation using the same language and ask students to replicate it Ask simpler questions that link to the explanation Model until the student is ready to do the skill without you (but always involve the student in the model) Release responsibility to the student more slowly Raise the number of opportunities to respond Make sure student gives 80% correct responses When student makes an error, provide immediate, clear, kind corrective feedback Increase the amount of exposure to the concepts Break skills into smaller parts See more resources at: http://www.intensiveintervention.org/resource/designing-and delivering-intervention-students-severe-and-persistent-academic-needs-dbi

Make content changes

 Reteach skills that appear to be missing  Use expert knowledge of reading/mathematics/content area to move to correct place in sequence of instruction  Skip over concepts if they are not foundational and/or fundamental

Make Plans SPECIFIC

 Who will do it?

 How long will they do it for?

 What does it mean to “do it” • • Programs: implementing with fidelity? adaptations?

Individualized, non-program instruction: what exact activities are being done? what materials are required? are materials easily available?

Make Plans SPECIFIC

Student DBI Meeting Facilitation Guides and Templates: http://www.intensiveintervention.org/tools-support intensive-intervention-data-meetings

Stick to the plan (mostly) and monitor your fidelity

 Do what you agreed to do … if the plan isn’t working and you did what you said you’d do, it’s not your fault (it’s the plan’s fault)  Make some adjustments after the meeting (not everything can be decided in 30 minutes) • Keep track of those!

 • Track what you actually did Are you covering everything?

• • How much time are things actually taking?

How many absences and missed school days have there been?

DBI: ITERATE

What does it mean to “iterate”?

 What should we do now?

 Diagnose: What is the source of the problem?

 Adapt: How can we change the program again to produce greater growth?

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What does it mean to “iterate”?

Make new changes as needed, when the old ones don’t seem to work

Student plan: Moved from a Phoneme segmentation to a nonsense word fluency focus. At Mid Year: Teacher reports that she is showing great progress in reading. She is showing confidence and actively participating. She is meeting her goals and applying her skills in class in Fundations.

*She now has her foundational skills in reading. She is surpassing other students in her intervention. *Team determined that fluency and comprehension are the new focus of her intervention. *Reading intervention will include comprehension strategies and tools.

Don’t take failure personally (unless you didn’t follow the plan)

 If you followed the plan, blame the plan, not yourself  Trust the data to guide you   Switch skills as needed (and make sure the PM system still works for the new skill!)  Review the plan (and your fidelity to it) at every meeting Keep good records X class.

Four Additional Words of Advice When Implementing DBI as Intensive Intervention

#1: Avoid changing PM systems or PM grade levels within the same academic year.

  Causes unnecessary work and makes it hard to evaluate progress across time.

• • To avoid changing PM system/grade level Use a PM system that indexes broad forms of competence in the academic area (not a single skill).

– Curriculum-sampling PM systems that systematically sample the full set of skills and strategies encompassed in the grade-level curriculum – Performance indicators that relate well to the full set of skills and strategies Make sure the beginning-of-year (baseline) scores are – High enough to support improvement at the targeted grade level (otherwise move down a grade level for PM) – Low enough to leave room for improvement across the school year (otherwise move up a grade level for PM).

#2: When Making an Adjustment to the Intervention Platform, Don’t Throw Out the Validated Platform.

 • Instead, be inventive and problem solve with your fellow teachers to come up with a meaningful, but doable adjustment to that program. Ask, Does the student need – – – – – – – Smaller group size?

Additional intervention time?

Instruction on additional or other foundational skills?

Fluency work to automatize the subtasks of a complex strategy?

Introduction of an alternative strategy for achieving a performance standard (don’t just teach the same strategy multiple times)?

Support to improve on-task behavior and motivation to persevere and produce accurate work?

Instruction to support transfer back to the classroom?

#3: If Meeting a Student’s Needs Means Teaching Below-Grade-Level Content, Be Prepared to Defend that Decision.

Schools often misinterpret the access mandate as requiring students with disabilities to receive grade-level content instruction in an inclusive setting. Your argument to correct such misunderstanding should include these points:

      Research illustrates that neither location nor exposure is synonymous with access.

Access cannot be assumed even when inclusive instruction reflects state-of-the-art accommodations and support. Only evidence of adequate student outcomes demonstrates that access to the curriculum has been accomplished. Achieving meaningful access for very low-performing students, such as students with LD, often requires a combination of instruction on grade-level curriculum and below grade-level foundational skills. All this argues for a definition of

access to the general educational curriculum

on empirical evidence of adequate learning based – regardless of the setting in which or the instructional methods by which that learning is achieved. PM data can help provide such evidence.

#4: Be Relentless.

 Don’t fool yourself into thinking the problem is with the data (rather than your instruction). If the scores on the graph aren’t increasing, assume the child is not learning. (When PM data are collected in regular classrooms, almost all students’ graphs increase.)  Remember: You are this student’s best chance for meaningful academic improvement this year. You can be the person who changes his/her path of development and his/her chances for quality of life in and after school.

 Be prepared to set high expectations; work hard to plan and deliver motivating and well-designed instruction; and push the student to work hard on his/her own behalf .

Disclaimer

This webinar was produced under the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Award No. H326Q110005. Celia Rosenquist serves as the project officer. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions or polices of the U.S. Department of Education. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any product, commodity, service, or enterprise mentioned in this webinar is intended or should be inferred.

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National Center on Intensive Intervention 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street NW Washington, DC 20007-3835 www.intensiveintervention.org

[email protected]

@TheNCII 6 4