Special Education Referral and Evaluation Report

Oregon RTI ProjectSustaining Districts Trainings

2010-2011

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

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

Daisy participates in the general curriculum with

strong instruction

Screening data showsDaisy isn’t doing well Second Group

Intervention

EBIS Team designs individualized intervention

Exit intervention?

Daisydoesn’t

improve

Daisyimproves

Daisydoesn’t

improve

Daisyimproves

Intervention is intense and LD is suspected

Improvement is good and other

factors are suspected as

cause

Special Education referral is initiated

Team reviews screening data and places Daisy in group intervention

Parents Notified

How RTI Works from a Student’s Perspective

Special Education Process

• Referral• Evaluation Planning Meeting• Eligibility Determination Meeting

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

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

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

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.

• Data indicating the student has significantly low skills as compared to research-based norms and benchmarks.

Determining if the student has low skills:

State SLD Eligibility Form

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?

How Low is Low?

• General Guidelines (district determines guidelines)– CBMs• Intensive range• Below the 16th percentile• More than 2 times discrepant

– OAKS• Below the 16th percentile

– Achievement Tests• Below the 16th percentile

What if the data are mixed?

• CBM data: indicate intensive rangeAND

• OAKS data: indicate average range• What data do you place more

emphasis on?– CBM data– Look at in program assessments too

Example• 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.

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.

Describing low skills in your evaluation report

• Data indicating the student has not made significant progress to close their achievement gap…

Determining if a student is making slow progress:

State SLD Eligibility Form: 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

What is slow progress?

How slow is slow?

• Student data below the aimline Or

• Student’s growth rate is far below the expected growth rate

National Growth Rates

Grade Realistic Ambitious

1 2.0 words/week 3.0 words/week

2 1.5 words/week 2.0 words/week

3 1.0 words/week 1.5 words/week

4 .85 words/week 1.1 words/week

5 .50 words/week .80 words/week

Source: Fuchs et al, (1993)

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

• Data indicating the student has an instructional need for special education services (included description of needed instructional supports)

Determining Instructional Need:

How you determine instructional need?

– It comes down to the balance: How does the weight of the intervention compare to the rate of progress?

• 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

Evaluation report includes the following: Instructional

Need

• 3rd graderThe level

Rita Fall Screening: ORF 40 (75% accuracy)Fall Benchmark: 77

Curriculum assessmentWeekly tests: Average

3/10 on in program assessments

OAKS: 200 (11th percentile)

Are her skills low?

• 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

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?

Rita

Rita

4038

383937

Phonics for Reading

Rita

• October: Change of intervention– Reading Mastery 30 minutes during

intervention

• Group size: 6

• 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?

Rita

Rita

4038

383937

Phonics for Reading

37

393739

RM

Rita

• November: Change of intervention– Reading Mastery 45 minutes during

intervention– Group Size: 3

• 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?

• Reading Mastery assessments– Passing checkouts

• OAKS: – 30th percentile

• Does Rita appear to have an instructional need?

• What should we do for Rita?

Rita

Rita

4038

383937

Phonics for Reading

37

393739

RM30 minutes RM 45 minutes

37403836

• 2nd graderBenchmark Testing:

Sept: ORF 22 (accuracy 87%) Benchmark: 44

Curriculum Assessment: – Weekly tests:

average scores of 4 out of 10

• Are his skills low?

• 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

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?

Briar

221920

2225

RM

Briar

Briar

• October: Change of intervention– Reading Mastery 30 minutes during core– Reading Mastery 30 minutes during

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?

• In Program assessments– Reading Mastery

checkouts: passing

• Does Briar appear to have an instructional need?

• Do you change the intervention?

Briar

221920

22252930

2940

RN 30 min

RM 60 minutes Briar

32

38

4038

• An observation of the child’s academic performance and behavior in a regular education setting (related to the area of concern)

Evaluation report includes the following: Observation

State SLD Eligibility Form

• 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

What is the focus of the observation?:

• Data indicating exclusionary factors (language, health, another disability, lack of instruction etc) are not the primary cause of the student’s learning deficit

Evaluation report includes the following:

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?