Response to Intervention - by Leah Goldstein Moses & Cecelia Dodge

Response to Intervention - by Leah Goldstein Moses & Cecelia Dodge As a result of the Improve Group’s partnership with Cecelia Dodge & Associates, LLC, we are offering a series of articles this fall that highlight the ways data can be used to improve instruction and transform schools for the achievement of ALL learners. You can see our first blog, giving an overview of response to intervention, here, and our second, on high quality instruction, here. Systems and practices to collect and examine student data Tiered systems of intervention require high-quality data so that teachers know, rapidly, where students need additional help. When data systems work well, they can be effective and efficient tools for recognizing student needs and evaluating whether new approaches are working. For example, data can help educators answer: What is the rate of each student’s learning? How does the rate/performance compare with what is expected? When we tried that new intervention, what happened? Usually, educators need to rely on more than one set of data to be able to make decisions about the interventions to use with students. The table below provides some typical sources of data:

Type	Advantages	Disadvantages
Standardized assessments (i.e., MCA tests)	Measure key items that all students are expected to know. Can be compared across a very big population. Can track data over time. Recent addition: many now provide students with a score immediately, as well as their expected score.	Difficult to get a very deep assessment of knowledge or learning. Infrequency means they aren’t great measures of progress over the course of a lesson arc.
Curriculum-based assessments (i.e., a spelling test or social studies quiz)	Test knowledge specifically being conveyed in curriculum. Can often be modified to incorporate concepts. Students can gain an immediate sense of their performance.	Can be difficult to see patterns across different curriculum areas.
Portfolio/work sample/authentic assessments (i.e., analysis of a paper or project)	Student creates something that shows their learning – get to practice a skill and demonstrate knowledge. Teachers get to see how students interpret lessons in their work.	Analysis can be time sensitive Until recently, many schools did not have data systems that allowed very good tracking of results.

Many overviews of assessments exist, including this one from the University of Texas. Data-driven decision-making Many schools have strongly functioning core instruction, and get their teachers to conduct assessments and collect data, but struggle to develop a practice of reflection and decision making based on the data. Often, even when the data is considered, it is not used to paint a picture of how each student is doing in the core, with differentiation as needed. Schools that have overcome this struggle have embedded a problem-solving process into the structure and operations of the school. Groups of teachers meet to examine student work and assessment data to make instructional decisions.  This problem-solving function can be built into existing Professional Learning Communities or grade level teams. We worked with Spring Lake Park schools, which developed a small learning communities approach, with groups of teachers working together to identify and address teachers. Weekly meetings are supported by a shifted school schedule. Our evaluation of the implementation of these small learning communities found teachers regularly reflecting on student achievement, and shifting their classroom approaches to incorporate multiple learning modes.