Teaching · Related Services

See the whole grade
before you pull groups.

Paste the screening scores for a grade by student code and enter the two cut scores your screener publishes. The page sorts every student, sets each class against the 80 percent mark, lists who to look at first, and shows who moved between fall, winter and spring.

Open the analyzerWhat you get
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Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Related Services toolkit, $99 for 96 items.

The screening analyzer

The worked example is a made-up second grade: 64 students in three classes with fall and winter scores, 68% at benchmark in winter. Paste your own roster over it, or start blank.

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What you get

Teaching · Related Services$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with
For each screening window: every student sorted into three bands with the cut scores you enter; the share of the grade and of each class at or above the benchmark against the 80 percent mark, with a flag where fewer than half of a class is there; a dot for every score, one row per class; the students below the benchmark with the points to go, the change since the last window and a mark for those near the cut; and a table of who moved between two windows. Prints a summary for the data meeting and downloads every student’s band as a spreadsheet.
Who it is for
School psychologists, MTSS and problem-solving teams, interventionists and reading or math specialists, data coaches, and principals who run screening data meetings. Student codes or initials only; the page refuses a name where a code belongs.
Format
Browser tool. Paste a roster from a spreadsheet; results update as you type. Prints a meeting summary; downloads bands (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
$12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Related Services toolkit ($99) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Related Services space in Caveat Teaching.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Open Scores and cuts. Paste one student per line: a code, the class, then the fall, winter and spring scores. Leave a score empty if the student was not tested.
  2. Enter the benchmark and the lower cut for each window from your screener’s tables for the grade. The page supplies none.
  3. Read Classes first: the grade against 80 percent, then each class. A class under half at benchmark is a class-wide need, not twelve separate referrals.
  4. Open Students for the list below the benchmark, lowest first, with those near the cut marked for a second look.
  5. After the next window, add its scores and open Movement to see who reached the benchmark and who slipped. Print the summary for the meeting.

Open the analyzer

How the sorting and the checks work

Counting, with two rules of thumb from the research on tiered support.

1 Sort each score with the two cutswell belowbelowat or abovelower cut 50benchmark 704263812 Count the classClass 2C, winter9 ÷ 20 = 45%at or above ÷ tested. Under half: class-wide need3 Follow students between windowsBelow the benchmark in fall5 ÷ 22 = 23%reached the benchmark by winter1 Sort each score with the two cutswell belowbelowat or abovelower cut 50benchmark 704263812 Count the classClass 2C, winter9 ÷ 20 = 45%at or above ÷ tested: under half3 Follow students between windowsBelow the benchmark in fall5 ÷ 22 = 23%reached the benchmark by winter
With the example’s winter cuts, 42 is well below, 63 is below and 81 is at or above. In class 2C, 9 of 20 tested students are at or above the benchmark; of 22 students below it in fall, 5 reached it by winter.

Bands and percents

A score at or above the benchmark you enter is in the top band; a score under the lower cut is well below; anything between is below. Each window uses its own cuts. A student with no score in a window is left out of that window’s counts and shown as not tested. Percents are of students tested, and the class median is the middle score.

The two checks on core instruction

The National Center on Response to Intervention writes that primary prevention “should be effective and sufficient for about 80% of the student population.” The page marks a grade or a class under 80 percent at benchmark for that reason.

When fewer than half of a class is at benchmark, the class median sits below the cut. VanDerHeyden and colleagues treat that as a class-wide problem, to be met with intervention for the whole class before individual students are referred. Classes with fewer than five tested students are not flagged.

What a screening score is not

A screening score sorts students for a closer look. It does not diagnose, and near a cut it can fall on either side on another day, which is why the same center describes a second stage, more testing or short-term progress monitoring, to confirm risk. The page marks students within the number of points you choose of the benchmark so the team looks twice. It supplies no cut scores, norms or percentiles and makes no placement decision.

Sources

  1. National Center on Response to Intervention. (2010). Essential Components of RTI: A Closer Look at Response to Intervention. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. The 80 percent figure, cut points, and the second stage that confirms risk.
  2. VanDerHeyden, A. M., Witt, J. C., & Gilbertson, D. (2007). A multi-year evaluation of the effects of a Response to Intervention (RTI) model on identification of children for special education. Journal of School Psychology, 45(2), 225–256. Class-wide problems identified from the class median.
  3. Gersten, R., Compton, D., Connor, C. M., Dimino, J., Santoro, L., Linan-Thompson, S., & Tilly, W. D. (2009). Assisting students struggling with reading: Response to Intervention and multi-tier intervention in the primary grades (NCEE 2009-4045). Institute of Education Sciences. Recommendation 1: screen all students at the beginning and in the middle of the year.
  4. National Center on Intensive Intervention. Academic Screening Tools Chart (intensiveintervention.org). Reviews of screeners. Cut scores come from the publisher of the screener you use.

The worked example is made up, including its cut scores of 50 and 70, which belong to no published screener. Screening is not diagnosis, and this page makes no placement or eligibility decision. Scores stay in this browser under student codes; do not enter names. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.