Getting started with the 2008-2009 Data Collection schedule is easy!  Please remember to assign someone in-house to facilitate your Data Collection.  Your Team Leader should work in conjunction with the administrative team and staff to complete the following steps:

1.  Assign staff to serve as Team Leader and assessment team participants.  Set forth guidelines and assign responsibilities regarding trouble shooting.  It is better to assign 1-2 people to answer questions regarding procedures than risk a communication break down.

2.  Determine the assessment schedule.  Best practices suggests that Benchmarking should be done 3x a year in the Fall, Winter and Spring.  If you are a multiple school district, please ensure your testing windows are the same for each building to ensure fidelity of data.

3.  Choose your Curriculum Based Measures (CBM).  The general recommendation is to start small to ensure you can support staff in their efforts once benchmarking data is analyzed.  Develop school wide/district wide goals and resources before adding additional benchmarking areas.

4.  Develop meeting calendar for 2008-2009 school year to analyze data and make appropriate recommendations for interventions.  Ideally, these meetings should be help within a week of benchmark completion.