Running head: IRIS Ricks !

Caleb Ricks

IRIS RTI Module 1

ITL 604

18 May 2019

Dr. Koeller

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1. Initial Thoughts:

A. Having her students’ IEPs would help Ms. Begay evaluate her students’ learning. I

find it interesting that she is unsure if José had an IEP. This type of information is

vital. How would Ms. Begay be able to asses her students’ learning if she does not

know if they have an IEP? If they do, then she cannot assume the general education

curriculum will reach her students. As Mrs. Hernandez states, having a student’s past

test scores will help the teacher asses the student’s learning. Mrs. Hernandez claims

that she would not expect Luke to have an IEP because he has an average score on

the previous year’s tests. In terms of Louisa, Mrs. Hernandez explains that she has

low test scores and will probably need additional help. Though the test scores are

helpful, I believe that they are too general to establish goals for student learning. If

Ms. Begay was able to access and score these tests and see where each student

succeeds and fails, she would be more equipped to establish learning goals for each

student. Furthermore, it would not make sense to assume that each student is

struggling with the same material. The test scores may indicate areas needing

improvement, but they do not indicate why the student is struggling. One student may

have an IEP while another student may have dyslexia. Overall, the actual test

questions and the ares/subjects tested would help Ms. Begay to establish realistic

learning goals to help each student.

B. Ms. Begay should be aware of her students’ progress in order to ensure that that her

teaching methods are reaching her students and to ensure that she is continuously

striving for improvement. Assessing student learning is a key strategy to assess and
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improve one’s own teaching. If Ms. Begay is not sure why her students are

struggling, assessing her students will provide the reason why. One student may be

struggling with reading and spelling because he/she is an English learner while

another student may be struggling because he/she has an IEP and needs tests to be

presented in different a format than for other students. Assessing student learning will

allow Ms. Begay to see if her teaching methods are successful. If she assesses her

students weekly, she can analyze their scores to determine if her teaching methods

are successful. If not, then Ms. Begay can adjust her teaching methods as needed.

C. Ms. Begay can asses her students’ learning to see if her students have mastered the

necessary skills. According to Slavin (2018), “Every lesson should contain an

assessment of the degree to which students have mastered the objectives that were set

for the lesson.” Slavin (2018) further elaborates that “assessment can involve

informally questioning students, using independent work as an assessment, using

clickers or other electronic means of assessing student understanding, or giving a

traditional quiz.” After each lesson or at the end of each weekly topic, Ms. Begay can

quiz her students using one of the methods Slavin (2018) suggests in order to

determine the successfulness of each lesson and the successfulness of her teaching

methods. If the scores of the assessment are low, then Ms. Begay will need to change

the lesson or mode of the lesson or even show that Ms. Begay should reteach the

lesson. If the assessment scores are high, then Ms. Begay will be confident that her

lesson and teaching methods were successful.

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2. Assessment:

A. While annual achievement tests reveal a student’s overall academic progress for

the year, progress monitoring provides current student academic progress through

the use of more frequently administered assessments. Unlike annual achievement

tests, progress monitoring provides the teacher with feedback on the lesson

currently being taught in the classroom. This will allow the teacher to tackle any

misunderstandings immediately instead of waiting until the end of the year or

semester to assess student learning. An annual achievement test will allow

students who have a weak grasp on a subject to not be tested regularly throughout

the year and will not alert the teacher of any immediate shortcomings in the

lesson. Furthermore, rather than one large testing session, progress monitoring

provides shorter, more frequent assessment periods. This allows teachers to

continually assess student understanding in real time rather than moving on to the

next lesson without any feedback.

B. Mastery measurement, like progress monitoring, occurs on a frequent and regular

basis and provides the teacher with immediate results and frequent feedback.

Curriculum-based Measurement, on the other hand, is similar to annual

achievement tests and occur less frequently and test students on a greater wealth

of knowledge. Mastery measurement assesses students’ understanding of a lesson

before moving onto the next. While mastery measurements focus on a specific

skill, curriculum-based measurement assesses skills taught over an extended

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period of time and therefore provides less specific feedback for the teacher. Also,

unlike mastery measure, curriculum-based assessment allows teachers to track

students’ academic progress on all skills within a given subject across the year.

C. Curriculum-based measurement can be used to assess at-risk students by allowing

teachers to easily identify students who are in need of different modes of

instruction or additional forms of instruction. Because CBM monitors students’

success over time and provides graphical data (with the x-axis being time or the

independent variable), teachers are able to identify those students who will not be

able to meet the academic goals at the end of the year. Teachers can access this

data during any time of the year to track student progress. At-risk students will be

evidently below the average line of students who are mastering the material. Also,

CBM allows students to track their own progress and be more aware of their

academic mastery and level of understanding. This provides students the

opportunity to take responsibility for their own academic progress and track it

throughout the year. Lastly, CBM provides students’ parents with their academic

progress, opening a line of communication between teachers and parents

regarding student success.

D. Step 1 of CBM involves the teacher creating the appropriate tests for the students.

Ideally, throughout the year, students will get more and more questions correct on

the tests. Step 2 requires the teacher to administer the tests/assessments at regular

intervals. To ensure reliability and validity, the tests are scored the same way each

time. Step 3 involves the teacher graphing the scores so that students can track
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their own progress and so that teachers can track the progress of individuals

students and adjust instruction as needed. Step 4 requires the teacher to set goals

which are essential for teachers to indicate expected levels of mastery (mastery

both weekly and annually). Step 5 involves the teacher making instructional

decisions based on the graphical data gained from the assessments. The teacher

then can decide to continue instruction if it is successful or adapt instruction to

meet students’ needs. Finally, step 6 involves the teacher communicating progress

to the students, their parents, and other teachers.

E. For step 1, I would create the appropriate test for the subject (times tables) . The

initial probes will consist of times tables that the students will not have learned,

but the idea is that they will master these times tables as the year progresses. For

step 2, I will administer these tests at regular intervals (such as every Thursday)

so that I can ensure reliability and validity regarding my students’ scores and

academic progress. For step 3, I will graph my students scores on an online

format so that students and their parents can track their progress. The graph will

always illustrate the number of problems correct out of 25 (to maintain validity

and reliability). I can also use the statistical data to adapt my lesson/teaching

method and determine which students require additional instruction. For step 4, I

will set goals for the assessment, such as all students will master their 7 times

tables by March. This way, I can realistically track students progress and

determine their level of mastery at a given time. For step 5, I will use the

statistical data from each assessment to adjust my instruction. If, for example, my
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students were not mastering their 7 times tables towards the end of February, then

I will know to adapt my instruction so that my students can achieve the academic

goal. For step 6, I will communicate the results of each assessment online through

Google classroom so that my students can tack their own progress and so that the

parents can communicate with me regarding their children’s scores with the

statistical data.
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References

Slavin, Robert E. (2018). Educational psychology (12th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.