Hi,DACs, Principals and Psychs,

We all know that one-time trainings are not the best model for effective staff development. In an effort to maintain some sort of ongoing communication with HVED districts, I have decided to begin sending out periodic "What's new in the HVED data world" e-mails. I am initially sending the e-mails to you as DACs, Principals and Psychs because of the data-based decision-making leadership role each of you plays inyour respective districts.If you think the rest of your staffwould find the information helpful, however, pleaseforward the e-mail along to them as well.

Each e-mail will have 3 brief sections:

1. District successes to celebrate

2. Data tools you can use

3. Resource highlights from the HVED website

If you have any suggestions for items to include in any of these sections in future "What's new" e-mails, please don't hesitate to contact me.

District successes to celebrate

Randy Eckerson, school psychologist with the Chatfield and Mabel-Canton school districts, came to me recently because he wanted to find a better way to measure whether his districts were meeting one of the primary goals within an RtI model: The Tier I curriculum is meeting the needs of at least 80% of students.

He and I worked together to create Power Point presentations for each of his two districts. The presentations included graphs of data from the data warehouse and the Minnesota Department of Education website and outlined patterns in students' performance on the MCA-II, NWEA MAP and AIMSweb assessment measures over the past 2-3 years. We then shared the presentations with administrators in each of his districts.

Data tools you can use

Several regular education and special education teachers and administrators have told me during my recent trainings out in HVED districts that they see theiCue Personalized Learning Profile (PLP)as the most user-friendly tool within the data warehouse.

If you aren't familiar with the PLP, itnot only provides a table showing individual students' performance across the most recentadministrations ofseveral different measures (e.g., MCA-II Math and Reading, NWEA MAP Math and Reading, AIMSweb Oral Reading Fluency and early literacy measures) at once,but it also displays iconsfor each measure that are color-coded according to the student's level of proficiency (i.e., BLUE = exceeding standards, GREEN = meeting standards, YELLOW = partially meeting standards, RED = not meeting standards).

Some districts, like Lewiston-Altura,are using this measure tohelp them identify studentscurrently in need of small-group,Tier II intervention support.For directions on accessing the PLP, go to the hved website (www.hved.org), click on Resources, then Data-Based Decision-Making Resources, then under "iCue Tests and Assessments Training Materials" click on either "iCue PLP - administrators" or "iCue PLP -teachers" depending upon your role to download the 1-page training documents. Feel free to contact me at 507-452-1200, ext. 128, or if you have any questions or concerns.

Resource highlights from the HVED website

If you're looking for intervention program or strategy ideas to help those students you've identified as being at risk, be sure to check out the "Intervention Resources" page of the HVED website. There is currently a direct link to it in the "What's New" section in the bottom righthand corner of the HVED website homepage. Once you get to the Intervention Resources page, I'd encourage you to check out 2 links in particular.

1. At the top of the page, under the subheading "HVED Specific" is a downloadable Excel file with a list of intervention programs/curricula currently being used in HVED districts. The file includes information about such things as which students would most benefit from the intervention, whether research supports its effectiveness, and which staff in which districts might be able to help you get trained in using the intervention.

2. Toward the bottom of the page, I would also encourage you to check out the "Intervention Central Free Tools and Resources" link under the "Intervention Methods/Strategies (Quick and Easy)" subheading. This site provides links to no-cost, quick and easy lesson plans for a variety of different academic and behavioral interventions teachers could use immediately in their classrooms.