Teri Wallace

Curriculum-Based Measurement in Writing: Predicting the Success of High-School Students on State Standards Tests:

We examined the technical adequacy of writing progress measures as indicators of success on state standards tests. Tenth-grade students wrote for 10 min, marking their samples at 3, 5, and 7 min. Samples were scored for words written, words spelled correctly, and correct and correct minus incorrect word sequences. The number of correct minus incorrect word sequences written in 7 and 10 min yielded the highest reliability and validity coefficients. Tables of Probable Success were created to illustrate the relation between scores on the progress measures and the state tests. Exploratory analyses of differences in correlations between English Language Learners (ELL) and non-ELL students revealed a similar pattern of results for the 2 groups, but correlations were stronger for ELL students than for non-ELL students.

Collaboration: An Element Associated With the Success of Four Inclusive High Schools

Collaboration between general education teachers and special education teachers is often mentioned in the literature as a means of accomplishing the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education. The purpose of this study was to describe, using both qualitative and quantitative data, the communication and collaboration practices in four high schools with demonstrated success at including students with disabilities in general education and achieving exemplary outcomes for all students. Schoolwide approaches and classroom-level factors associated with collaboration characterize the themes that emerged as important to the success of these high schools. A discussion of these results and implications for practice are presented.

CBM Progress Monitoring Within a Standards-Based System: Introduction to the Special Series

Monitoring students’ progress has always been an important component of the educational process. Recently, with requirements brought on by standards-based reform and school accountability (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001), progress monitoring has received closer attention in educational research, policy, and practice. For example, progress monitoring in general, and curriculum-based measurement (CBM; Deno, 1985) in particular, has been proposed as a means for predicting performance on and monitoring progress toward rigorous, state-defined academic standards for individual students (Espin, Wallace, Campbell, Lembke, Long, & Ticha, 2005; Crawford, Tindal, & Stieber, 2001; Hintze & Silberglitt, 2005; McGlinchey & Hixson, 2004; Nolet & McLaughlin, 2000; Silberglitt & Hintze, 2005). Moreover, progress monitoring has been used as part of a response-to-intervention (RTI) assessment approach for special education referral and identification (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006; President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education, 2002; Speece, Case, & Molloy, 2003). Whereas researchers have documented a variety of uses for CBM, a comprehensive system of measurement designed to assess individual progress within a standards-based educational system has not yet been established. The breadth and depth of CBM research varies with content area, student age, skill level, use of CBM data, and more. For example, substantial research has been conducted in the elementary grades; less has been conducted in the secondary grades. Reading has received more attention than has mathematics or writing, and CBM’s application to students with high-incidence disabilities has been studied more extensively than has its application to students in other disability categories. In 2003, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) funded the Research Institute on Progress Monitoring (RIPM) at the University of Minnesota. A major goal of the institute was to work toward the development of a seamless and flexible system of progress monitoring. Seamless and flexible CBM Progress Monitoring Within a Standards-Based System

Technical Characteristics of General Outcome Measures (GOMs) in Reading for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities.

This study examined the technical characteristics of newly created general outcome measures (GOMs) in reading for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The participants were 31 students with significant cognitive disabilities, and the GOMs used produced reliable data. Early results establishing the validity of the GOMs suggest that Rimes, K–4 Science Content Word Identification, Simple Sentence Maze, and Frys Word Identification GOMs are the most promising for predicting student reading performance. Functional Pictures and Signs, Mixed Letter Identification, Frys Word Identification, and K–4 Science Content Word Identification showed potential for measuring reading progress. These preliminary results suggest that GOMs can be a useful tool for teachers to use to predict and monitor the progress of students with significant cognitive disabilities in reading. More research is needed.