Maryland

1
Marylands Approach to Converting Preschool
Outcomes Data to OSEP Reporting Categories

• Nancy M. Vorobey, M.Ed.
• Maryland State Department of Education
• nvorobey_at_msde.state.md.us

2
Marylands Choice of Assessment for Preschool
Children

• Since the mid 1990s, Maryland has had in place
  the Maryland Model for School Readiness (MMSR),
  a framework to assist early educators in
  instructing and assessing young children in the
  knowledge, skills and behaviors they need to be
  prepared for the learning demands of formal
  schooling.
• State general funds have been made available
  through noncompetitive grants to MDs 24 local
  school systems to train all K and Pre-K (4 yr.
  old programs) teachers in the Work Sampling
  System, the instrument of choice for the MMSR.

3
MMSR Child Outcomes

• Since 2000, State law has required that all
  children, including children with IEPs, enrolled
  in their kindergarten year, have data on 30
  sample K-level WSS indicators collected and made
  public in the form of an annual report, Children
  Entering School Ready to Learn.
• Choice of WSS to address Indicator 7 was made in
  order to be consistent with and align statewide
  assessment for children with and without
  disabilities.

4
Work Sampling System

• Decision made to collect data on all indicators
  at each age level of the WSS
• 66 for K checklist
• 55 for 4 year old checklist
• 49 for 3 year old checklist
• Each indicator for each checklist cross walked
  to one or more of the 3 broad child outcomes
• WSS Indicator ratings entered through a web-based
  system

5
Single Service Children

• Observations and progress notes from SLP, OT,
  and/or PT collected over 6-8 weeks of initiation
  of services
• Information gathered from several sources may be
  used to inform ratings for non-IEP related WSS
  indicators
• For children transitioning from Infants and
  Toddlers, information from the childs early
  intervention record provided to Part B for
  eligibility determination may be used to help
  inform ratings
• Parent/Care Provider Interviews (example, Ages
  and Stages)

6
WSS ? Child Outcomes

• Each WSS indicator may received a rating of
• Proficient (3)
• In Process (2)
• Needs Development (1)
• For the February 1, 2007 revised SPP submission
  to OSEP for Indicator 7, a composite score of
  2.5 was used as the cut-off for answering the
  question of performance comparable to same age
  peers (Status At Entry).

7
WSS Scores ? OSEPs Reporting Categories

• ECO summary form will not be used
• Working with a consultant to examine 2 approaches
  to translating WSS scores into OSEP reporting
  categories
• GOAL As a result of calculations, there will be
  indices that will be linked to the OSEP
  categories

8
Intervention Efficacy Index (IEI)

• The IEI is a mechanism for relating changes in a
  childs capabilities to time spent in a program.
• It yields an index that can describe individual
  progress in terms of average developmental gains
  within and across (curricular) domains for each
  months participation in an intervention program.

9
What does the IEI look like?

• IEI Developmental gain (in months)
• Time in Intervention (in months)
• MD IEI Mean WSS Domain Exit -
• Mean WSS Domain Entry
• Time in Intervention in Months

10
IEI Example

• Mean WSS Cog Exit 2.91 -
• Mean WSS Cog Entry 2.75
• Time in Intervention - 12 months
• 0.16 / 12 0.013
• Note This IEI index is interpreted as an
  average of 0.013
• month of gain for each month of
  participation in the program/services.
• Decision Remaining Which indices
  (ranges) will be linked
• with each of the OSEP reporting
  categories.

11
Proportional Change Index (PCI)

• The PCI
• Controls for childrens developmental status
  preintervention, which is not accounted for with
  the IEI.
• PCI calculation is a ratio of a childs rate of
  development at pretesting to the rate of
  development during intervention defined at
  posttesting.
• Recommended to be used with measures from all
  developmental domains.

12
What does the PCI look like?

• PCI
• Developmental gain ? Pretest Dev Age
• Time in Intervention Pretest Chron Age
• Note the first ratio of the PCI is the same as
  the IEI what is different is controlling for
  preintervention developmental rate, which is the
  second ratio created from the Entry data.

13
MD PCI Example

• Mean WSS Cog Exit (2.91) -
• Mean WSS Cog Entry (2.75)
• Time in Intervention in Months (12)
• /
• Mean WSS Cog Entry (2.75)
• Age in Months at Entry (36)
• 0.013 / 0.076 0.171

14
PCI interpretation

• Children who continue to develop during
  intervention as they did prior to intervention
  receive a PCI score of 1.0
• Children whose rates of development appear to be
  slower during as compared to prior to
  intervention receive a PCI score of less than 1.0
• Children whose rates of development appear to
  accelerate during intervention receive a PCI
  score greater than 1.0 this category would
  likely be divided in half for the OSEP
  categories.
• (guidelines for PCI interpretation offered by
  Wolery)

15
Pros, Cons Challenges

• IEI - with IEI calculations, all children make
  some progress there is no consideration of dev
  age at entry or disability.
• PCI - takes both dev age at entry and impact of
  disability on rate of progress over time into
  consideration may yield more relevant
  information for program improvement.
• Either approach takes us into the realm of the
  unknown, as weve never done this before!