Accountability Tools

AIS Guidelines
While the New York State Education Department provides guidelines for Academic Intervention Services (AIS), these are flexible and allow for local variation. To view these guidelines, click here . These guidelines provide a range of structures for AIS provision in schools as well as suggestions for documenting service provision and progress monitoring.

PIPs
At the local level, we have created a variety of progress monitoring tools for schools to use at their discretion. These include Personal Intervention Plans (PIPs). We have created these for those grades in which promotional policy plays a role. These can be used by schools as is (with the date updated to the current year) or they can be modified to suit specific needs within a school. To view sample PIPs, click on the relevant levels below:

Grade 3-4 PIP, click here ;
Grade 3 PIP, click here ;
Grade 7 PIP, click here ;

A PIP for use with eight graders will be available for the Fall 2008-2009 school year.

Response to Intervention RTI
When targeted intervention treatments are provided to struggling students, ongoing formative assessment is suggested to ensure that what we are doing is actually working. This process is referred to as response to intention (RTI) and is one way that is typically used these days to determine whether an underlying disability is at play in students who do not respond to targeted interventions that would typically move student achievement. There is a huge body of literature on this topic. Look for frequently updated links on this topic such as the ones below.

5SchoolsRTIexperience.pdf
RTIWEbResources.pdf
KevinFeldmanRTIREsources.pdf
MythsaboutRtI.pdf
CEC_ResponsetoInterventionThePromiseandthePeril.pdf
TieredInstructionwithHSStrugglingReaders.pdf
RtIAnAdministratorsPerspective106.pdf

Assessing What You Need to Know: The Swiss Cheese Effect

We are rich in both formative and summative resources for assessment. In grades 3 through 8, we have yearly state assessments that function as summative documents and provide us with feedback on whether instruction during the course of the year was successful. We also enjoy the use of a variety of interim assessments which provide formative information to guide instruction. These assessments are all useful for both developmental instruction as well as for academic intervention. In intervention, however, we want to ensure that we dig deeper. Because all of the formative and summative assessments focus on comprehension, we want to make certain that what Dr. Timothy Shanahan calls 'the enabling skills' are functional. These skills include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency and vocabulary. Often, when students who are struggling with comprehension are assessed in decoding (using the Rosswell-Chall for example), if you circle the letters, letter combinations and words that they cannot decode, you will see that they often have a lot of decoding mastered yet still struggle with some pieces. If you look at the Roswell-Chall recording form, you will see that the circles cause the page to take on a distinct swiss-cheese effect. These holes must be addressed in order for fluent reading -- and the comprehension that is so highly correlated with fluent reading -- to emerge. Fluency, in turn, must also be assessed. Thus, at the same time that comprehension and vocabulary challenges are remediated, decoding and fluency needs can and must be addressed as well.

Look for workshops such as Scratching the Surface: A Quick Battery of Start-Up Assessments for Intervention offered by the Office of Academic Intervention. These provide participants with assessment tools that help them dig a bit deeper in determining the academic intervention needs of struggling students. In these workshops, Dr. Esther Klein Friedman demonstrates the swiss-cheese effect and the ways that it can impact upon an individual's overall success in reading.

About Us Academics Choices & Enrollment Schools in the Community Offices & Programs Rules & Policies Student Support, Safety, and Activities Academic Support Non-Academic Support Academic Intervention Services Family Resources Educator Resources Accountability Tools Guidance and Counseling Student Attendance Homework Resources After School Safety and Discipline eLearning Student Performance & Accountability	Accountability Tools E-mail to a friend AIS Guidelines While the New York State Education Department provides guidelines for Academic Intervention Services (AIS), these are flexible and allow for local variation. To view these guidelines, click here . These guidelines provide a range of structures for AIS provision in schools as well as suggestions for documenting service provision and progress monitoring. PIPs At the local level, we have created a variety of progress monitoring tools for schools to use at their discretion. These include Personal Intervention Plans (PIPs). We have created these for those grades in which promotional policy plays a role. These can be used by schools as is (with the date updated to the current year) or they can be modified to suit specific needs within a school. To view sample PIPs, click on the relevant levels below: Grade 3-4 PIP, click here ; Grade 3 PIP, click here ; Grade 7 PIP, click here ; A PIP for use with eight graders will be available for the Fall 2008-2009 school year. Response to Intervention RTI When targeted intervention treatments are provided to struggling students, ongoing formative assessment is suggested to ensure that what we are doing is actually working. This process is referred to as response to intention (RTI) and is one way that is typically used these days to determine whether an underlying disability is at play in students who do not respond to targeted interventions that would typically move student achievement. There is a huge body of literature on this topic. Look for frequently updated links on this topic such as the ones below. 5SchoolsRTIexperience.pdf RTIWEbResources.pdf KevinFeldmanRTIREsources.pdf MythsaboutRtI.pdf CEC_ResponsetoInterventionThePromiseandthePeril.pdf TieredInstructionwithHSStrugglingReaders.pdf RtIAnAdministratorsPerspective106.pdf Assessing What You Need to Know: The Swiss Cheese Effect We are rich in both formative and summative resources for assessment. In grades 3 through 8, we have yearly state assessments that function as summative documents and provide us with feedback on whether instruction during the course of the year was successful. We also enjoy the use of a variety of interim assessments which provide formative information to guide instruction. These assessments are all useful for both developmental instruction as well as for academic intervention. In intervention, however, we want to ensure that we dig deeper. Because all of the formative and summative assessments focus on comprehension, we want to make certain that what Dr. Timothy Shanahan calls 'the enabling skills' are functional. These skills include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency and vocabulary. Often, when students who are struggling with comprehension are assessed in decoding (using the Rosswell-Chall for example), if you circle the letters, letter combinations and words that they cannot decode, you will see that they often have a lot of decoding mastered yet still struggle with some pieces. If you look at the Roswell-Chall recording form, you will see that the circles cause the page to take on a distinct swiss-cheese effect. These holes must be addressed in order for fluent reading -- and the comprehension that is so highly correlated with fluent reading -- to emerge. Fluency, in turn, must also be assessed. Thus, at the same time that comprehension and vocabulary challenges are remediated, decoding and fluency needs can and must be addressed as well. Look for workshops such as Scratching the Surface: A Quick Battery of Start-Up Assessments for Intervention offered by the Office of Academic Intervention. These provide participants with assessment tools that help them dig a bit deeper in determining the academic intervention needs of struggling students. In these workshops, Dr. Esther Klein Friedman demonstrates the swiss-cheese effect and the ways that it can impact upon an individual's overall success in reading.