Profile of a School Applying Problem Solving on a School-Wide Basis
Has problem solving had a positive effect on the educational outcomes of students? One way to explore the answer to that question is to examine schools where problem solving has been sustained over an extended period of years. This example will describe one school's implementation of problem solving on a school-wide basis in the area of early reading. Summary information regarding the school's implementation as well as school-wide results will be provided. Additionally the cases of three students each receiving interventions at a different level of intensity will be illustrated. It should be noted that the summary of the school provided here is just an example from many schools in Heartland where problem solving has been implemented.
Cornell Elementary School is a school with 375 students in a small school district in Central Iowa. Forty-four percent of the students at Cornell are on free or reduced lunch. The district began using problem solving in 1991 and moved to school-wide implementation in the area of K-3 reading in 1999. In 1991 the district's two elementary schools were each K-5, now all kindergarten through third grade students in the district attend Cornell and the other elementary school in the district houses grades four through five.
Cornell screens all students using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy (Kaminski & Good, 1998) three times per year. Teams of teachers meet after each data collection period to analyze results and determine the intervention needs of all students. Students are grouped according to their instructional needs within a range of reading programs and strategies that have been implemented over time at Cornell to meet the variety of student needs in the area of reading. During the early spring of 2000 teachers and support staff at Cornell went through an extensive examination of their comprehensive reading program and the materials being used within that program. After analyzing their data they determined that their core program was not sufficiently meeting the needs of the majority of their students. Ninety-eight percent of kindergartners were meeting benchmarks in phonemic segmentation in spring of 2000 but only sixty-eight percent of first graders were meeting benchmarks in oral reading fluency. Fourth grade reading was the earliest grade level that districts in Iowa were required to report student achievement data at that time. Fifty-five percent of Saydel's fourth graders were proficient in reading comprehension on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS).
The Cornell staff used tools developed by Ed Kame'enui and Deborah Simmons from the University of Oregon to examine program components, curriculum, and core instructional materials (Kame'enui & Simmons, 2002). The Cornell staff determined at this time a new core instructional program was needed and that additional intervention options needed to be made available. The Table 3 reflects some of the changes made since the implementation of problem solving on a school-wide basis.
Table 3. Changes in Instruction Strategies
Before School-wide Implementation of Problem Solving |
After School-wide Implementation of Problem Solving |
|
Core Curriculum Materials |
Balanced literacy approach utilizing trade books, lessons from a basal series, and individual teacher selected products. |
Open Court Core Instructional Program K-5 Read Well and First Grade Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (K-3) |
Continuum of Interventions |
Individually designed and administered. Delivered through Title One, with volunteers, individually selected materials based on student need. |
Resources aligned to have small group instruction available for various levels of need. Road to the Code (K) OPTIMIZE (Scott Foresman Early Intervention Program) (K) Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (K-3) Reading Mastery (1-5) Quick Reads (2-3) Phonics for Reading (2-3) Comprehension Intervention Guides from Open Court |
Special Education Program |
No significant difference in materials and curriculum. Content. The pace, presentation, practice and feedback were modified. |
Special Education Programs Scott Foresman Early Intervention Program (K) Reading Mastery (Increased time and intensity) Repeated Readings Strategy Instruction as needed More time and intensity of instruction provided for students. Coaching and intensive support provided to teachers. |
Referral Process |
Triggered by teacher referral at the discretion of the teacher. |
School-wide data examined frequently to determine students who need intervention. |
Teacher Use of Data |
Special Education teachers, support staff, and Title One teachers used ongoing progress monitoring data to make decisions beginning in 1991. |
All teachers and principal actively involved in analysis of data. Students at strategic level are monitored monthly, students at intensive level monitored weekly. |
Review of Data |
All data for intervention plans reviewed individually by support staff and individual teacher. |
Ongoing evaluation of student response to instruction is done weekly by teams of teachers and meetings are held twice a month to review implementation of instructional plans and student progress. |
What about the impact on student performance? Have results improved for students?
During the 2002-2003 school year, 71 students received intervention at Level II, 15 at Level III, and two were eventually entitled to special education services (Level IV). Current results for students in Kindergarten and First Grade are represented in Figures 6 and 7.
Figure 6: Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Kindergarten Spring 2003
Figure 7: Oral Reading Fluency, 1st Grade Spring 2003
Saydel schools collected district level data using CBM oral reading fluency (Shinn,1998) in 1994. Comparison data from 2003 presented in table 4 indicates increases in average oral reading fluency rate at 1st and 2nd grade.
Table 4. Oral Reading Fluency Median Scores
Grade |
1994 Data Median ORF Score |
2003 Spring Data Median ORF Score |
First |
32 |
60 |
Second |
78 |
92 |
The percentage of 4th grade students proficient in the area of reading comprehension on the ITBS has increased since implementation of problem solving on a school-wide basis. The district's performance from 1999-2003 is represented in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Saydel Community School District 4th Grade Beinnium Reading Trends in Comprehension on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills
Cornell Elementary teachers continue to use data to make changes to curriculum and instruction. In spring of 2003, the percentage of students meeting benchmarks for oral reading fluency at the end of third grade dropped significantly. In the 2002-2003 school year, Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (Fuchs, Fuchs & Burish, 2002; Mathes, Howard, Allen & Fuchs, 1998) as well as systematic fluency building strategies were dropped from the core instructional program. After the data analysis, these two components were added back into the core curriculum and progress of student's at risk is being monitored more frequently with interventions implemented as needed. Thus, formative and summative data is used to inform educational decisions in schools using a school-wide model.
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