|
95 Percent of Students Reading at Grade Level . . . An Achievable Goal. 95PercentGroup Sustainable Gains Achieving sustainable gains in reading performance continues to be a significant challenge for elementary and middle schools nationwide. If you have begun to implement Response to Intervention (RTI) but aren’t getting the gains in student scores you had hoped for, 95 Percent Group can help. Learn How to Achieve Sustainable Gains Increase Reading Performance By following a proven process of pinpointing student skill deficits and providing targeted small-group instruction using our practical intervention products and online training, you can expect to see significant gains in your students’ reading achievement. It’s common for schools working with us to see 90% or more of their kindergarten students move above benchmark―even in the first year of working with us! Once our processes and tools are implemented, you can expect continued increases in reading performance that your staff will be able to sustain without our help. Our goal is to work ourselves out of a job as soon as possible. Achieve Exceptional Results We measure the effectiveness of our work through analysis of student outcome data. Below is a small, yet representative, sample of data from our client schools. Similar or better results have been achieved by all of our clients where there was fidelity to our implementation model of sustained professional development and use of diagnostic screeners and intervention lesson materials. Brevard and Seminole County Public Schools, Florida
For the past five years, 95 Percent Group has been the RTI consultant working with two large districts in Florida—Seminole and Brevard―on a progressive rollout of RTI in phases across all the schools in their district. Both districts have contracted our company to provide extensive professional development training for administrators and reading coaches of all elementary buildings (38 buildings in Seminole and 68 buildings in Brevard) and to provide site-based mentoring, coaching, and modeling at grades K–3 for the Title I and lowest-performing schools in the district. Both districts used our phonological awareness and phonics diagnostic screeners (Phonics Screener for Intervention™ and Phonological Awareness Screener for Intervention™), along with DIBELS® or another curriculum-based measurement (CBM) tool, and 95 Percent Group’s Blueprint for Intervention:® intervention lessons. Florida’s 2009 assessment (FCAT) data shows that Seminole and Brevard are ranked first and second in grade 3 reading scores of the 17 largest districts in the state.
FCAT 2009 Average Scores
 Seminole County Public Schools, Florida
For the past five years, 95 Percent Group Inc. has provided RTI consulting and sustained professional development for 38 elementary schools, 13 of which receive Title 1 funding and 8 of which have received a Reading First grant. We have been providing site-based coaching and mentoring and extensive professional development in 2010-11 to the 11 Title I schools funded by Title I stimulus money. We have provided quarterly professional development to the principals and reading coaches/literacy specialists and extensive site-based modeling and coaching at 23 of the 38 schools.
In 2005 four schools were selected to be pilot, or demonstration, sites for implementation. The demonstration schools received site-based coaching by 95 Percent Group starting with a full-day workshop to launch the implementation, followed by half-day grade-level meetings four times per year. At the workshop, all teachers at a grade level received an overview about RTI, techniques and error pattern analysis worksheets to analyze DIBELS data, training in how to administer and determine group placement from 95 Percent Group’s diagnostic screeners, and an introduction to lesson planning and instruction. At the follow-up meetings, which were held at a school and all grade level teachers attended for half a day, the focus was on learning research-based instructional strategies for providing focused small-group intervention instruction. 95 Percent Group consultants reviewed the team’s data and student group placements, and discussed a lesson using our intervention programs/materials that the school had acquired. The meetings always included live modeling of a lesson by the consultant with a small group of three to five students at that grade level. Teachers had an opportunity to then pull in other students and practice in pairs while the consultant observed and mentored. This same model was repeated two additional years with five and six more schools, respectively. Seminole County DIBELS Data 
The district’s 18,000 K–3 students have made significant gains in the past four years: First grade has increased from 85% at benchmark to 95% at benchmark because of interventions provided at Kindergarten. The improvement in the DIBELS data of their students at the beginning of the year is summarized in the Seminole County DIBELS Data figured above.
Jamestown Public Schools, New York
95 Percent Group worked with the six elementary schools and three middle schools in Jamestown for a four-year period. Two of the elementary schools had received a Reading First grant. Because of the strong interventions completed in kindergarten, the DIBELS scores of students at the beginning of first grade grew from 38% at benchmark in the fall of 2005 to 66% at benchmark in the fall of 2008. Additionally, the percentage of students identified as Intensive declined from 32% to 12% in that same period. The effective interventions in first grade also resulted in an increase in the number of second grade students entering the year at benchmark from 37% to 53%. For third grade, the growth increased from 33% to 50%. The district has continued to make gains since 2008 with only occasional support from 95 Percent Group. The data are summarized in Figure 3 below. Jamestown DIBELS Data 
Lowther South Intermediate School, Kansas
Lowther South Intermediate School worked with 95 Percent Group several years after their initial RTI implementation. When a new principal arrived, she realized the school was about a year behind the rest of the district. They worked with 95 Percent Group to implement a new schedule and started an intervention block. In their second year of implementation, they ensured that a 45-minute protected intervention block was embedded into their schedule to ensure that students do not miss out on any core instruction or special area classes. After their initial DIBELS administration, they found that 20% of their fifth grade students could not decode at grade level. By collaborating with 95 Percent Group, their staff learned how to diagnostic screening procedures, to analyze the data, and to deliver effective intervention instruction. At the end of the first year of implementation, 10% of the initial 20% of intervention students moved into being accurate readers. They also learned that of all students who started as “slow and wrong,” 10% became either “slow and right” or even “right readers.” This monumental accomplishment in improved accuracy rate meant that 90% of their students could now decode!
|
|
|