Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Skills is a web-based assessment system published by Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). The test publishers purport that MAP Skills provides information about essential K-8 building blocks in Language Usage, Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, and Vocabulary to quickly assess student progress toward…

The current national implementation of response-to-intervention frameworks has intensified the debate regarding underlying causes of student deficits and how to best assess and intervene for them. If cognitive measures are useful to intervention planning, then experimental research should be able to demonstrate that use of cognitively focused…

Mathematics fluency is a critical component of mathematics learning yet few attempts have been made to synthesize this research base. Seventeen single-case design studies with 55 participants were reviewed using meta-analytic procedures. A component analysis of practice elements was conducted and treatment intensity and feasibility were examined.…

The current article reviews research published in "Assessment for Effective Intervention" during the past 3 years. A total of 57 research articles were published during that period, with a current rejection rate of approximately 78%. A close examination of the pool of articles revealed seven overarching themes: behavioral assessment tools, group…

Brief experimental analysis (BEA) can be used to specify intervention characteristics that produce positive learning gains for individual students. A key challenge to the use of BEA for intervention planning is the identification of performance indicators (including topography of the skill, measurement characteristics, and decision criteria) that…

Early writing interventions can help students develop the writing skills they need to experience positive educational and postsecondary outcomes, but effective intervention requires instructionally relevant assessment data. Shapiro's curriculum-based assessment (CBA) model integrates related yet distinct CBA approaches into a model that informs…

Sight-word instruction can improve functioning with various daily, recreational, and work-related tasks among children with moderate to severe disabilities. Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of drill methods to teach sight words if the model contains at least 50% known items, which would also increase the number of opportunities…

The current study applied meta-analytic procedures to brief experimental analysis research of reading fluency interventions to better inform practice and suggest areas for future research. Thirteen studies were examined to determine what magnitude of effect was needed to identify an intervention as the most effective within a brief experimental…

School psychology training and practice have been substantially influenced by a series of documents referred to as "Blueprints." The second edition of the "Blueprint" directly led to the development of training standards for school psychology that addressed several domains of practice. Both preceding and simultaneous to the…

The current study examines the consistency of two response-to-intervention (RTI) decision-making models. Weekly progress monitoring data for 30 students participating in a Tier II intervention were collected for 30 weeks. The data were examined by comparing them to an aimline with a yearly goal and by computing a dual discrepancy (DD) using…

Many students experience difficulty in acquiring basic writing skills and educators need to efficiently address those deficits by implementing an intervention with a high likelihood for success. The current article demonstrates the utility of using a brief experimental analysis (BEA) to identify a letter-formation intervention for a second-grade…

Traditional drill and practice (TD) and incremental rehearsal (IR) are two flashcard drill instructional methods previously noted to improve word recognition. The current study sought to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of these two methods, as assessed by next day retention assessments, under 2 conditions (i.e., opportunities to respond…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 allows schools to use a child's response to research-based intervention (RTI) as a part of procedures to identify students with learning disabilities. This paper considers whether RTI-based assessment models meet ethical and legal standards for acceptable assessment practices.…