Using Technology Tools to Monitor Response to Intervention

School psychologists and other educational professionals are faced with increasingly demanding data collection needs. There is increasing pressure to engage in data-driven decision-making for the purpose of making eligibility, instructional planning, program evaluation, and accountability decisions. For example, school psychologists are expected to engage in all of the data-driven decision-making activities specified in the Blueprint for Training and Practice in School Psychology III (Ysseldyke et al., 2006), and to help teachers identify evidence-based instructional practices while monitoring the effectiveness of those practices. Thus, school psychologists need to be knowledgeable about and capable of implementing continuous and periodic monitoring systems designed for use at universal, targeted, and intensive levels of intervention. Along with increasing demands to gather data on student performance, educational professionals are faced with enhancing the competence of an increasingly diverse student population. Of considerable importance for instruction is the significant diversity of academic skills of students enrolled in today’s schools. For example, our experiences in working with students in classrooms in the Minneapolis Public Schools have shown us that, when we assess skill development in mathematics of students enrolled in sixth grade, there typically is at least a 6-year range in performance. Some students, those recently immigrated, demonstrate very lowlevel math skills (or at least perform at a very low level on math tests). Other students in the same class are solving algebra problems. We even found two students who had mothers who were software engineers for local computer firms and, together, those mothers and students solved quadratic equations “for fun”! Therein lays the dilemma for teachers. The logistics of implementing what is known about effective instruction is incredibly difficult. The big need for teachers, principals, and school psychologists is for objective information that enables teachers to differentiate instruction, allows principals to lead and manage school improvement, and helps superintendents ensure success for entire districts. Thus, psychometrically sound data are needed to guide these decisions, but often there is a significant shortage of reliable, instructionally sensitive assessment information. One method of enhancing data collection and increasing the frequency of data-based decisionmaking could be the use of technology to facilitate the process. School psychologists and related services personnel need to be aware of, and know how to use, the many technology tools that now are available for use in monitoring student progress. These tools have been shown to be essential components of schools’ data-driven educational strategies and intervention efforts; indeed, it often is quite difficult to collect, manage, and analyze data meaningfully without the use of such tools (McIntire, 2002; McLeod, 2005b; Pierce, 2005; Wayman, 2005). Technology tools could help school psychologists use continuous data on pupil performance to collaborate with teachers in adjusting or adapting instruction, to demonstrate accountability for performance and progress of all students, and to gather data within a variety of problem-solving models, some of which require monitoring response to intervention (RTI).