During fall 2020, educators provided virtual, in-person, and hybrid intervention with an ongoing need to engage with and support parents and families. Although the context and environment may have changed, the focus on providing high-quality interventions with validated practices, monitoring student progress, and adapting and intensifying supports based on student data as outlined in the data-based individualization (DBI) process continues to be applicable across virtual, in-person, or hybrid models. This document presents considerations for implementing DBI in light of COVID-19 with an emphasis on delivery in virtual settings.

This Innovation Configuration can serve as a foundation for strengthening existing preparation programs so that educators exit with the ability to use various forms of assessment to make data-based educational and instructional decisions within an MTSS. The expectation is that these skills can be further honed and supported through inservice as practicing teachers.

This guide is a set of strategies and key practices with the ultimate goal of supporting students with the most intensive behavioral needs, their families, and educators in their transitions back to school during and following the global pandemic in a manner that prioritizes their health and safety, social and emotional needs, and behavioral and academic growth.

In this Voices from the Field piece, we talk to Dr. Chrissy Brown, a recent National Center for Leadership in Intensive Intervention (NCLII) scholar. Dr. Brown discusses the NCLII program and how it has guided her in preparing educators to implement intensive interventions. 

The purpose of this document is to provide content-specific examples of how to structure educator-level and/or systems-level coaching as a mechanism to ensure ongoing professional learning to support tiered intervention. This document provides examples of coaching supports, models, and functions within the context of tiered intervention (e.g., RtI, PBIS, MTSS) and data-based decision making (e.g., data-based individualization [DBI]) for educators who already have foundational knowledge and/or experience with coaching.

This collection highlights a sampling of recent research focused on intensive intervention and data-based individualization (DBI). As different terms are used to describe intensive intervention, a search using EBSCO focused on articles that used the following related terms: intensive intervention, precision teaching, experimental teaching, clinical teaching, data-based individualization (when in the context of providing individualized instruction), and data-based program modification. Hand searches of the following journals were also conducted: Exceptional Children, Journal of Special Education, Journal of Special Education Leadership, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Learning Disability Quarterly, Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, Teaching Exceptional Children, Journal of Positive Behavior Support, Behavior Disorders, Remedial and Special Education, Assessment for Effective Intervention, and Journal of Educational Psychology.

This Voices from the Field piece highlights how North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and Texas have raised awareness, visibility, and statewide knowledge of data-based individualization (DBI) at statewide conferences through keynote speakers, workshops, breakout sessions, and facilitated team time.

This fourteen minute video shares Wyoming’s journey in building the capacity of educators to implement data-based individualization (DBI) to improve academic and behavior outcomes for students with disabilities as part of their state systemic improvement plan (SSIP). Wyoming administrators, teachers, parents and students from Laramie County School District # 1 and preschool sites share how DBI implementation impacted teacher efficacy, team meetings, quality of services, student confidence, and state and local collaboration.

In this video, Dr. Luann Purcell discusses the role of the local special education director in intensive intervention. Dr. Purcell is the Executive Director of the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) which is an international professional educational organization affiliated with the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC).

In this article, Drs. Ketterlin Geller, Lembke, and Powell discuss how they are supporting educators to implement (1) the process of data-based individualization (DBI), (2) the principles of explicit and systematic instruction, and (3) key components of algebra readiness as part of Project STAIR (Supporting Teaching of Algebra: Individual Readiness).