Assessment is an essential part of the data-based individualization (DBI) process and a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). Without technically sound assessment, which provides accurate, meaningful information, a teacher has no objective method for determining what a student needs or how to intensify instruction to meet those needs. The close connection between assessment and intervention is at the foundation of the DBI process. This connection is what drives teacher decision making. With the right assessment tools and guidance on how to use them, teachers can make sound, data-based decisions about who needs intensive intervention, when to make instructional changes, and what skills to focus on. In the tables below, find resources to support the selection and evaluation of screening, progress monitoring and diagnostic assessments.
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Data teams serve multiple roles in the data-based individualization (DBI) process and across a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Although schools may have multiple teams that review different types of data across a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), the intensive intervention or DBI team is focused on the needs of individual students who are not making progress in their current intervention or special education program. It is critical that these meetings are driven by data, occur regularly, and use an efficient, consistent process that allows participants to review progress and make intervention decisions for students. NCII has created a series of tools to help teams establish efficient and effective individual student data meetings.
Parents and families are critical partners in supporting students with intensive academic and behavioral needs. It is important to recognize that every parent and family member is different, with varying levels of knowledge and comfort with school; they may not consider their involvement in the school in the same way that the school perceives it. As a result, our approach to parent and family engagement should be differentiated. It is important to: share information about the school’s approach to multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and data-based individualization (DBI) to ensure that families have an understanding of the process, ask parents and families for information about their child, and invite them to be a part of the process as relevant.
Research tells us that ongoing coaching is essential for achieving practice change. And without ongoing coaching and practice opportunities, professional development is highly unlikely to lead to increased knowledge and skills to implement a new practice soundly. This rings especially true for complex processes like data-based individualization (DBI). DBI requires that educators commit to engaging in the iterative process of providing intervention, analyzing progress monitoring data, and making data-based decisions to adapt and individualize interventions when needed. To help schools effectively implement DBI, ongoing implementation support in the form of coaching that provides opportunities to learn critical information, apply and receive feedback, and troubleshoot problems when they occur is essential.
Research indicates that for successful implementation to occur, it is important to look at not only what is being implemented but how it is implemented. Implementing DBI often necessitates that educators make school-wide instructional adaptations, engage in systematic data analysis, and conduct individualized student-level decisions at levels that task the bandwidth of resources, staffing, and budgets of many schools. Assessing readiness from multiple stakeholders with different perspectives prior to implementation allows educators across many levels (schools, districts, and states) to prioritize areas for their initial efforts and then slowly use the momentum to build capacity toward full implementation. In this section, find training materials, lessons learned from those who have implemented DBI, and tools to assess your initial readiness and build capacity to implement intensive intervention.
Many students who require intensive intervention also are students with disabilities. Thus, when used school-wide, data-based individualization (DBI) can help school teams design and implement a prereferral process and high-quality special education services. Furthermore, DBI also provides schools with a validated approach for identifying and supporting students with severe and persistent learning and behavior problems, including students who may require special education. This is because the data collected through the DBI process can assist teams in assessing the need for specialized instruction, which is one of two requirements for determining eligibility for special education. In addition, data collected through the DBI process can support special education teachers in more accurately developing present levels, goals, and specialized instruction and support that will be included in the initial IEP.
Using multiple data sources, the teacher or team makes a decision to adapt the intervention program to better meet the student’s individual needs. The teacher or team outlines these adaptations in an individual student plan. The plan may include adaptation strategies along several dimensions. These strategies may include quantitative changes, such as providing more opportunities for a student to respond by increasing the length or frequency of the intervention, or decreasing the size of the intervention group.
When a student fails to respond to a validated intervention, teams need to identify why the student is not responding to determine how to adapt the intervention. Diagnostic data can assist teams in this process. They may be used to understand a student’s specific skill deficits and strengths or to identify the environmental events that predict and maintain the student’s problem behavior.
Progress monitoring, a key component of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS), occurs throughout the data-based individualization (DBI) process to assess responsiveness to the validated intervention platform, as well as adaptations to the intervention. Prior to delivering the validated intervention platform, intervention teams should develop a progress monitoring plan that outlines the progress monitoring tool, student goal, and frequency of data collection and review. During delivery of the validated and adapted intervention, educators should collect and graph frequent progress monitoring data.
Fidelity refers to how closely prescribed procedures are followed and, in the context of schools, the degree to which educators implement programs, assessments, and implementation plans the way they were intended. When we implement interventions and assessments with fidelity, intervention teams can make more accurate decisions about an individual student’s progress and future intervention needs. In addition, fidelity of implementation to the data-based individualization (DBI) process as a whole and across multiple students in a school, helps to ensure that staff have the necessary resources and processes in place to support strong implementation for individual students. The following tools assess and support fidelity of DBI implementation at the school, interventionist, and student levels.