Response to Intervention Programs Improve Learning

Nestled in suburban Charlotte, N.C., Cabarrus County Schools is making the grade with the implementation of its five-year, data-driven Response to Intervention (RTI) program. District educators are using a Web-based benchmark and progress monitoring system to determine what's working with their curriculum, personalize student learning, increase transparency and enhance curriculum interventions.

During the 2007-2008 school year, Cabarrus County conducted a pilot of Pearson's AIMSweb, which resulted in remarkable improvements in student achievement. Now school district leaders plan to expand the implementation from an initial 940 students to more than 11,300 for the 2010-2011 school year.

"Over three years ago, the Cabarrus district administration decided to take a leadership role in North Carolina, aggressively moving toward an RTI program that would really help our students, especially those most at risk, to succeed," said Brian Schultz, director of elementary education for Cabarrus County Schools. "We chose to implement a pilot program using AIMSweb as our RTI data management system in a few select schools. Thanks to the program's success, we are planning to have 19 of our district elementary schools using AIMSweb to make data-based curriculum decisions by the 2010-2011 school year. Without a doubt, AIMSweb has helped us determine what is working with our curriculum and make decisions today that positively impact student learning."

Using the tool, Cabarrus County educators can assess real-time data about which instructional interventions are the most effective, making decisions earlier than ever before. The solution's online, three-tiered approach provides frequent and continuous student assessment results directly to students, parents, teachers and administrators.

In fact, Cabarrus' pilot program results speak for themselves. In 2007, at Pitts School Road Elementary School, 57 percent of the students were below the district's benchmark targets when the pilot began. In January 2010, 60 percent of those students, now in fifth grade, were at or above the target after just three years of using AIMSweb data to make instructional decisions both at the core curriculum and individual student level.

At the other pilot, A.T. Allen Elementary School, the rate of improvement for the first grade students in phoneme segmentation, the ability to hear critical sounds in spoken words, from the fall to winter benchmark was .2 phonemes correct, which was .4 correct phonemes per week lower compared to the program's targets. The adjustments to the core curriculum that educators made resulted in a .5 phoneme correct growth rate from the winter to spring benchmark, exceeding the district's target growth rate. The extensive real-time data available from the program enabled school leaders to assess the effectiveness of their core curriculum; helping teachers reflect on instruction, the administration to make effective decisions regarding professional development, and school staff to maintain and develop positive relationships with parents.

"AIMSweb allows us to share data so easily," Schultz said. "Every stakeholder who can impact student outcomes--parents, teachers, administrators--has quick, reliable data upon which we can make education decisions about a student's individualized needs. Most importantly, our students are benefiting through better personalized learning."

At Furr Elementary School in Cabarrus County, Principal Greg Liddle added that the tool is wonderful in tracking student mastery in several early literacy skills. "By using the data obtained through the benchmarks, and focusing instruction according to student needs we have seen significant statistical growth in early literacy skills," he said. "The establishment of these early literacy skills has had a direct impact on reading fluency in the early grades. For example, in 2008-2009 1st grade students began the year averaging 30.8 words read correct per minute. In 2009-2010 1st grade student began the year averaging 36.0 words read correct per minute. The difference in the data is directly connected to AIMSweb and its ability to target specific skill needs for individual students."

Educators and parents alike are happy to see the comprehensive data presented in an easy-to-read and interpret report. "We're seeing more parent buy-in with AIMSweb. We're no longer talking to parents, but with them. We finally have a way of sharing student progress information with parents that makes sense to them, which really engages parents in the learning process," said Amy Jablonski, RTI Program Coach for Cabarrus County Schools.

Jablonski added, "Now, we know what is working with our core curriculum, and we are identifying our at-risk population quickly and accurately. To improve literacy, for instance, we're challenging our higher-grade teachers to reinforce the foundations of reading and our kindergarten teachers to target core literacy elements."

Not only does AIMSweb help personalized learning for Cabarrus students, it helps make quality staff development decisions. Schultz believes the clear, quality data has nurtured relationships between schools, built on existing expertise to improve teaching throughout the district, and enhanced teacher leadership as teachers work together as a team.