http://www.spectrumk12.com/ en bethdubose@spectrumk12.com Copyright 2010 2010-08-10T18:44:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/new_project_achieve_website_announced/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/new_project_achieve_website_announced/#When:17:44:00Z Project ACHIEVE is an evidence-based school improvement process that involves the implementation of Positive Academic Support and Services (PASS), Positive Behavioral Support Systems (PBSS), and multi-tiered Response-to-Instruction and Intervention support systems. Implemented in schools and districts nationwide since 1990, it is directed by Dr. Howie Knoff who is well-known for his writing, professional development, and technical assistance in these area. Today, the new Project ACHIEVE website goes on-line (www.projectachieve.info) with free information and technical assistance papers and powerpoints in many of these implementation areas. We encourage you to visit the website to review these and the other Project ACHIEVE resources. Response to Intervention 2010-08-10T17:44:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/identifying_learning_disabilities_in_the_context_of_response_to_interventio/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/identifying_learning_disabilities_in_the_context_of_response_to_interventio/#When:15:46:00Z Anyone just starting implementation of a Response to Intervention process may be unclear on how RTI can be used for identification of students with Learning Disabilities. The RTI Action Network reviews the historical definitions of LD and summarizes the scientific basis for the changes in identification and intervention introduced by IDEA 2004. The author of the article, Dr. Jack Fletcher, explains that the historical definition of Learning Disabilties was not very clear, and because the definition states that a learning disability could occur when "a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in one or more areas, " the IQ discrepancy model became the way to identify learning disabilities dispite contrary evidence and research that the discrepancy model lacked vaildity and reliabilty. When IDEA 2004 was passed it allowed districts to choose an identfication model that represented alternative inclusionary criteria, including a model basd on RTI. This allowed for models that did not use IQ as an inclusion criteria. Researchers have suggested three primary criteria to be used when identifying Learning Disabilities: Student demonstrates low achievement. There is insufficient response to effective, research-based interventions. A systematic plan for assessing change in performance must be established prior to intervention. Exclusion factors such as mental retardation, sensory deficits, serious emotional disturbance, language minority children (where lack of proficiency in English accounts for measured achievement deficits Thus, identifying children with LD, whether as part of the process stipulated in IDEA (2004), a clinic outside of school, or in research, requires the presence of low achievement and inadequate response to instruction as inclusionary criteria. This is true whether the overarching identification model stems from an RTI process or from some type of psychometric model. Fletcher reminds districts that implementing a RTI process can take several years, so they should prepare for a gradual change. He also emphasizes the need for a collaboration between general and special education when implementing RTI. At the time of his report, Fletcher states that many educators feel like RTI is a special education initiaive. Through our annual RTI Survey, we have seen this perspective change over the years and now 55% of responders across the nation indicate that implementing RTI is a unified effort in their distrct. Click here to read the entire article from the RTI Action Network. Response to Intervention 2010-06-28T15:46:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/spectrum_k12s_exceed_winner_of_2010_codie_award/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/spectrum_k12s_exceed_winner_of_2010_codie_award/#When:16:09:00Z Spectrum K12 Student Achievement and RTI Software Chosen as “Best Education Solution” and “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc., the leading provider of Response to Intervention (RTI) and student achievement management solutions for K-12 school districts announced today announced it’s EXCEED® software has been selected as the “Best Education Solution and “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). Nominated products underwent an intensive review by subject matter experts, analysts, journalists, and others with deep experience in the field. Only 34 winners were chosen from more than 785 nominations submitted by 374 companies. Spectrum K12’s EXCEED® was one of only 4 products that were named a winner in two separate education categories. The announcement was made at the 25th Annual CODiE Awards Reception and Dinner in San Francisco. Spectrum K12 earned the award for its EXCEED software, a student achievement management product that gives teachers an easy way to drive day-to-day activities, research based interventions and outcomes to help all students achieve success while giving administrators the ability to see what’s working and what’s not by student, class, school, teacher or intervention. The award for “Best Education Solution” recognizes EXCEED as the best overall education technology solution out of the 785 nominated products. Judges selected EXCEED as the “Best Education Solution” using criteria including ease of use, richness of functionality, impact on education processes, and overall visual/program aesthetics. EXCEED’s selection as “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” recognizes it as the best business management tool that supports education enterprises at preK-12 levels and that best enables data exchange, processing and reporting. EXCEED was judged the “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” based on it’s ability to integrate data and information from various sources, ability to meet different user needs and education missions, easy access to student and/or course data, and a short learning curve.  A list of winners is now available on the CODiE Awards Website at www.siia.net/CODiEs. General 2010-05-27T16:09:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/response_to_intervention_and_gifted_education/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/response_to_intervention_and_gifted_education/#When:13:06:00Z Prufrock Press, Inc. is providing a complimentary download of the Summer 2009 Special Issue of Gifted Child Today on the Topic of RtI and Gifted Education. To help education professionals take a proactive look at the ways gifted education and the needs of gifted students fit within the RtI initiative, Gifted Child Today’s editor, Susan Johnsen, Ph.D., and the journal’s editorial board invited two prominent professors (Mary Ruth Coleman, Ph.D. and Claire E. Hughes, Ph.D.) to guest edit a special issue of GCT on the important topic of RtI and gifted child education. Access the free complimentary download! Response to Intervention 2010-05-24T13:06:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/2010_rti_adoption_report/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/2010_rti_adoption_report/#When:12:56:00Z Spectrum K12 School Solutions, Inc., and leading education organizations including the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) announced the results of their 2010 survey of K-12 district administrators which gauges the extent to which Response to Intervention (RTI) has been adopted and implemented. Complete 2010 RTI Adoption survey results can be viewed at www.spectrumk12.com/rti/the_rti_corner/rti_adoption_report. Spectrum K12 teamed with NASDSE, CASE and AASA to provide a roadmap for districts nationwide by determining (1) how widely RTI has been adopted in U.S. school districts and implementation obstacles, (2) the effectiveness of RTI, and (3) how school districts are funding RTI. RTI Adoption and Implementation Obstacles The 2010 survey results indicate strong and rapid adoption rates of Response to Intervention with 61% of respondent districts indicating they are currently either in full implementation or in the process of district wide implementation – up from 54% in 2009, 32% in 2008 and 24% in 2007 with 48% of respondents indicating their district has a formal RTI district implementation plan like the NASDSE Blueprint. Survey results also show RTI is being increasingly implemented across all grade levels with a significant increase in middle and secondary schools as compared to previous years. Survey respondents report the primary obstacles to implementing RTI remain the same as in 2009 – (1) insufficient teacher training, (2) lack of intervention resources, (3) lack of resources for instruction and/or progress monitoring and (4) lack of data, knowledge, skills to implement tracking and charting. RTI Effectiveness In respondent districts that had sufficient data to determine the impact of RTI, 76% indicated RTI has led to an improvement in (AYP) vs. 24% that indicated it has not and 87% indicated RTI has reduced the number of special education referrals. RTI Funding RTI funding is coming from a variety of sources including General Funds, Title 1 and IDEA Early Intervening Services. ARRA Stimulus Funds have had an impact with 43% of respondents citing these funds as a source of RTI funding. Response to Intervention 2010-05-20T12:56:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/response_to_intervention_district_adoption_survey_2010/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/response_to_intervention_district_adoption_survey_2010/#When:16:40:00Z A number of leading education organizations are once again jointly conducting a survey to capture the extent to which Response to Intervention (RTI) has been adopted and implemented in school districts. Sponsoring organizations include NASDSE (National Association of State Directors of Special Education), AASA (American Association of School Administrators), CASE (Council of Administrators of Special Education) and Spectrum K12 School Solutions. This survey can be completed in approximately 15 minutes. Survey responses are strictly confidential and will only be reported in the aggregate. Take the survey now by clicking the link. Click here to take the 2010 RTI Adoption Survey Results of the survey will be available in a report jointly published by the sponsoring organizations. The survey report will provide you with critical information regarding RTI adoption trends, implementation issues and success metrics. Data from this survey will also be mapped to results from previous year surveys to identify trends and progress between 2007 through 2010. Response to Intervention 2010-03-19T16:40:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/are_there_differences_in_achievement_gaps_between_boys_and_girls/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/are_there_differences_in_achievement_gaps_between_boys_and_girls/#When:17:48:00Z This month the Center on Education Policy released a report that looked at data from 2007-2008 to determine if there is a difference in achievement gaps between boys and girls. The Center on Education Policy looked at the achievement of boys and girls on the state reading and mathematics tests used for NCLB accountability. The data for these analyses were drawn from an extensive set of test data that has been collected from all 50 states by CEP with technical support from the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO). State education officials have verified the accuracy of the data. The report addresses four main questions: What is the current status of performance differences between boys and girls in reading and math at various grades and achievement levels? What trends have emerged in the achievement of boys and girls at the elementary, middle, and high school levels since 2002, the year NCLB took effect? What trends have occurred since 2002 in the performance of male and female 4th graders at the basic, proficient, and advanced levels of achievement? Have achievement gaps between boys and girls narrowed since 2002? Below are the main findings from the report: In math, there was no consistent gender gap in 2008. Rather, there was rough parity in the percentages of boys and girls reaching proficiency at all three grade levels. The percentages of boys and girls scoring proficient inmath tended to be similar, with boys edging out girls slightly in some states and girls doing slightly better in other states. No state had a difference in math between boys and girls of more than 10 percentage points. In grade 4 math, states tended to have greater shares of girls reaching the basic level and greater shares of boys reaching the advanced level. Themedian percentages for girls and boys were quite similar inmath at the basic, proficient, and advanced achievement levels. However, the number of states in which one gender outperformed the other varied by achievement level. In grade 4 math, more states had higher percentages of 4th grade girls reaching the basic level, while more states had higher percentages of boys reaching the advanced level. At the proficient level, the number of states in which one gender out performed the other were roughly equal. In reading, girls outperformed boys in 2008 at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Higher percentages of girls than boys scored at or above the proficient level on state reading tests at grade 4, grade 8, and high school; in some states, these gaps exceeded 10 percentage points. In grade 4 reading, higher percentages of girls than boys reached the basic, proficient, and advanced achievement levels in 2008. The median percentages of 4th grade girls reaching all three achievement levels—basic, proficient, and advanced—were higher than the median percentages for boys. (The median is the midpoint; half of the states with sufficient data had percentages above this point and half had percentages below.) In no state did boys outperform girls in reading at any achievement level. Although reading achievement gaps between boys and girls have narrowed in many cases according to the percentage proficient indicator used for NCLB, boys have made less progress in catching up to girls according average test scores, which are a better indicator for this purpose. Since 2002, percentages proficient gaps in reading between boys and girls have narrowed in the majority (52%) of instances analyzed across the states with sufficient data and have widened in 40%of instances. But mean (average) test scores, which are a more useful indicator of gaps because they capture improvements across the achievement spectrum, present a less positive picture.Gaps inmean test scores have widened almost as often as they have narrowed—45% of instances compared with 46%. For both boys and girls, states with gains in reading and math proficiency between 2002 and 2008 far outnumbered states with declines at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. At least 70% of the states with sufficient data posted gains in percentages proficient for both genders in all subject/grade level combinations except high school reading, where 63% of the states with data showed gains. In reading, upward trends were slightly more prevalent for boys than for girls, but in math, the numbers of rising trend lines were similar for boys and girls. In a majority of the states with sufficient data, both boys and girls in grade 4 have made progress in reading and math since 2002 at the basic, proficient, and advanced achievement levels. In general, the numbers of states with gains in the percentage of males at the three achievement levels were similar to the numbers for females. To download the complete report, visit the Center on Education Policy General 2010-03-18T17:48:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/elementary_and_secondary_act_esea_renewal_guidelines_released/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/elementary_and_secondary_act_esea_renewal_guidelines_released/#When:17:32:00Z U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has released broad principles for renewing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.  The guidelines will focus on some of the same areas NCLB orginally did, such as disaggregating data and improving the performance of particular student groups, such as students in special education. But the new act would allow states more flexibility on how they would handle districts that are struggling to meet requirements, and would allow states the decision to test beyond reading and math. The 2014 date from NCLB where all students would need to be proficient in reading and math would disappear, allowing states time to develop college/career ready programs in their schools with no new deadline determined yet. With the new ESEA act, the bottom 5% of schools would be required to use on eof the four tournaround models presented by the US DOE. The next 5% would be put on a warning list, and would be required to use research-based interventions within their curriculum. Also, states would be required to identify the schools with the largest achievement gaps, if if those students do not show improvement in three years, the state will take over the school’s Title I money. From the interviews listed in EdWeek, it seems Administrative organizations like what they see in the blueprint but teacher organizations do not because it places so much emphasis on the teacher being responsible for the success of the school. If you would like to read the entire article, please visit Education Week General 2010-03-17T17:32:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/what_works_clearinghouse/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/what_works_clearinghouse/#When:17:24:00Z Posted by Machele Stefhon Are you looking for a list of successful interventions to address your RTI needs? Try the “What Works Clearinghouse” a one-stop shop for checking to see what the best research-validated intervention are in any area.  What Works Clearinghouse is the top visited RTI sites for accessing one comprehensive list is of interventions. Located at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/ Response to Intervention 2010-03-16T17:24:00-05:00 http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/spectrum_k12_response_to_intervention_rti_solution_passes_400000_student_mi/ http://www.spectrumk12.com/blog/spectrum_k12_response_to_intervention_rti_solution_passes_400000_student_mi/#When:17:49:00Z EXCEED™ RTI Software Selected By K-12 School Districts in 8 States and the District of Columbia Towson, MD - Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc., the leading provider of Response to Intervention (RTI) software and student achievement management solutions for K-12 school districts, today announced that it recently passed the 400,000 students served mark in school districts employing its EXCEED™ RTI software. EXCEED RTI is a web-based software application that automates and delivers the Response to Intervention process, simplifying an otherwise cumbersome and paper driven process. Tracking, monitoring and managing intervention and student performance data, EXCEED RTI ensures fully-informed decision making and high quality instruction. To manage the growth of its business and customer base, Spectrum K12 has grown the employee base 15% and is actively recruiting to fill additional positions. The increase in the number of districts using EXCEED RTI to manage and streamline their Response to Intervention processes and data management reflects the accelerated rate of RTI adoption as noted in a recent survey. The survey, jointly conducted in April 2009 by Spectrum K12, the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), and the National Association of State Title 1 Directors, showed the number of districts in some stage of implementing RTI rising from 60% in 2008 to 71% in 2009. Survey results can be downloaded from www.spectrumk12.com/campaign/rti_survey_results In addition to rapid adoption by customers, Spectrum K12 has also received extensive industry recognition for their innovative solution including: • 2010 CODiE Finalist for “Best Classroom Management Solution”, “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution", and “Best Education Solution” with winners announced at the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Ed Tech Industry Summit May 24th, 2010 • 2009 CODiE Award Winner for “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” presented by SIIA • 2008 “Readers Choice Top 100 Products” presented by District Administration Magazine • 2008 “Best of NECC” presented by Techlearning.com • 2008 CODiE Award Winner for “Best Education Solution” presented by SIIA Response to Intervention 2010-03-09T17:49:00-05:00