Small Group Manual 2019-2020

Creating Decision Rules A student’s rate and level of progress is represented by a trend line, which is a line that is drawn through the data points representing the student’s performance over time. Rate of progress refers to how long it takes the student to reach the goal line. Teams can evaluate rate of progress by reviewing students’ trend lines. A student’s level of progress is thus reflected as an increasing, stable, or decreasing trend line. A general recommendation is to generate at least eight data points following the initiation of an intervention before making a decision about whether or not a student is making adequate progress or an adjustment in intervention is needed. Every time that student data are reviewed, an interpretation about the student’s response to intervention (positive, questionable, or poor) and a decision about what will occur next needs to be made. Decision options include continuing the intervention, intensifying the intervention, modifying the intervention, fading the intervention, or returning to the problem solving phase to gather additional data. In each of these scenarios, decisions about next steps are based on student data. If data indicate that the student is progressing toward the established goal, the response to intervention is considered positive and the team can decide whether to: § continue the intervention with the current goal, § increase the goal and continue the intervention, or § begin fading intervention components to determine if the student can sustain adequate growth without the intervention. When data indicate the student is making progress (the distance between the student’s trend line and the goal line is narrowing), but progress is at a slower than expected rate, the response to intervention is considered questionable. When this occurs, it is important to first examine the fidelity of implementation to determine if adjustments need to be made in how an intervention is being applied. If there is sufficient evidence that the intervention was implemented with fidelity, the team can decide whether to: § modify or intensify the intervention, § adjust the student’s goal to ensure student success before increasing the goal, or § provide the student with more frequent feedback regarding his/her progress. If the data show that the distance between the student’s trend line and goal line widens, the response to the intervention is considered poor. In this case, it is important to verify fidelity of implementation before adjusting the intervention. If the team ensures that the intervention was implemented consistently and as intended, then the team decide whether to: § conduct additional assessment to determine if the most appropriate reading skill is being targeted, § make significant adjustments to the intervention’s intensity, such as frequency or duration, or § consider whether an additional or more individualized intervention may be warranted. Use the following guidelines when establishing Tier 2 decision rules: § Ensure that interventions are targeting the student’s most significant skill deficit using the progression of literacy skill development as a guide and that students are being progress monitored on their skill deficit (e.g. Correct Letter Sounds, Nonsense Word Fluency) § Ensure that interventions are being implemented with fidelity before making decisions regarding an intervention’s effectiveness

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2019.08.20

©Canyons School District

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