Monthly Updates

November - December 2007 Uniontown Area School District Our first two months of progress monitoring and data analyses passed by as quickly as the warm Fall weather!  As winter’s chill blanketed western Pennsylvania, our hearts were warmed by the smiles of children learning to read. Congratulations and thanks to all of the intervention teachers for tackling the progress monitoring and data entry for each of their students.  The process was certainly not without its challenges (especially frustrations with technology) but is a critical step toward sustainability.  We were delighted to hear so many reports from teachers about the instructional value and usefulness of assessing their own students each week. When analyzing the data during weekly grade level and monthly DDMT meetings, teachers and administrators shared concerns about the rise and fall in students’ scores.  Many were feeling defeated and frustrated by individual drops in ORF rates. These discussions led to important conversations about the importance of focusing on the trend and level of progress rather than individual data points.  By examining the patterns of scores, the teachers were able to reflect on the “big picture” of student growth instead of the weekly variability in individual performance.  The data reviews also highlighted the need for some instructional and assessment changes.  At Lafayette, those changes included reorganizing intervention time to include rotation among three different instructional activities linked to students needs in a few of the benchmark, strategic, and intensive groups in which students were having difficulty attending and maintaining self control.  Ultimately, while the primary instructional activity was still systematic, explicit, and followed the guidelines of the standard protocol program used, the teachers also incorporated mini-lessons using manipulatives and interaction to help keep students engaged.  At BF and Menallen, those changes included developing reinforcement schedules to increase students’ on task behavior or changing the standard protocol program used. Finally, the principals, Directors of Special Education and Curriculum, MP3 team and intensive intervention teachers at each site agreed that moving from grade level to instructional level progress monitoring would better help to capture the growth of students in the intensive groups and on the “watch list”.  We look forward to seeing the positive impact of these changes not only on student progress but also on their self esteem as they experience greater reading success! While student progress is slow, we are very aware of the incredible transformations we’ve seen in academic progress and professional growth of both students and teachers across sites.  Above all, is the teachers’ and administrators’ focus on data and evidence-based practice.  Many teachers have shared with us how positively their teaching practices have been informed by the modeling and guidance of our on site staff.  Others have shared inspiring anecdotes as they watched previous non-readers discover the joy of literature.  Building principals and 3rd and 4th grade teachers were also excited to share notable improvements in many students’ 4Sight scores for Reading.  Most exciting was the terrific collaboration that we saw occurring across schools as teachers visited each other’s classrooms during core and intervention to get ideas, share expertise, and reinforce good practices. In addition to discussing data, the December DDMTs focused on planning and preparing for the quickly approaching January benchmarking.  All agreed that organization and flexibility will be key to ensure that  all students are tested efficiently, teachers’ time is used wisely, and the data is turned around quickly to move seamlessly (or at least as smoothly as possible) into the new intervention groups and progress monitoring schedules.  Everyone is anxious to review Fall goals and see how much progress students have made since early September. As we break to celebrate the holidays, I’d like to thank all of the faculty and staff in the Uniontown Area School District for their support and commitment to improving reading outcomes for their students.  We recognize that this journey is not without its detours and bumps in the road so thank you all the more for continuing on the path with us!  Many thanks also to the incredible MP3 team and everyone who supports our work at the University of Pittsburgh and Lehigh University—this Project would not be possible without your generosity of expertise and time. Happy holidays and Happy New Year to all! Amanda Kloo, Ph.D. - Project Coordinator, University of Pittsburgh Back to Monthly Updates Main Page