At-Risk Not acquiring relevant skills that may result in a need for an intervention
Continuous Progress Monitoring – snapshots of student progress usually occur at least three to four times a year, or more often if additional data is needed. This information is used to make decisions relative to student progress/achievement as a result of instruction.
Decision-making Team - generic term for general education problem-solving teams already in existence in school systems that rely on objective data to make decisions regarding students’ academic and behavioral programs.
Fidelity – in general, fidelity of intervention implementation means that staff implements the intervention in the manner intended based upon the research and validation process. Fidelity also implies that there is a monitoring mechanism that ensures that the intervention is being delivered as designed, sufficient time is set aside for the intervention to be implemented, and data is collected to determine whether or not the student is benefiting from the intervention.
Formative Assessments – on-going assessments, reviews, and observations in a classroom. Teachers use formative assessment to improve instructional methods and student feedback throughout the teaching and learning process. For example, if a teacher observes that some students do not grasp a concept, she or he can design a review activity or use a different instructional strategy. Likewise, students can monitor their progress with periodic quizzes and performance tasks. The results of formative assessments are used to modify and validate instruction.
Intervention – a designed change in the manner and/or degree in which a student is being instructed.
Problem-Solving Model – This construct addresses each student’s failure to respond to intervention and makes an individually tailored plan for the next level of instruction or support. It is essentially a case-by-case approach to addressing individual student’s unique needs. The problem-solving model relies on teacher assistance teams or instructional support teams already established in most schools.
Progress Monitoring - Measuring student performance over time to illustrate whether the student is achieving appropriately to the instructional program being delivered.
Progress Monitoring during Interventions – monitoring of student progress is frequent, and fine-tuning of instruction is based on student response to intervention. Data that indicates substantial lack of progress after implementation of classroom interventions signals the need for additional intensive instruction in more substantial blocks of time, using interventions that match the specific skill deficit.
Reliability – Yielding comparable results each time. In assessments, reliability refers to consistency or achieving the same result on successive trials.
Research-based – Based on multiple, systematic investigations, testing, and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.
Response to Intervention (RtI) - A process of providing high quality instruction and intervention matched to student need that includes frequent progress monitoring to assist in decision making regarding the need for a change in instructional and/or behavioral programming.
Summative Assessments – typically used to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional programs and services at the end of an academic year or at a pre-determined time. The goal of summative assessments is to make a judgment of student competency after an instructional phase is complete. Summative evaluations are used to determine if students have mastered specific competencies and to identify instructional areas that need additional attention.
Validity - Validity is an attribute of a score and refers to the accuracy with which a score represents a person’s knowledge, skills or abilities. In addition, validity refers to the meaning of a score or assessment result and may be influenced by content/theory, response processes, internal structure, relationships to other variables and assessment consequences.
Tiered Instructional Delivery – An approach for educational service delivery in which each tier represents an increased intensity of instructional and/or behavioral delivery that corresponds with a student’s needs. The implementation of this flexible interrelated instructional delivery approach provides a framework that includes appropriate curriculum, instruction and school organization that increases the likelihood of improved student achievement. Differentiation of instruction is critical to each of the tiers.
Universal Screening – School or district-wide type of assessment of age appropriate critical academic and/or behavior skills to determine which students may be “at risk”. Students identified as “at risk” may need closer monitoring, interventions, or more in-depth assessment. Universal screening, if administered at regular intervals throughout the year, would enable the ongoing evaluation of a student’s performance relative to his/her peers in the mastery of grade level expectations.
