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Our theme for January is progress monitoring. Continue reading for some great resources, information, and news! Also, don't miss out on our new
Family Corner
section!
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Progress Monitoring to Close the Achievement Gap
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Why do we NEED progress monitoring?
“Progress monitoring is when teachers assess students’ academic performance on a regular basis (weekly or monthly) for two purposes: to determine whether children are profiting appropriately from the typical instructional program and to build more effective programs for the children who benefit.”
Fuchs, L.S. and Fuchs, D. (2003)
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When teachers use systematic progress monitoring to track their students’ progress they are better able to identify students in need of additional or different forms of instruction, they design stronger instructional programs, and their students are more successful.
Steps to Data Collection:
- Define Target
- Select Method
- Implement Collection
- Analyze and Graph
- Make Decisions
- Intervention - continue, modify, or stop
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Teachers for students who are D/HH should monitor progress for a myriad of reasons. At the next IEP meeting, the team may want details on how a student is or isn’t progressing toward mastery of their goal(s). An administrator may need to look for data on how goals are measured for each individual student. How do you evaluate them based on the information you have given them to make sure they all have mastered it? It may feel like a lot of paperwork or computer work, but think of the benefits--it is an easy way you can address the present levels in the next IEP, along with providing visible & factual information to the parents on how their child is performing.
Data can also be a great resource to show your administrators how students who are deaf/hard of hearing perform in comparison to their same-age or same-grade peers, even when provided appropriate accommodations.
Forms of Progress Monitoring:
- Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM)
- Portfolios
- Observations/Anecdotal Records
- Short-cycle Assessments
- Performance Assessments
- Checklists
- Running Records
- Work Samples
- Inventories
- Rubrics
Want to learn more about progress monitoring specifically for students who are D/HH in the area of reading?
Language Reading Connection for Students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing
is an online professional development module that includes this very topic. The module can be viewed on the
BEESS Portal
in the independent study section.
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Accessible Progress Monitoring
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IDEA
ensured that students with disabilities are afforded meaningful educational benefit from academic programs. Additionally, the
ADA
protects students (and adults) with disabilities so they have access to accommodations to be able to participate in academic, employment, and leisure activities.
Section 508
of the Rehabilitation Act requires web-based media to be accessible to all users. Students who are D/HH require different approaches, not only to teaching, but also to progress monitoring. One example that comes up often is the issue of district-adopted progress monitoring tools that are inaccessible to students who are D/HH. This lack of accessibility can be due to media with no captions or mandatory sections of the tool that do not provide auditory access due to content. Regardless of the barrier being presented, if a tool measuring student progress is inaccessible, the district must find an equitable tool for measuring progress. This is just one of the reasons why specific assessments must be listed on the IEP.
RMTC-D/HH has addressed this concern in a
Frequently Asked Questions
section on our website. As always, if you have questions about this topic, or need expansion on a topic in Tech Notes, reach out to us at
info@rmtcdhh.org
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Interactive Webinar for Progress Monitoring Students who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing
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- basic fundamentals of progress monitoring,
- differentiation between formative and summative assessments,
- the importance of using progress monitoring to guide instructional practices,
- progress monitoring strategies and materials developed for students who are D/HH,
- how and when to implement progress monitoring,
- incorporating effective progress monitoring into your practices, and
- interpreting data gathered to drive IEP and goal development.
With the goal in mind to improve the educational outcomes for every student who is D/HH, having a solid foundation for embedding progress monitoring tools into daily instructional practices is imperative for effective growth and development of students’ academic success. This course serves as an excellent opportunity to develop professional practices that specifically address the needs of students who are D/HH to ensure that educational decisions are effectively made to drive academic growth.
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RMTC-D/HH is pleased to announce part two of Working With the Experts (WWE): Putting it All Together. In this 2-day training, participants will put theory into practice for developing and progress monitoring IEPs that are not only compliant but help teachers and programs to develop quality services for the student.
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Felicia Massie
is one of two itinerant teachers for students who are deaf or hard of hearing for the small, rural county of Okeechobee. She has been working in the field of education for 15 years in which 12 of those years has been in the field of Deaf Education. She started out as an educational interpreter and worked hard to become a teacher. Felicia graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in Elementary Education (K-6) and an endorsement in ESOL. After three years in the general education classroom she decided to return to her passion to work with students who are D/HH and became an itinerant teacher for Okeechobee County.
Felicia is one of the handful of teachers who completed training in all four research-based interventions/curricula for students who are D/HH offered by RMTC-D/HH: Fairview Learning, Foundations for Literacy, Visual Phonics, and Fingerspelling Our Way to Reading.
Know a teacher of students who are deaf/hard of hearing who is doing amazing things in their classroom? Email a description of what they are doing to
Candace McIntire
to appear in an upcoming Tech Notes!
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Expanded Skills Spotlight
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Standards Focus:
SP.PK12.DH6.4a
Summarize knowledge of own individual educational plan (IEP), including assessment data, strengths, weaknesses, annual goals, objectives, special education and related services, and accommodations.
SP.PK12.DH.6.4b
Participate effectively in the development and presentation of own IEP, including assessment data, strengths, weaknesses, annual goals, objectives, special education and related services, accommodations, course of study, transition services, and postsecondary goals.
Connecting the Standards to Instruction:
Standing Up for Me - The Self-Directed IEP
Students who analyze their own progress to determine their own grade or progress towards mastery of a standard have higher levels of achievement as outlined on the
Hattie Ranking of Effect Size
(
Visible Learning). Self-reported grades have an effect size of 1.44, far beyond the hinge point of effective teaching, which is 0.4. When students learn self-determination and self-advocacy, they take ownership of their learning. Self-advocacy skills are a fundamental factor in determining success or failure across all educational, community, social, and work settings. The development of these skills should begin early so that students are able to start taking responsibility for their own accommodations and assume control over choices that affect their lives. Teachers can have a positive impact in the area of self-advocacy by providing opportunities and activities that allow students to be involved in choice-making, decision-making, problem-solving, setting and attaining of goals, and development of self-awareness. This can be taught using self-directed IEP curricula.
Project 10: Transition Education Network
has developed the
Standing Up for Me
curriculum and provides the training and accompanying materials at no cost to Florida educators. Complete the
form on their website
to request training.
One particular lesson that is helpful in teaching a student to progress monitor their own IEP goals is the lesson titled “Personal Goal Setting”. At the end of each session, the student can identify which IEP goal they were working on and progress towards mastery. They can even help write their quarterly progress reports at home. Then, at their next IEP, they can report on the goal to the team as to whether they mastered it or not.
Additional Self-Directed IEP Curricula:
Next month, our Tech Notes theme is on Educational Interpreters. Have an idea or lesson plan for the Expanded Skills Standards related to this topic? Email your idea to
Candace McIntire
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The Data Collection Toolkit
, Catalog Number 1932
Are you not sure what form or tool to use to collect progress monitoring data? Then this is the book for you. It has everything you need to organize, manage, and monitor classroom data. There are over 40 forms and tools to collect data on behavior, academic skills, and IEP goals to show student progress. Watch a webinar about how to use this book.
Literacy: It All Connects
, Catalog Number 1908
Through a review of best practices in reading and writing, the Clerc Center has identified nine practices that create a comprehensive approach to literacy learning. These include dialogue journals; shared reading and writing; other journals and logs; independent reading; guided reading and writing; reading to children; language experience; writers' workshop; and research reading and writing. Creating an ideal learning environment with high expectations for all students is the goal of incorporating all nine areas into a comprehensive approach. Each of these areas can be progress monitored.
Starting with Assessment - A Developmental Approach to Deaf Children’s Literacy
, Catalog Number 1891
Martha French dives into research-based principles that address the assessment needs of language and literacy skills among D/HH students. In this book you will find invaluable resources to incorporate into your instructional practices as you progress monitor your students development of language.
Steps to Assessment- A Guide to Identifying Educational Needs for D/HH
Students Catalog Number 1943
The focus of this 280-page guide is to develop appropriate assessment practices for children from transition to school at age 3 through high school. Categories of assessments are presented throughout this guide as well as information from assessment results to illustrate how to identify needs to support student participation in educational settings. A variety of assessments are broken down and described within each assessment area. Case study activities will also assist teachers in integrating how to choose appropriate test instruments and interpret the results, including determining possible goal areas.
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Additional Resources:
DIBELS Next
and
Easy CBM
were developed by the Center on Teaching & Learning (CTL) at the University of Oregon. They measure identical data, but each has its own reporting system and customer service. The programs offer short (one minute) fluency measures that can be used for universal screening, benchmark assessment, and progress monitoring in Kindergarten - 6th grade. They offer free and paid-for versions of all the assessments.
Intervention Central
is a website with a wealth of free information for learning about curriculum-based measurements (CBM) for progress monitoring for academics and behavior. In addition, it provides all the tools free for progress monitoring reading, math, and behavior. It also includes the Chart Dog Graph Maker to show students progress at a meeting.
Signed Reading Fluency
is a program that promotes language acquisition and development in American Sign Language (ASL) through the use of video recordings that document student’s baseline in expressive ASL of a reading passage and at the end of the intervention period with a recorded post-signing of the same passage. The program utilizes a rubric format to support the evaluation of students’ language development. Both the recorded progression of language acquisition and the comparison of rubrics used throughout the instruction serve as an excellent model for progress monitoring. To learn more, watch the TALive! titled,
Keeping it Fluent: Signed Reading Fluency
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RMTC-D/HH Family Corner

Family Corner is a section for professionals that will address how professionals can help parents to be more involved and be more collaborative. This section will be from the perspective of a parent of a child who is deaf and has other disabilities and who also happens to be an educational professional. Depending on the topic, this section may deal with how to approach parents on the topic or help you understand the parents’ perspectives on a particular topic or issue.
What parents need to know about: Progress Monitoring
An important concept that parents need to understand in the ESE world is progress monitoring. This is NOT terminology that is going to be known by most parents. Parents will require your help as a professional in understanding what it means and how it is used by schools. Progress monitoring is simply the process that teachers and schools use to measure the progress of students, against academic standards and the goals of the IEP. It is imperative that trusted staff help parents understand that progress monitoring is NOT a pejorative process! It is used to help everyone, including the parents, understand how the student is doing and to help the school better understand how to help the student achieve.
As you know, a student’s IEP may have both goals and objectives built into it. Progress monitoring is the process where the school continually measures the child’s progress towards meeting those goals and objectives. This is a core part of understanding if the IEP is working! If minimal or no progress is occurring, then careful progress monitoring can be a flag for everyone that the educational process in those areas needs to be examined and possibly revamped. Take the time to help parents understand how important this process is in understanding the student’s performance and in developing future, successful IEPs.
As you know, parents have a right to receive updates of progress. So, how should you approach this? First, see what kind of timelines are being used for monitoring progress. Reporting of progress toward mastery of goals (and possibly objectives) must be made at least on the same schedule that the school is collecting the data, but can be more often. Depending on your relationship with the parents, the level of trust between you and the parents, and how well you think they can interpret the raw data, you can suggest and help guide the parents in determining if they want to see the data itself or some kind of summary from the school about the regular results.
Remember, parents are part of the IEP team. Everyone on the team should have the same information available to them in a timely fashion. Parents should not have to ask for the information. Providing it to them and helping them understand what it says - especially if it is outside an IEP meeting - will help develop and/or strengthen the trust of the parents in you and the rest of the team. Trust goes a long way with a parent. This is something to keep in mind moving forward. Further, the child’s parents are the child’s primary advocates. This information will help them work more effectively and more collaboratively as a member of the IEP team and reduce the levels of conflict between parents and staff. This will help make conflict that does exist to be positive and productive as opposed to combative. Again, trust goes a long way in collaborative environments, and a perception of openness on your part will go a long way to build that trust with the parents.
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- RMTC-D/HH has been working in collaboration with the ACCESS Project and Technology and Learning Connections to support an exciting, invitation-only professional development opportunity. Assistive Technology Lesson Integration is a 1-day training for teachers of students who are receiving instruction by way of Access Points, including teachers of students who are D/HH. In this hands-on training, participants will have a chance to learn about and implement assistive technology practices related to English/Language Arts Access Points in the K-12 setting. If you are interested in attending one of the opportunities or would like more information, please contact Sherry Conrad. Please include the number of students you serve on Access Points and the date you would like to receive an invitation to attend. Upcoming dates and locations are as follows:
- Tallahassee on February 11, 2020,
- Wesley Chapel on February 26, 2020, and
- Broward County on May 5, 2020.
- Did you know RMTC-D/HH's Parent Training Specialist, Mark Keith, is also the author of the book, No Dad, It Does Not Involve a Hippopotamus!? RMTC-D/HH is pleased to announce that he has started a brand new blog to share his experiences. Head on over to Raising a Child with Disabilities - A Dad's Perspective to read the first two posts. Don't forget to subscribe so you get alerts when new entries are posted. Feel free to share the blog with families and others who may find the information useful.
- From the blog: "The time is drawing near for us. We have hoped for this day for a little over 28 years now. Too many times to count we have despaired that this day would never arrive. Too many times over those 28 years we have felt like it was a flame dying out on a cold, damp morning. Too often we asked ourselves if we were foolish to hope for this day to arrive. Now we are eight days away from the end of the beginning." -Raising a Child with Disabilities - A Dad's Perspective
- Information to distribute to parents: Want more information regarding tools and tips for raising a child who is deaf/hard of hearing? Join RMTC-D/HH’s new private Facebook group: Families of Children who are D/HH! This group is open only to parents and families of children who are deaf/hard of hearing in Florida. It is designed as a safe place and open to any and all topics surrounding families of children who are deaf/hard of hearing in Florida. It serves as a forum for discussion, community, and problem-solving. While the group will focus on educational and family-related issues, other appropriate topics may be discussed as needed.
- Gallaudet University’s Camp Catch Them Young is a two-week, youth leadership and cultural immersion program for D/HH high school students of color (grades 9-12). The camp will be held at Gallaudet University July 2020.
- A.G. Bell’s Leadership Opportunities For Teens (LOFT) is a program dedicated to shaping and transforming the lives of deaf and hard of hearing teens by teaching them valuable skills. Among these skills are self-advocacy, self-confidence, leadership, and communication. The 2020 edition of LOFT will be held in Washington, D.C.
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Upcoming Events: Save the Date!
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*Teachers with students on Access Points only. Registration by invitation only. Contact
Sherry Conrad
for more information on attending.
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RMTC-D/HH provides Tech Notes as a free resource to teachers, professionals, and parents around the state in order to pass along potentially useful information and expand the knowledge and opportunities available to educators and families of children who have hearing loss. This email was funded by the Florida Department of Education Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services through federal assistance under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), Part B funds. The information included does not reflect any specific endorsement by any parties involved.
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