Modern Education Terminology
ALSDE: Alabama State Department of
Education
HBCOE: Henry County Board of
Education
AHS: Abbeville High School
Accommodations: Supports or services
provided to help an individual access the general education
curriculum and help facilitate learning. Accommodations are any
tools and procedures that provide equal access to instruction and
assessment for students with disabilities. Accommodations are
grouped into the following categories:
Presentation: (repeat directions, read aloud, large
print, etc.)
Response: (mark answers in a book, use reference aids,
point, use of computers, etc.)
Timing/Scheduling: (extended time, frequent breaks,
etc.)
Setting: (study carrel, special lighting, separate
room, etc.)
Behavior Intervention Plan
(BIP): A plan to address problem behavior that
includes, as appropriate, positive behavioral interventions,
strategies, supports, program modifications, supplementary aids,
and services that may be required to address the problem
behavior.
Benchmarks
(Goals): Assigned progress points at each screening
that
students should attain at each grade level. DIBELS has three
levels at each grade (Universal, Strategic, and Intensive) that are
related to the tiers. Benchmarks in Reading First are generally
higher than those in ESS. ESS has one level at each grade. Team
decides whether the intervention goal (benchmark) should be modest
or aggressive (defined by formula)
Collaborative
team: A group of two or more people (as described
above) who meet on a scheduled or as-need basis and fill a specific
function or purpose. Collaborative teams can be formed both at the
district and school levels. School-based teams are developed and
sustained as determined by need and are accessible to any
administrator or teacher concerned with the educational needs of
students.
Core
Curriculum: The instruction that all students
receive, in a classroom, on a daily basis.
DIBELS: Dynamic Indicators of Basic
Early Literacy Skills are a set of standardized, individually
administered measures of early literacy development. They are
designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to
regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading
skills. (DIBELS Manual)
Differentiated
instruction: The matching of instruction with the
different needs of learners in a given classroom by modifying
delivery, time, content,
Eligibility: An individual, who by
nature of his or her disability and need requires special education
and related services in order to receive an appropriate
education.
English Learners
(EL): Students whose first language is not English
and who are in the process of learning English.
Section
504: A student is eligible under Section 504 if the
student has a mental or physical impairment that substantially
limits one or more of the student's major life activities and needs
accommodations to access education.
Full and Individual
Evaluation: The purpose of the evaluation is to
determine the educational interventions that are required to
resolve the presenting problem, behaviors of concern or suspected
disability, including whether the educational interventions are
special education. The identification process, at a minimum,
includes interactions with the individual, the individual's
parents, school personnel, and others having specific
responsibilities for, or knowledge of, the individual and the
implementation of general education interventions.
Fidelity: The extent to which any
program or plan is implemented in the way in which it was
designed.
Functional
Assessment: Functional assessment is a "step beyond"
standardized testing to determine the educational strengths and
needs of the student to progress in the general curriculum.
Functional assessments help to identify specific skills the student
can and cannot perform in relationship to his or her
disability.
Functional assessments also provide diagnostic information about
what the student can actually do in the areas of concern. For
example, if the student has a qualifying score in reading, and that
is the area of concern, what is it the student can and cannot do
when reading? Does the student have phonetic or sight word skills?
Can the student read words in context? Can the student answer
questions about a passage he or she has just read? Data is
"functional" if it is skill based and identifies the student's
present levels of performance to determine where to begin
instruction with the student.
Functional Behavior
Assessment (FBA): A problem-solving process for
addressing student problem behavior. FBA relies on a variety of
techniques and strategies to identify the reasons for a specific
behavior and to help teams select interventions that directly
address the problem behavior.
IDEA (Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act): Federal special
education law that mandates that states allow districts to use
Response to Intervention for special education eligibility for
learning disabilities.
Individual Education Plan (IEP): A
written statement for a specific child with a disability, in
accordance with chapter 24:05:27, based on a full and individual
evaluation of the child and developed by an IEP team.
Informed
Consent: Procedures to ensure that the parent has
been fully informed of all information, understands and agrees in
writing to carrying out the activity for which the consent is
sought. The parent understands that giving consent is voluntary and
may be revoked at any time. Informed consent is required for an
evaluation, a reevaluation, and for the initial delivery of special
education services.
Integrity or Fidelity of
Implementation: Teams are asked to establish ways of
checking to make sure that Response to Intervention activities are
implemented in the manner in which they were designed.
Interventions: The directing of
instruction in the area(s) of concern that is in addition to
regular classroom instruction. Interventions are designed to meet
the identified needs of an individual and are monitored on regular
and frequent basis. Changes in instruction, for the student in the
area of learning difficulty, are designed to improve learning and
to achieve adequate progress.
Least Restrictive
Environment: To the maximum extent appropriate,
children with disabilities are to be educated with children who are
not disabled. Special classes, separate schooling, or other ways of
removing children with disabilities from the regular educational
environment should only occur when the nature or severity of the
disability is such that education in regular classes cannot be
achieved satisfactorily with the use of supplementary aids and
services.
LEA (Local Education
Agency) - Here it is the HCBOE
Mean: An
average found by adding all the values in a set and dividing by the
number of values.
Median: An
average determined by finding the number that falls in the middle
of a set of data when arranged from least to greatest.
Mode: To
describe a set of data by using the most commonly occurring
value.
Modification: Changes made to the
content and performance expectations for an individual.
NCLB (No Child Left
Behind): A Federal Education Act.
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF): A one
minute, timed assessment in which a student reads orally.
Positive Behavior Supports (PBS):A school
wide system for increasing positive behaviors in a school. This
includes consistent expectations, positive reinforcement and data
driven decisions
Peers: For
school-age individuals, this refers to individuals in the same
grade as the targeted individual. For early childhood individuals
this refers to individuals of the same age group.
Percentile: To group into hundredths.
Percentiles indicates what percent of a group of numbers is less
than or equal to a given number.
Pre-referral
interventions: Interventions delivered to a student
that attempt to improve learning, prior to a referral for formal
special education evaluation.
Problem Solving
Model: One model of RTI that has the team analyze the
data and determine what interventions to use based upon individual
student's need.
Prior Written
Notice: A written notice that the school must provide
to the parents of a student with a disability, within a reasonable
time, if they wish to:
o Evaluate the student
o Determine whether the student is eligible for special
education services
o Change the student's evaluation or educational placement or
educational plan (IEP)
o Refuse the parent's request to evaluate their child or change
their child's educational plan (IEP) or placement.
Progress Monitoring: The process of
using probes to frequently measure the progress of a student when
receiving a research based intervention. The data is analyzed and
instructional decisions are made. The progress is usually presented
in a graphing format. Progress monitoring probes are given at skill
level not grade level.
Response to
Intervention: The Response to Intervention (RTI)
process is a multi-tiered approach to providing services and
interventions to all learners at increasing levels of intensity.
This process can be used for making decisions about general,
remedial, and special education, creating a well-integrated and
seamless system of instruction that is guided by student outcome
data. RTI calls for early identification of academic and behavioral
support, close collaboration among classroom teachers, other
educational personnel and parents, and a systemic commitment to
locating and employing the necessary resources to ensure that
students make progress in the general education curriculum. RTI is
an initiative that takes place in the general education environment
and is a framework that supports school improvement.
Reevaluation: A reevaluation is a
data-based decision making process conducted by the IEP team and,
as appropriate, other qualified professionals. The process
includes:
o A review of existing data and information and the gathering of
new assessment data, if needed. The purposes of the reevaluation
are to determine whether the individual continues to have a
disability and need ongoing special education and related
services;
o The present levels of performance in the area(s) of
concern;
o Whether any additions or modifications are needed to enable
the individual to meet measurable IEP goals and to participate, as
appropriate, in the general curriculum or in the case of early
childhood, appropriate activities.
Reliability: Refers to the accuracy,
dependability, consistency, or repeatability of test results; to
the extent to which measurement results are free of unpredictable
kinds of error.
Scientifically/Research
Based: Refers to empirical research that applies
rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain Reading
Research (SBRR) valid knowledge. This research:
o Employs systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation
or experiment.
o Has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a
panel of independent experts through a comparably rigorous,
objective and scientific review.
o Involves rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the
stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions drawn.
o Relies on measurements or observational methods that provide
valid data across evaluators and observers and across multiple
measurements and observations.
o Can be generalized.
Special education: Specially
designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique
needs of a student with a disability, including instruction
conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and
institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical
education. The term includes speech-language pathology services and
may include other related services, travel training, and applied
technology education, if they meet the definition of special
education.
Strategic
Interventions: Interventions provided to students who
are not achieving the desired standards through the core curriculum
alone.
Standardized
Assessments: Are tests administered and scored in the same
way to ensure validity. These assessments depend upon the same
questions, conditions and scoring in order to gauge student
progress against a norm group.
Targeted
Assessments: An assessment conducted that is focused
on a specific desired outcome.
Team: A
group of individuals who are involved in the development,
implementation and decision making process as part of RTI. At a
minimum, this includes the LEA instructional interventionist, the
parent, and other qualified individuals, as appropriate.
Validity: The extent to which
interpretations are useful, relevant, and valuable in making
decisions relevant to a given instructional technique; how
worthwhile is a measure likely to be for telling you what you need
to know in a given situation. Is the Instrument giving you the true
story?