“The Essential Components of RTI: Progress Monitoring” Webinar
Slide 1:
Hello and welcome to the National Center on Response to Interventions webinar “The
Essential Components of RTI: Progress Monitoring.” My name is Whitney Donaldson
and I will be talking to you today.
Slide 2:
The National Center on RTI has a definition for RTI that includes what we consider to be the
essential components. You’ll see in the first part of the definition, response to intervention
integrates assessment and intervention within a school-wide, multi-level prevention system to
maximize student achievement and reduce behavior problems. It is important to point out that
RTI is a school-wide prevention system, as opposed to a pre-referral for special education and
it is multi-level as opposed to multi-tier. Although we’ll talk about more of this in later slides, it is
important to understand that there are three levels of instruction in an RTI framework and
states, districts or schools can have multiple tiers within those three levels of instruction in order
to prevent school failure.
The second part of the definition highlights the essential components of an RTI
framework.
• The first component involves schools identifying students at risk for poor learning
outcomes. We commonly refer to this process as universal screening.
• The next component involves progress monitoring students, which we commonly
refer to as progress monitoring.
• The next component referenced relates to providing evidence based
interventions based on student’s responsiveness. It really not merely the delivery
of interventions, but that there is multi-level prevention system in which
students have access to increasingly intense levels of instruction and
interventions.
• The last component involves the use of data (e.g., screening, progress
monitoring) to adjust the intensity and nature of those interventions based on
student responsiveness. In other words, there is an explicit, systematic process
for data-based decision making.
Some people mistakenly believe that RTI is only about special education. But it is really
important to remember that RTI is a school-wide, multi-level prevention system that
results in data that may be used as part of the determination process for identifying
students with specific learning disabilities or other disabilities. This is done in
accordance to your state law.
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Slide 3:
So to summarize the definition, RTI is a preventive framework. It’s not the new name
for a pre-referral process. The intent of RTI is to improve outcomes for all students while
providing immediate supplemental supports to students at risk for poor learning
outcomes. And remember, RTI may be a component of a comprehensive evaluation for
SLD determination but that is not why we implement RTI. How RTI is used in a SLD
eligibility process is determine by your state.
Slide 4:
As you saw in the definition, the Center has identified four essential components for RTI.
1. Screening – or a system for identifying students at-risk for school failure.
2. Progress Monitoring – this is a system for monitoring the effectiveness of the
supports provided to students.
3. Multi-level prevention system – or three increasingly intense levels of
instructional support. These three level of support are:
a) Primary which is your core instruction and curriculum.
b) Secondary which is in addition to your primary, provides supports
targeted to students’ needs
c) Tertiary, which is also supplemental to primary, but more intense than
secondary.
4. The fourth essential component is Data-based decision making. Data based
decisions are made for multiple purposes including:
a) Instruction – to identify who needs assistance, what type of instruction or
assistance is needed, and is the duration and intensity sufficient
b) It’s also used for movement between levels – so you’ll know when to move
students to something more or less intensive, and who is responding and
not responding
c) Finally Data based Decisions are made to help with Disability identification
– so you’ll know when you refer for special education evaluation, how
does this students compare to his/her peers, and did he/she receive
appropriate instruction (in accordance to your state law).
Slide 5:
The Center has developed a graphic to highlight the RTI framework. Many of you
probably associate the red, green and yellow triangle with RTI. However in reality, the
triangle does not represent the RTI framework; it only represents one component, the
multi-level prevention system component. The Center graphic takes into account all of
the essential components and most importantly the use of data to make decisions, this
is often absent from the traditional RTI triangle. If you look at the circle on the far left
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you see screening, to the far right, progress monitoring and at the bottom the multi-level
prevention system. The three outer components require and are necessary parts of
data-based decision making, which is why the arrows travel both directions. If these
components are in place, but data decision making is absent, then RTI is technically not
being implemented. If you look in the center ring you will see ‘culturally responsive’,
meaning the screening tools, progress monitoring tools, interventions, & data-based
decision making procedures are all culturally responsive. In the same ring, you will
notice evidence based, implying all components are evidence based. If these
components are implemented through a cohesive model, we would expect to see
improved student outcomes. Since this webinar is on Progress Monitoring, that is the
essential component we are going to focus on now.
Slide 6:
The purpose of progress monitoring is to monitor students’ response to primary,
secondary and tertiary instruction. It is not just for those students identified for
supplemental instruction. Progress monitoring data can be used for several purposes.
1) to estimate the rates of improvement which allows for comparison to peers; 2) also to
identify students who are not demonstrating or making adequate progress so
instructional changes can be made, and 3) can be used to compare the efficiency or
efficacy of different forms of instruction – in other words, which instructional approach or
intervention led to the greatest growth among students. Progress monitoring will also
identify those kids who were over-identified through the screening process.
The focus is on those students who have been identified through screening as at risk for
poor learning outcomes. This could be students just above the cut off score not only
those just below the cut off score.
Progress monitoring tools, just like screening tools, should be brief, reliable, valid and
evidence based. Common progress monitoring tools include curriculum based
measurements and mastery measurements.
Progress monitoring can be used anytime throughout the school year. With progress
monitoring, students are given standardized probes at regular intervals this could be
weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly to produce accurate and meaningful results that teachers
can use to quantify short- and long-term student gains toward end-of-year goals. At a
minimum, progress monitoring tools should be administered at least monthly. However,
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more frequent data collection is recommended given the amount of data needed for
making decisions with confidence. With progress monitoring, teachers establish longterm (i.e., end-of-year) goals indicating the level of proficiency students will demonstrate
by the end of the school year.
Slide 7:
So in summary, Progress Monitoring allows practitioners to estimate rates of student
improvement, identify students who are not demonstrating adequate progress and
compare the efficacy of different forms of instruction to design more effective,
individualized instruction. This not only helps students to learn more, but allows
teachers to become better teachers.
Slide 8:
So let’s take a look at a couple of progress monitoring graphs. The graph on the left
shows a student with increasing CBM scores. The increasing scores indicate the
student is responding to his or her current instructional program. But if we look at the
graph on the right shows a student with fairly flat CBM scores. The flat scores indicate
that the student is not responding to his or her current instruction, and perhaps an
instructional change for the student should occur.
Slide 9:
On the next set of graphs include trend lines and goal lines. On the graph on the left,
the trend-line is steeper than the goal-line. The student is showing increasing scores;
therefore, the student’s is making adequate progress and the end-of-year goal needs to
be adjusted to provide more of a challenge.
On the graph on the right, the trend-line is flatter than the performance goal-line. The
student is not profiting from the instruction and, therefore, the teacher needs to change
the student’s instructional program. The instructional program should be tailored to
bring a student’s scores up so the scores match or surpass the goal-line.
On the graph on the right, the trend-line is steeper than the goal-line. The student is
showing increasing scores; therefore, the student’s is making adequate progress and
the end-of-year goal needs to be adjusted to provide more of a challenge.
On the graph on the left, the trend-line is flatter than the performance goal-line. The
student is not profiting from the instruction and, therefore, the teacher needs to change
the student’s instructional program. The instructional program should be tailored to
bring a student’s scores up so the scores match or surpass the goal-line.
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Slide 10:
This graph shows us the rates of improvement by groups of students. These three
different groups received three different interventions. You can see on the graph that
group receiving Intervention A shows the greatest progress. The group receiving
intervention C is showing progress, but less than the other groups. And Intervention B
is in between them.
Slide 11:
In summary, progress monitoring data can help answer these questions.
1. Are students making progress at an acceptable rate? It isn’t enough to
make progress. The progress must be meaningful and to close the gap
between the student’s progress and the progress of his/her peers.
2. Are students meeting short term goals which will help them reach their
long term goals?
3. Finally, does the instruction need to be adjusted or changed? Using preestablished data decision rules, progress monitoring allows you to
determine if the instruction is working for the student and evaluate the
effectiveness of changes.
Slide 12:
The focus of progress monitoring is on those students who have been identified through
screening as at risk for poor learning outcomes. This could be students just above the
cut off score not just those below who are below the cut off score.
Since screening tools tend to overidentify, the focus of progress monitoring is to verify
the results of screening. Once nonresponders are identified through the screening
process, the focus shifts to those students identified as at-risk for poor learning
outcomes. It could include those students receiving all levels of instruction, not just
secondary or tertiary instructions.
Slide 13:
Schools must choose age-appropriate outcome measures that capture student ability.
They may have different progress monitoring tools to assess different outcome
measures. No one progress monitoring tool can monitor for all areas. Different tools
may be necessary for different outcome areas.
Slide 14:
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Now there are different types of progress monitoring measures. There’s Mastery
Measurement and General Outcome Measurements. Lets take a few minutes to talk
about these measurements.
Slide 15:
Mastery Measurement indexes a student’s successive mastery of a hierarchy of
objectives. It describes mastery of a series of short-term instructional objectives. SO in
order for a teacher to implement Mastery Measurement, the teacher would determines a
sensible instructional sequence for the school year and then designs criterionreferenced testing procedures to match each step in that instructional sequence.
Slide 16:
So this is an example of a mastery measure for multi digit addition. While teaching multi
digit addition with regrouping, the teacher may give assessments that look something
like this. There are 10 problems all dealing with multi digit addition with regrouping.
Slide 17:
Now this what a graph with mastery measurement data would look like. It starts with
multi-digit addition. Once the student reaches mastery (80%) 3 times in a row, then the
teacher moves on to the next concept which is multi digit subtraction. Some of the
problems associated with mastery measurement include:
• Hierarchy of skills is logical, not empirical – this means that while it may
seem logical to teach addition first and then subtraction, there is no
evidence-based research that says you have to do it that way.
• Also, this assessment does not reflect maintenance or generalization.
You don’t know if after teaching subtraction with regrouping if the student
remembers how to do addition with regrouping.
• Number of objectives mastered does not relate well to performance on
criterion measures – meaning how a student does on these assessments
does not indicate how he or she will do on standardized tests.
• Finally, measurement methods are designed by teachers, with unknown
reliability and validity.
Slide 18:
In contrast a General Outcome Measure, often CBM, rather than only assessing for the
first objective that is being taught, it assess for all objectives in the curriculum are
assessed.
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A GOM is a measure that reflects overall competence in the annual curriculum. It
describes individual children’s growth and development over time. It provides a
decision-making model for designing and evaluating interventions. It is used for
individual children and for groups of children
In addition the Focus is on repeated measures of performance and it makes no
assumptions about instructional hierarchy for determining measurement. And GOMs
incorporates automatic tests of retention and generalization
Slide 19:
Here is an example of a GOM probe or a General Outcome Measurement probe.
Different types of problems are placed randomly throughout the page.
Slide 20:
So here’s a graph of a GOM data. Since the entire curriculum is assessed each time,
the teacher is able to determine if the student is on track to meet his/her goals. If not, a
change in instruction can be made. So you can see on this particular graph, a change
in instruction would be necessary
Slide 21:
The Center has developed the progress monitoring tools chart that can be accessed
through the National Center on RTI’s website at www.rti4success.org. The columns on
the tools chart are indictors of the technical rigor of the tools. You will notice in several
of the columns, circles filled completely, partially, or not at all. The tools chart does not
recommend tools, but providers users with a consumer report of sort, similar to what
you may find when searching for a car, however this is for available Progress Monitoring
tools.
There are many progress monitoring tools available and all are not listed on the
Progress Monitoring chart. Only tools that have been submitted by the tool vendor
appear on the chart. When selecting a tool it is important to consider both the technical
rigor of the tool as well as your own needs and priorities. To learn more about selecting
the appropriate progress monitoring tool watch the “Selecting Evidence Based Tools
and Programs for Implementing Response to Intervention” webinar which can be found
on our center’s Website.
Slide 22:
The Progress Monitoring tools chart includes information about General outcome
measures and Mastery measures. To view tools by each type, click on the tabs at the
top of the chart.
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For each tool, the chart provides information about technical rigor and implementation
requirements.
Slide 23:
Progress Monitoring is used to monitor student progress across the entire school year.
Students are given standardized probes at regular intervals (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly)
to produce accurate and meaningful results that teachers can use to quantify short- and
long-term student gains toward end-of-year goals.
At a minimum, progress monitoring tools should be administered monthly. However,
more frequent data collection is recommended given the amount of data needed for
making decisions with confidence. Research suggests that there needs to be 6-9 data
points to accurately make instructional decisions. As the number of data points
increases the effects of measurement error on the trend line decreases. The frequency
in which a tool can be used for progress monitoring really depends on the tool. Some
tools are more sensitive than others so they can be used more frequently.
Slide 24:
It’s easy to identify your model components of RTI, but implementing can be quite
difficult and can take at least two to four years to get into full implementation. We
recommend that you select and implement evidence-based practices and procedures.
The tools charts available through the RTI Center can help you do that.
You should also implement the essential components and identified framework with
integrity. It’s not enough to implement screening and progress monitoring with integrity,
you also must ensure that the interventions, core curriculum and instruction, and data
decision making procedures are also implemented with integrity.
It is also important to ensure that cultural and linguistic and socio-economic factors are
reflected in the RTI framework and its components. On the tools chart, there is a column
that provides information about how these particular tools have been used with different
groups. District and schools teams should continually evaluate the efficacy of the model
and model components for diverse populations.
Slide 25:
For more information about RTI visit the National Center on Response to Intervention
and for more information about the Progress Monitoring Tools chart, you can find the
tools chart on the Center’s website.
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Slide 26:
If you have any questions, please e-mail any questions that you have to
[email protected]. We will be having a live chat on December 16th from 2:003:00pm eastern standard time to answer any questions submitted via e-mail as well as
any additional questions that come up during the online chat.
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