This school year, as the head of my
department, I was responsible for progress monitoring for all teachers within
special education. To assist with this task I was provided with professional
development on AIMSweb. Have you ever heard of it? AIMSweb is an awesome tool
that monitors progress in curriculum-based, response to intervention, and
tiered assessment! As a special education teacher, part of my job is ensuring
that my students are making progress towards their goals. However, as a
department chair, it is difficult to do this when you are not in the classroom
with your students and you do not receive adequate information from their
teachers. AIMSweb solved that problem.
Academically, AIMSweb afforded me
the opportunity to determine the progress of my students in a short period of
time, and in some cases, in groups. With the main goals of students’
Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) focusing on Reading, Writing, and Math
AIMSweb focused on those areas; providing teachers with both group and solo
options, as well as, computer-based and paper-pencil options. Within the
program, teachers are able to track interventions that are implemented and see
the effect those interventions have on students’ progress. Teachers were then
able to use this data when reporting to parents the progress that their
children were making in mastering their IEP goals. In addition to being able to
report progress, this same data could be used to determine future IEP goals for
students. This would eliminate the stress that most case managers have with
determining appropriate goals for their students. The data clearly supported if
a student was capable of working at their grade level or if they need to be
moved below or above.
AIMSweb also assists teachers with
Response to Intervention (RTI) implementations. AIMSweb provides educators and
professionals with assessments that can be used to screen students to determine
appropriate interventions and make data-driven interventions. With the goal of
RTI being that every student succeeds, this assists particularly with students
who may be struggling and need interventions put into place before they fail or
the team deems it necessary to make a referral to special education.
Response to Intervention Framework
Lastly,
AIMSweb offers tiered assessments which assist with web-based data management,
charting, and reporting. The assessments are broken down into 3 tiers. Tier 1
focuses on universal screening which sets benchmarks and identifies students at risk,
helps individualize instruction, evaluates student progress, and demonstrates
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Tier 2 focuses on progress monitoring
using designated probes. These probes help to evaluate instructional changes
and interventions. Tier 3 focuses on intensive progress monitoring geared more
towards students with IEPs, what my school currently uses. This tier reports
evaluate student progress, prescribe program changes and revisions, monitor
interventions, ensure IEP success and serve as an accountability and
communication tool for program evaluation and reporting[1].
The
benefits of AIMSweb, in my eyes, are astounding in its capabilities to monitor
progress of students with IEPs and in ensuring that proper interventions are
put in place to assist students who may be on the route.
For more information on AIMSweb check out http://www.aimsweb.com/
[1]
Tiered Assessment. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2015, from
http://www.aimsweb.com/about/tiered-assessment
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