Using brief assessments to identify effective interventions for individualstudents

This study examined the utility of brief teaching probes as an assessment f or students referred due to poor academic performance. Reading-decoding ski lls as assessed by students' oral reading rate on probes containing letters , words, or prose were examined. The brief assessment consisted of three ph ases: baseline and two instructional interventions. Each phase was presente d twice during each brief assessment. Brief assessments were conducted acro ss three levels of instructional materials for 4 students, resulting in 12 brief assessments. Ten of the 12 brief assessments identified one or both i nterventions as promising, based on a 20% or greater increase in reading ra te over baseline. Following the assessment, an extended analysis was conduc ted for each student using a multiple baseline across curricular materials. In 83% of cases, interventions received the same classification as effecti ve or ineffective across the brief assessment and extended analysis. Implic ations for practice and research are discussed. (C) 2001 Society for the St udy of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.