Happy New Year!
The National Center on Student Progress Monitoring would like to wish you a very happy New Year!  It is with mixed emotions that we begin the final year of our Center's five-year cooperative agreement.  We have some exciting learning events and new web site resources planned for our final year. These include interactive webinars presented by progress monitoring experts, an online focused discussion geared toward school psychologists, online learning modules based on our Center's Summer Institute materials, and materials for higher education faculty's use in teacher and school psychologist preparation courses.  Unfortunately, we will not be holding a Summer Institute this summer, but we hope you will join us for the online learning activities we will be conducting this year!  Please stay tuned for details.

Updated Tools Chart Now Available! 
The 2007 review of progress monitoring tools is complete, and we have posted the updated tools chart on our web site! Each year, we invite software companies to submit both new and updated student progress monitoring tools for review. Our Technical Review Committee then conducts rigorous scientific reviews of each tool to determine whether it meets each of our seven standards of technical adequacy. For more information on our review process and the evaluation of specific tools, check out our tools chart.

Did You Miss Our Center Webinar on Using CBM for AYP?
On December 12, we held the next in our series of webinars, entitled "Using CBM for AYP and other Data Reporting." This webinar was presented by Dr. Michelle Hosp, one of our Center Trainers and Assistant Professor at the University of Utah. Click here to view the presentation slides, access the recording, or read through the Q & A from this webinar.

ED Expands NCLB Growth Model Pilot to All
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings last month announced that she is opening the growth model pilot to all eligible states. "Many states have improved data systems so they can track individual student growth over time," Secretary Spellings explained. "A growth model is a way for states that are raising achievement and following the bright-line principles of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to strengthen accountability," she added. The Secretary further stated that the pilot expansion would promote two important goals: allowing states another effective way of measuring adequate yearly progress (AYP) by measuring individual student growth over time, and continuing to expand the flexibility available to states under No Child Left Behind.

The Center for Promoting Research to Practice at Lehigh University Releases RTI Video
The Center for Promoting Research to Practice at Lehigh University establishes partnerships with schools, parents and families, and community service providers to enhance the use of best practices for individuals with, or at risk for disabilities. To that end, the Center, under the direction of Dr. Edward Shapiro, has released a video depicting the model of RTI that the state is using through its MP3 Project in three schools in the Central Dauphin School District located near Harrisburg, PA, as well as in many of the pilot RTI sites across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Dr. Shapiro, who also serves as a member of the Technical Review Committee for the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring, presented on this model during the national RTI Summit held in Arlington, VA on December 6-7, 2007.

Center on Instruction RTI Resource
Snapshots from Five Schools Implementing RTI: Practices and Perspectives. The Center on Instruction Special Education Strand hosted a WebEx on December 4, 2007, to discuss how RTI is being implemented in different content areas in both elementary and middle schools in five RTI implementation sites. The PowerPoint presentation by Kathryn Klingler Tackett is available here. An archived file of the WebEx will be available soon. A full report describing these sites will be available in Summer 2008.

IRIS Center Posts Data Management and Graphing Tool
The IRIS Center for Faculty Enhancement has posted the Data Management and Graphing Tool in the module "RTI (Part 4): Putting It All Together." This tool allows teachers to track progress monitoring data for each student. With it, teachers can set beginning and end goals for their classes and enter each student's progress monitoring scores. The program will automatically generate a graph for each student and calculate the slope. Click here to go to the Data Management and Graphing Tool.

New NICHCY Resource Addresses Assessments and Accommodations for Students with Disabilities
The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities's (NICHCY) new Evidence for Education Brief examines what the research has to say about providing students with disabilities with accommodations that support learning as well as their ability to show what they know and can do. Commentary from education professionals and examples from the field are included to highlight practical tools and resources designed to help educators and families determine appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities. 

If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, click here. If you've received this newsletter in error, or if you wish to unsubscribe, please email us and write "unsubscribe" in the subject line.