Where do I start?

What should I do first?

“If you don’t ask the right questions, you don’t get the right answers. A question asked in the right way often points to its own answer. Asking questions is the ABC of diagnosis. Only the inquiring mind solves problems.” – Edward Hodnett

What is root cause?

Finding the root cause is so important so we are addressing the correct need and not merely a symptom. It would be like going to the doctor because you had a heart attack and the doctor wants to treat you for your fever instead of the heart attack. She would be treating only the symptom and not the root cause of the problem. You would never get better.

The same is true for a student who is given an intervention only at the 'symptom level' and not at the root cause level. Imagine a student who is not turning in their homework and is therefore failing his math class. We may decide to put an intervention plan in place for this. We might give the student a homework contract and arrange for some incentives and consequences. If this does not work, we eventually as 'why', and we just might discover that the student is not able to complete the homework because they do not understand the concepts. It might also be laziness, disorganization or many other reasons, but we won't know unless we ask 'why'.

Then What?

Make a decision according to the data! Progress monitoring is simply taking a check on the student’s growth over time. We need to use the same measure for multiple ‘checks’ to see if the student is progressing. Graphing these data is both powerful for decision making and very motivating for the student.

Decision rules when looking at a progress monitoring graph:

1. If there is a lot of variability in the data, consider collecting more data.

2. If the student has a trend line that is on target to meet the aim line for 6-10 data points, consider continuing until the student reaches grade level or consider discontinuing if the student has reached their goal.

Graph from AIMSweb

3. If the student has a trend line that is going strongly negative, consider changing the intervention.

Graph from AIMSweb

Sample questions to ask when reviewing data:

1. Has the instructional programming been delivered with fidelity? (Has this been observed?)

2. Has the student had good attendance?

3. Is core instruction also being provided? Or, is the student missing the grade level instruction?

4. Does the supplemental instruction address specific skill deficits?

5. Are there other factors impacting the student's performance?