SAVE THESE DATES FOR OUR LAST TWO WEBINARS!

Incorporating Student Progress Monitoring Into Teacher Education Courses
On September 4 at 1:30 p.m. EST, Dr. Pam Fernstrom will lead an exciting webinar on including student progress monitoring in preservice courses. This webinar will be particularly important for higher education faculty in both general and special education. Stay tuned to our website for more information!

SPM and Data-Based Instruction on September 25!
Please mark your calendars and plan to join us for the Center's final webinar on Data- Based Instruction in Special Education. This webinar, presented by Dr. Lynn Fuchs and Dr. Doug Fuchs, will focus on the use of curriculum-based measurement student progress monitoring data for individualizing and monitoring the effectiveness of instruction in special education. We'll be sending out more information about how to participate in this exciting event soon!

Materials From Workshop for Teacher Educators Now Available
On June 9th and 10th, the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring held the 2008 Student Progress Monitoring & Data-Based Instruction in Special Education workshop.  Workshop participants who teach at colleges all across the country heard expert speakers such as Doug and Lynn Fuchs, John Hintze, Michelle Hosp, Rebecca Holland-Coviello and Sarah Powell present materials on such topics as Data-Based Instruction, Introduction to Using CBM, Using CBM for Progress Monitoring in Reading and Math, Graphing and Interpreting CBM Scores, and Using CBM in RTI.  Click here to view the workshop materials.

U.S. Department of Education Approves Six States for Differentiation Pilot
On July 1, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced the approval of six states—Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and Ohio—to use the Differentiated Accountability (DA) Pilot aimed at helping states differentiate between underperforming schools in need of dramatic interventions and those that are closer to meeting the goals of No Child Left Behind. DA will allow states to vary the intensity and type of interventions to match the academic reasons that lead to a school's identification for improvement. In return for this flexibility, states participating in the pilot must commit to build their capacity for school reform; take the most significant actions for the lowest-performing schools, including addressing the issue of teacher effectiveness; and use data to determine the method of differentiation and categories of intervention.
The Department intends to invite states to submit additional Differentiated Accountability proposals in fall 2008.

New Reading First Data Shows Impressive Gains in Reading Proficiency, ED Says
According to the U.S. Department of Education, Reading First students in nearly every grade and subgroup, including English language learners and students with disabilities, showed improvement in their ability to read. Reading First funds professional development, scientifically based instructional programs, materials, and strategies, valid and reliable screening, diagnostic and ongoing classroom assessments, and statewide accountability and leadership structures. Reading First is designed to help needy students in grades K-3, while Early Reading First helps preschool age children.

IRIS Center Updates and Expands Module on Learning Strategies
This resource is a revision of the Center's Using Learning Strategies: Instruction to Enhance Student Learning module. It features the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model, which outlines the six steps required to effectively implement any instructional strategy and emphasizes the time and effort required to do so. An older version of the module is also available in Spanish.

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