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  

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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)

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Today’s Sessions(Download slides at www.intensiveintervention.org)

Time Session Title

8:00–9:00 a.m. What Do I Do Now?: Intensifying Academic Interventions When Standard Approaches Flop

9:15–10:15 a.m. Practical Solutions: Using Intensive Intervention to Improve Behavioral Outcomes for Struggling Students

10:30–11:30 a.m. From Know-How to Action: Assessing and Improving School-Level Implementation of Data-Based Individualization

1:30–2:30 p.m. Improving Results for All: The Role of Intensive Intervention in Federal Education Policy

What Do I Do Now?: Intensifying Academic Interventions When Standard Approaches FlopRebecca O. Zumeta, AIRDevin M. Kearns, University of ConnecticutNicole Hitchener, Coventry School DistrictLynn S. Fuchs, Vanderbilt University

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Today’s Presentation Rationale for intensive intervention Overview of the data-based individualization (DBI) process Examples from the field

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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

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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

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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

Validated programs are not universally effective programs; 3 to 5 percent of students need more help (Fuchs et al., 2008; NCII, 2013).

More Practice

Students with intensive needs often require 10–30 times more practice than peers to learn new information (Gersten et al., 2008).

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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

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What is NCII’s Approach toIntensive 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.

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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).

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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

SSIP

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• Conduct root cause analysis (including infrastructure) to identify contributing factors

• For each contributing factor, identify both barriers and leverage points for improvement

• 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)

• Initiate Data Analysis• Conduct broad

Infrastructure Analysis• Identify problem area

• Evaluation of progress annually• Adjust plan as needed

How well is the solution

working?What is the problem?

Why is it happening?

What shall we do

about it?

SSIP

SSIP Phase I

SSIP Phase I and II

SSIP Phase III

SSIP Phase I

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

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

School C 2014-2015

School D 2014-2015

• Whole school indicated interest • Self-assessment

• Set goals

•Build capacity through team membership changes•Behavior focus

•Streamlined NCII work with current initiatives

•Relied on school-based team support•ELA focus•Moved at school’s pace

•Streamlined NCII work with current initiatives

•Relied on school-based support•ELA focus•Moved at school’s pace

Coventry public schools and NCII

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

Project data/plan

Plan meeting dates ahead of time

Tools

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

Effective Meetings

• 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

Parent Involvement

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

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Kelsey’s secondary prevention program

Explicit Systematic

Research-based (Fuchs, Kearns, et al., 2012)

Focused on Foundational SkillsSight wordsSound-symbol correspondenceDecodingSpellingReading level-appropriate texts

Use Fidelity Checklists

Fidelity Checklist

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

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Running Records Program-specific mastery measuresXX

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On Running Records

“results indicate that … passage might exhibit a sizable source of error variance when scoring running records”

“using a single score obtained from reading a single passage … would be highly questionable”

(Fawson, Reutzel, Smith, Ludlow, & Sudweeks (2006), p. 121

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

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On Program-Specific “Progress Monitoring” Mastery measures

• Answers the question “Are students doing well in this program?”

• Somewhat similar to running records

Administer correctly! Administration fidelity problems

Misunderstanding:

We’ve been doing List 1 for four

weeks. Should we move to List 2

now?

We started giving him extra

encouragement and had him do it in the

library.

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

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.

Why can’t we use guided reading

levels to measure growth?

More information at the DLD Showcase

DBI: Diagnose carefully

Diagnosis Can Be Simple Analyze progress monitoring data Use readily available information Identify error patterns

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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 Results1. Review the diagnostic

assessments

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

3. Start considering adaptations

bunny vu… IDK

knife twin

Spellings include all sounds

Replaces nonwords with real words

Good sight word knowledge

PM errors are mainly for polysyllabic wordsspin … IDK count?

Kelsey tends to guess and needs

strategies to decode polysyllabic words.

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

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 pedagogical (how you teach) changes

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?

Track attendance % of instruction missedTrack attendance

DBI: ITERATE

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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?

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.

As one goal is metMeeting Goals

Use multiple sources to identify

new focus if still below

grade level expectation

*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.

Choosing New Goals

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

You might not see the improvement,

but I see it in class.X

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 based on empirical evidence of adequate learning – 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.

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DisclaimerThis 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.

Contact US

National Center on Intensive Intervention1000 Thomas Jefferson Street NWWashington, DC 20007-3835

www.intensiveintervention.org

ncii@air.org@TheNCII

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