2007 Summer Institute on Student Progress Monitoring
July 10-11, 2007
Nashville, Tennessee
We are excited to announce the dates and location of the 2007 Summer Institute on Student Progress Monitoring!  During the 2007 Institute, you’ll be able to choose from a variety of academic areas in which you’ll learn how to apply Curriculum-Based Measurement—including reading, math, spelling, and written expression!  Registration and conference details will be sent shortly and will also be posted on our web site.   

Call for Tools!
Each year our Center asks vendors to submit student progress monitoring tools so that the tools can be reviewed by our Technical Review Committee and included in our tools chart. This year's call for submissions of student progress monitoring tools is now available online. The deadline for submission is April 16, 2007.

If you are using a tool that you do not see on our tools chart, please encourage the vendor to participate in this review.

Updated Tools Chart Now Available! 
The 2006 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.

Mark Your Calendars! Progress Monitoring Webinar on Reading Coming Soon!
The National Center on Student Progress Monitoring (NCSPM) will be holding the second in a series of webinars on March 19 from 3:00 to 4:30 PM EST called, "The ABCs of Progress Monitoring in Reading." Dr. Michelle Hosp, one of our Center Trainers and Assistant Professor at the University of Utah, will explain how Curriculum-Based Measurement can be used to help monitor student progress in the area of reading. For more information about this webinar, please click here.

Did You Miss Our First Webinar?
We recently held our first webinar, entitled “Monitoring Student Progress in the Classroom to Enhance Teacher Planning and Student Learning” on February 20. Presenter Dr. Lynn Fuchs, Co-Principal Investigator on our center and Co-Director of the Vanderbilt Reading Clinic, provided an overview of student progress monitoring and Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM). If you missed this webinar, click here to access the recording, Power Point presentation, and transcript.

SPM Technical Assistance in West Virginia
Our Center was pleased to partner with the West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Special Education to hold a 3-day workshop for district administrators in February. The purpose of the workshop was to offer training to administrative personnel and school psychologists in the use of student progress monitoring (SPM) for tiered instruction. West Virginia has piloted a tiered instruction model in many of its schools over the past two years, and this project has led to a statewide tiered instruction initiative. Our center led sessions on leading implementation of SPM in districts and schools, applying SPM in a tiered instruction model, and choosing SPM tools. Additionally, Dr. Pam Fernstrom, a Center Trainer from the University of Northern Alabama, led one half-day session each on SPM in reading and SPM in math. We applaud West Virginia’s commitment to improving student achievement using SPM.

Web cast on Reading Comprehension Available
Reading Rockets, the sister Web site to LD OnLine, has launched Make Reading Count: Effective Strategies for Teaching Comprehension. The presenters are:
• Isabel Beck, Professor of Education and Senior Scientist, University of Pittsburgh
• Nanci Bell, Director and CEO, Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
• Sharon Walpole, Assistant Professor, School of Education, University of Delaware
Nanci Bell suggested that educators teach people with dyslexia reading comprehension by:
• Asking students to picture what they read. Say, "What are you picturing for a skyscraper?" rather than "What is the meaning of skyscraper?"
• Asking students to write in a way that will create a picture for someone. This makes them get adjectives, color, number, and structure words. It makes their writing richer.
This free web cast is available anytime online.

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