TESTING

We are a Lab School. If you have never heard of one, it is a school that provides progressive education, which is generally an educational philosophy and method that emphasize individual instruction, informality in the classroom, and the use of group discussions as instructional techniques.

One function of a lab school is to develop and implement new educational technologies, then ascertain whether they work, or how well they work. Therefore, a lab school requires three basic processes:

1. Student testing, to ascertain strengths and weaknesses
2. Use of test results to construct interventions
3. See if the interventions work, or how well they work

What is Response to Intervention (RTI)?
RTI is a problem-solving model to identify the phase learners are in for each aspect of their education. It involves targeted instruction focused on individual skill deficits. RTI utilizes scientifically based curriculum and assessment, progress monitoring, teams that develop and implement interventions. RTI can be used for any type of learner need, from gifted to special needs learners.

Most RTI models utilize a progression of activities. For music instruction, this is problematic, since we are the leaders in identification of best practices. It is up to us to create modules for our teachers to provide students with effective instruction. Typically, these activities are proactive and preventative. If students do not respond to instruction at this level their intervention is shifted to another module. In our piano program, these may be small group interventions or these interventions may be completely individualized. If students remain unresponsive to their interventions they qualify for special edcation interventions.

What is the Role of Assessment in RTI?
Assessment is an integral part of RTI. To be successful, we need multiple measures to increase the confidence needed for decisions, such as moving students between tiers. A tier is simply a set of instructional materials meant to provide the student the help he or she needs at any particular time.

Measure Basic Psychological Processes Measures of cognitive ability can be used to determine the relative contribution of deficits in the basic psychological processes on the academic skill deficits observed during interventions. For us, we look at the combination of the student's cognitive abilities and how it interacts with their ability to learn music in the manner we choose. That's is why assessment is so important; so we can match the person to the intervention. Diagnostics Diagnostic assessments help target specific skill strengths or deficits that will be the focus of  the particular child's curriculum. Progress Monitoring Progress Monitoring assessments help measure how well students are responding to their interventions and help determine which students need more intensive interventions. Universal Screening Screening students provides us with important up-front information before we begin teaching that student. It also serves as part of the ongoing assessment in that some students may not need in depth testing. Screening allows us to ascertain a particular cognitive area before we actually conduct a test.. The idea of testing is completely new in piano lessons but needed. We use our data as described above, feeding it back to parents for maximal effectiveness overall. We also publish our data so as to contribute to cognitive science overall and, hopefully, change the nature of piano teaching in the future. Dr. Marcie Zinn