RtI: Using Data Graphs

We just finished our first cycle of RtI this past week.  It actually should have ended the week before, but the week off for snow changed our date.  When we miss school or students are absent, we make those days up in RtI also.

When teachers have completed their data graphs for each student in tiers II and III, they turn in their graphs to me.  We use the graphs at our RtI committee meeting and decide if progress was made and to what extent.  

At my school, we choose 2 appropriate areas of intervention per student for tiers II & III.  One intervention is plotted per graph.  But if the skill is mastered, then a new intervention is started and kept on that same graph to cut down on papers in the file.  

At the beginning of the cycle, each student is given 3 assessments in their area of intervention.  For the student above, they were working on pre-primer sight words.  After being given the assessment 3 times, the scores are averaged together and that average is plotted on the graph (the red circle).  Baseline scores are written at the top of the graph (in black).  Then, we plot where we want the student to be at the end of 10 (tier II) or 12 (tier III) weeks (in orange).  

Once your baselines are plotted and the goal is plotted, a line is drawn to connect the two.  This is now your goal line.  This goal line helps you to gauge how your student is doing as you instruct them.  Each week we teach the student in their area of intervention and then assess them at the end of the week to check their progress.  What you want to see are the data points close to the goal line or above it and progressing up each week.  If the data points are below or progress is not being made, then you need to do some reflection on the intervention.  You need to reflect on whether a change in the way you are instructing or the intervention itself needs to be changed.  

In the photo above, the student started on short vowel words.  He made good, though slow, progress each week.  Once he mastered this skill, the next skill he was low in and needed intervention for was consonant blends.  I gave him the 3 baseline assessments and plotted a new goal line.  He did not have long to work on this new skill, but the two weeks after the baselines were above what he was scoring on his baseline tests.

This student made good progress and I changed interventions each time one was mastered.  But unless you know all the information on the graph, looks can be deceiving.  It looks like at first glance that this student is doing really well.  And he did do well in the areas given to him.  But the whole picture is that this is a third grade student and he is working on first grade skills in tier III.  So although, he was experiencing success, which is exactly what we want, we also have to take into consideration his grade and what grade level skills he is working on.

Once teachers get all their graphs turned into me, I go over them to check them and then create charts using the data from the graphs.  These data charts will then be used to help the RtI committee to make decisions on each individual student, like whether they will continue continue in that tier for the next RtI cycle, move up a tier or down a tier, or be recommended to the special education team for consideration for testing.  

We have our RtI set up as very regulated and systematic and it works well for us.  Please remember that each school is different and what works for one school may or not work for another.  You have to research and find what will be successful for your individual school.  

Happy Christmas break everyone!