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Edutools.us makes progress monitoring a snap. The set up is  easy and intuitive. Data entry is simple. The visualizations are interactive, and decision - making with EduTools.us is accurate and defensible. Decision - making will always require some degree of professional judgement. Check out this brief presentation demonstrating how the visualizations from edutools.us can make decision - making more objective.

Progress Monitoring is a required for special education. Defined as a scientifically based practice, attempts to define the scope of tools for progress monitoring fall short. The NCII "Tools" chart delineates psychometric  characteristics for 74 "Areas" from 19 different "Titles" in the subjects of Reading, Writing and Mathematics. A valiant effort, but schools needn't be limited by the NCII chart. The summaries are very useful to help educators to make informed decisions. However, it is the measurement rather than the tool that is reliable. It is the effect of the measurement occasions that should be used to evaluate student progress, not samples collected from research that may or may not adequately represent the student. This presentation sets up the framework for progress monitoring and with the ultimate goal of graphing data with confidence intervals to evaluate student progress. The focus of this Mini-skill session is to demonstrate how educators can validate the measurement of their choice, and provide a heuristic for reliably evaluating the progress of a student regardless of whether the tool of choice has been deemed worthy by a National Center, without specific consideration of the quality of the data actually collected.

This presentation on advanced progress monitoring was given to Illinois Response to Intervention - RtI - Network.The focus of the presentation is to Establish Common Ground Regarding What We Are Measuring (The importance of Accuracy, Rate, Vocabulary, Background Knowledge, Language Structures and Metacognition). Set Goals in Three Tiers  (The difference between Standards Based, Norm Referenced or Growth Referenced Goals); Discuss Monitoring and Evaluating Progress (CBM, Comprehension Using a Rubric, Writing, Vocabulary); and address The Role and Convergence of Fountas and Pinnell Levels with Universal Screeners.

There are many reasons due to lack of skill that students do poorly on assessments. This module reviews some of the critical reading skill components necessary for valid assessment. The overall big idea of this presentation is when making decisions about students,  Thinking IS Required

The EXPLORE test is the first in a set of three tests produced by ACT in the EPAS system. The results of EXPLORE are strongly correlated with the results from the ACT college placement test. In addition, EXPLORE results from 8th grade are often used for placement decisions by highschools.  While the goal of this Module is NOT teaching to the test, the purpose is to review a released version of the EXPLORE test to see what skills are required of students on this test to be successful.

Universal Screening is based on the concept of the use of a brief reliable assessment to get a very general picture of who is ok, and who may require more assistance.

Monitoring Progress is a Key Component of Response to Intervention. This purpose of this module is to review three types of goal setting with a General Outcome Measure, then the focus switches to evaluating progress. The module then reviews outcomes from a  sixth grade social studies class monitoring vocabulary development.

Thinking is required! This module provides a six step heuristic to decision - making with convergence and magnitude. The steps are:

Step 1. What data will you use?
Step 2. What are the cut scores indicating a difference requiring additional assistance? What is the cut score indicating a need for substantial assistance?
Step 3. Classify each score as Risk versus No Risk
Step 4. Determine convergence, list scores with >50% convergence
Step 5. Sort by Magnitude
Step 6. Meet with teachers to validate decisions

A program evaluation demonstrating that given resources and commitment to making a difference secondary level students can make significant progress.