SLPProcess Guide

Student Learning Plans
Development and
Implementation
Guide
SLP Process Guide Vol 2.1 – February 2006

Student Learning Plans:
Development and Implementation Guide
Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

Contents
Overview ............................................................................................................................................1
Background Information ........................................................................................................1
Guiding Principles for Implementing Student Learning Plans ..............................................2
Web-Based Student Learn Plans ............................................................................................2
Audiences and Stakeholders for Student Learning Plans.......................................................3
Readiness to Benefit...............................................................................................................5
Seven Stages of Concern........................................................................................................6
Understanding Student Learning Plan Depth and Level of Service.......................................8
Identifying Resources.............................................................................................................9
Three Tiers of Services for Developing Student Learning Plans...........................................9
The Student Learning Plan Process..................................................................................................12

Step 1: Identify Students Who Will Be Receiving Student Learning Plans ........................12
Step 2: Analyze Student Assessment Data
to Determine Meaningful Groupings of Students ....................................................14
Step 3: Identify Interventions ...............................................................................................17
Step 4: Create Plans and Assign Interventions to Students..................................................24
Step 5: Communicate Plans to Parents and Students ...........................................................27
Step 6: Implement, Review, and Adjust Plans .....................................................................29
In Closing .........................................................................................................................................31
References ........................................................................................................................................33
Web Resources .................................................................................................................................33
Tools
Tool 1: Stages of Concern....................................................................................................35
Tool 2: Resources Available for Supporting Student Learning Plans..................................37
Tool 3: Number of Plans Needed.........................................................................................39
Tool 4: Student Learning Needs...........................................................................................41
Tool 5: Student Groupings ...................................................................................................43
Tool 6: Current Interventions ...............................................................................................45
Tool 7: Interventions to Consider.........................................................................................47
Tool 8: Interventions Identified Through Research .............................................................49

Tool 9: Analysis of Interventions.........................................................................................51
Tool 10: Student Roles and Responsibilities........................................................................55
Tool 11: Parent Roles and Responsibilities..........................................................................57
Tool 12: Student Learning Plan Templates
Sample 1................................................................................................................59
Sample 2................................................................................................................61
Sample 3................................................................................................................63
Sample 4................................................................................................................65
Sample 5................................................................................................................67
Sample 6................................................................................................................69
Sample 7................................................................................................................71
Tool 13: Intervention Assignments ......................................................................................73
Tool 14: Intervention Tracking ............................................................................................75
Appendix: Building Consensus ........................................................................................................77

Overview
Background Information
The Student Learning Plan process was developed to help ensure continued progress in academic
achievement and to ensure that all students are on track for high school graduation. The Student
Learning Plan was part of H.B. 2195, signed by the governor on March 18, 2004. Each school
district in the state of Washington needs to provide a plan for each student (or a group of students
with similar academic needs) who is not successful on any or all of the content areas of the
Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL).
Who Is Required to Have a Plan?

All students who did not meet one or more standards in the Essential Academic Learning
Requirements measured by the 4th-, 7th-, and 10th-grade WASL eventually will be required to have
a plan.
When Are the Plans Required?

Plans will be phased in over a number of years and eventually will be implemented across all
grades. The schedule of implementation is as follows:
• 2004–05: 9th-grade students (Class of 2008)
• 2005–06: 5th- and 8th-grade students (Class of 2010 and 2013)
• Classes of 2008 and 2009: Reading, writing, and mathematics
• Class of 2010 and beyond: Science added
A Student Learning Plan is maintained until the student meets standards on the WASL, WASL
retakes or the student demonstrates mastery of the standards through state approved alternative
means.
What Information Must Be Included in the Plan?

For Grade 5 and Grades 8–12 schools must track:
• WASL results
• Interventions the school will implement to improve the student’s skills and strategies
• Strategies to help parents improve their child’s skills
• Annual adjustments as needed
• Parent contact information
In addition, Grades 8–12 require a list of courses, competencies, and other steps needed to meet
academic standards and stay on track for graduation.
When Do the Plans Have to Be Completed in the School Year?

Completing plans early in the school year will provide time necessary to help students who do not
meet standards on the WASL; however, the law allows plans to be completed any time within the
school year.
OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—1

What Parent or Guardian Involvement Is Required?
Parents or guardians are to be notified of the plan and of its contents, preferably through a parent
conference. Progress is reported annually to the parent or guardian.
Guiding Principles for Implementing Student Learning Plans
• The principal must be at the helm of this process. Without the support and
leadership of the principal, the Student Learning Plan process lacks the leverage that
is needed for change to occur in a school environment. The principal’s involvement
lends both authority and credibility to the process. This leadership is a first step in
transitioning to a student-centered learning system.
• Empowering teachers, counselors, parents, and students to take on leadership roles

in schools during the Student Learning Plan process is vital in ensuring a successful
model focusing on personalizing learning.
• All members of a school staff should participate and/or be aware of the Student
Learning Plan process. Transitioning a culture to a more student-centric model will
require buy-in by all staff.
• Decisions about Student Learning Plan interventions must be based on careful

consideration of multiple sources of data and research.
• Authentic Student Learning Plans can be obtained only with multiple measures of
assessment, including screening, formative (progress monitoring and program
modification), diagnostic, and summative measures.
• Improvements in student academic performance are directly related to what happens

in the classroom. Teachers must be willing to be reflective about their practice and
relentless in attempts to meet the needs of every student.
• Individualized Student Learning Plans are only as good as the quality of thought,
effort, and the degree of buy-in by staff. Just creating the plans will not improve
student achievement. Implementing thoughtful interventions based on data and
research will be the catalyst for increased student achievement.
Web-Based Student Learning Plans

In recognition of the data-management demands of this legislation and in support of school staff,
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) staff decided to pursue the development of a
Web-based tool to track Student Learning Plans. The resulting Student Learning Plan Education
Management System Web site (available at https://ems.wa-k12.net) will enable districts and schools
to track all of the information required by the Student Learning Plan legislation and will support
effective implementation of these plans in support of student learning. The program:
1. Allows districts and schools to develop Student Learning Plans for individuals or groups of
students with similar academic needs by selecting research-based strategies and
2—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

interventions (with corresponding supporting documents) by subject area, grade level, and
levels of proficiency as determined by the WASL cut scores (levels 1, 2, 3, 4). More detailed
and authentic plans are developed by analyzing additional district or school diagnostic
assessment information and grouping students by similar academic need. An example would
be a fluency plan for students in 9th grade not meeting standards on the WASL.
2. Allows building-level staff members to develop individualized Student Learning Plans by

deleting or adding strategies and interventions from developed group plans.
3. Imports student name, age, grade, school, and school district; date plan was developed;
WASL, Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), and Iowa Test of Educational Development
(ITED) information from other, existing databases into the Student Learning Plan software.
4. Allows parents and students to access Student Learning Plan system through a secured login
and password system.
The Web-based Student Learning Plan program allows building-level staff to assign several
students to one plan or multiple plans based on areas of need. For example, if a group of students in
proficiency level 1 need a plan based on fluency, staff members can first create a fluency plan and
then assign the plan to students based on diagnostic information they have that resides outside of the
system, coupled with screening assessment data inside the system.
The system allows Student Learning Plan archiving, which electronically attaches Student Learning
Plans to the unique student identifier. With this connection, Student Learning Plans follow students
wherever they move, whether among schools within the same district or among schools across
Washington state.
Audiences and Stakeholders for Student Learning Plans
Students
All involved students will receive a Student Learning Plan outlining strategies and interventions
designed to help them meet standards on the WASL. The plans will provide opportunities for
student interaction and reflection through the development phase of the plan. Students also will
review and comment on their progress as the plan is implemented. Students will be supported as
they capitalize on the reflection process to drive course and competency selection in concert with
their “high school and beyond” plan. Each student will have a login and password to be able to
access the Student Learning Plan via the Internet wherever and whenever he or she may have
access.
District Administrator
The district administrator will oversee progress at each school and provide guidance and support to
building administrators as they work to develop Student Learning Plans. In addition, economies of
scale may be achieved if the district administrator assists in coordinating plan development and
interventions.

Building Administrator
The building administrator will work with staff to dynamically manage Student Learning Plans. The
building administrator also will arrange for a team to develop a Student Learning Plan for each
student (or a group of students with similar academic needs) who is not successful meeting
standards identified in the Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRS) on any or all of the
content areas of the WASL by selecting research-based strategies and interventions that are
imbedded into the system.
The building administrator can use the system to drive professional development decisions as
interventions and strategies are selected using the current OSPI school improvement model to
leverage and bridge the foundational Student Learning Plans. Access for each instructional staff
member in the school (e.g., edit, view only, 9th-grade students) will be determined by the building
administrator, who also will have the authority to print batch files of Student Learning Plans filtered
by level of plan and individual plans within each level, subject area, and grade level. The building
administrator also will be able to print individual plans.
Fiscal Administrator
The fiscal administrator will work with the district administrator and building administrator to
develop and administer a budget for the development and administration of the Student Learning
Plans.
Instructional Staff
Instructional staff—including counselors, career specialists, teachers, and principals, depending
upon their role in plan development—will use the system to:
• Develop interventions for Student Learning Plans.
• Select interventions for creating Student Learning Plans.
• Create groups of students who need similar interventions to assist them in developing
academically.
• Edit group student plan interventions for students to develop individualized Student
Learning Plans.
• View prepared individualized Student Learning Plans.
• Print batch files of plans.
• Print individual Student Learning Plans.
• Utilize the foundational plans for driving professional development.
Counselors and career specialists will be able to use the system to advise students on their status on
fulfilling graduation requirements, recommending classes to fulfill the graduation requirements and
“high school and beyond” plan.
Parents
Parents will receive a printed copy of their child’s Student Learning Plan. This copy should be
communicated through a parent conference whenever possible. In the future, parents will be able to

view their child’s Student Learning Plan by logging on to a secure site with a username and
password.
Educational Service District (ESD)

ESD-trained staff from each region will serve as the initial trainers for this process. Similar
trainings will occur across the state by all nine ESDs. Schools desiring additional training will
connect with ESDs to select from a menu of services which includes ways in which the ESD can
help the school implement the Student Learning Plan process.
Consensus Building
As staff across all levels work to support student learning and to accommodate those students who
are struggling with achievement testing, the broadest possible participation is needed. Staff
members will need clarification about how decisions are reached during the process of creating
Student Learning Plans. This decision-making process should delineate who makes what decisions,
who is involved in the development of the plans (including how parents are involved), how the
implementation of the Student Learning Plan is monitored, how input from the staff is sought and
included in the plan, and how this process is clearly communicated to all stakeholders. Ideally, the
decision-making process will include strategies toward consensus. Active resistance is always a
concern and can be minimized if all stakeholders believe that they have been heard and that their
ideas have merit. (Guidelines for successful consensus building are included in the Appendix.)
Readiness to Benefit
Before beginning the Student Learning Plan process, one of the first things schools should
undertake is to evaluate the school’s capacity to successfully implement the process. Dedication of
time to complete the plans, training on the process and technology application if used, defined roles
and responsibilities, communication strategies, access to student information and data, statutory
requirements, template development, effective processes and capacity for staff collaboration,
decision-making strategies for working toward consensus, strong vision and collective leadership,
and commitment to the process all need to be considered before starting down this path.
Purpose
The purpose of this section is to focus on the capacity of the school to successfully carry out
Student Learning Plan implementation.
Who Should Be Involved?

During this step, district support personnel, including fiscal, should be engaged with school
principals to determine state requirements, communicate Student Learning Plan requirements, and
facilitate open dialogue about what is available from the state, ESD, and district for support of the
Student Learning Plan implementation at the school level.
Building-level principals should be actively dialoguing with district personnel, ESD support
personnel, school-level staff, and parents.
Staff members should be talking with building-level administrators, fellow staff members, students,
and parents about the Student Learning Plans and how the plans will help students succeed in
school.

Reflective Questions
The following reflective questions will help you determine your school’s readiness level to
successfully implement Student Learning Plans.
• Is there a need and agreement among stakeholders that Student Learning Plans are needed
and should take place?
• Do staff members know the state requirements for Student Learning Plans?
• Has the principal initiated conversations with staff to let them know that a significant
process must occur?
• Have the school leadership team and principal discussed ways to develop dedicated time for
this process?
• Have the school leadership team and the principal discussed with staff ways to take things
off the plate of staff members engaged in this process?
• Is the principal going to facilitate the process with the help of the school leadership team?
Or has an outside facilitator (such as an ESD staff person) been identified to help get the
process going?
• Have school representatives received Student Learning Plan training from ESD trainers?
• Is there a plan in place to train the rest of the staff in the school on the Student Learning Plan
process?
Seven Stages of Concern

Individual staff members also will be at different levels of acceptance. Staff members have varying
levels of capacity or “readiness” to engage in the Student Learning Plan process. Most likely, some
staff members are ready and willing, and some staff members are much less willing and able. This
disparity can affect the quality and successful implementation of the entire planning process.
As Figure 1 indicates, staff members will be spread out across a continuum of seven different stages
of concern (Hord, Rutherford, Huling-Austin, & Hall, 1987). The school leadership team is
responsible for moving staff members along the continuum to ready the school for a more
successful launch of the Student Learning Plan implementation.
Figure 1. Seven Stages of Concern Continuum
Stage 1: Awareness. A first stage in getting buy-in for the process is to make staff members aware
of the process and required components of Student Learning Plans. Staff members who do not have
accurate information will continue to be concerned about the process and may hinder the school’s
progress toward successful implementation. Staff members at this level will say things like “This
really doesn’t concern me” and “I don’t know what it involves.”

Stage 2: Informational. After the initial awareness, the next natural stage for staff members is to
request more information about the Student Learning Plans and ask how this process will change
current practice in the school. It will be important to get staff to see that they do have a role in the
planning process and will need to actively engage during implementation. Staff members at this
level will say things like “Tell me more” and “I have some questions.”
Stage 3: Personal. After the roles and responsibilities are understood by staff members, the next
stage they will move to is the personal stage. This stage is where staff members understand that the
Student Learning Plans will impact them personally. They are interested in the personal impact of
the change and will be asking questions like “What will the affect be on me?” “Will I be able to do
this?” and “What kind of control will I have over the way I use this?”
Stage 4: Management. A key element in change that often gets overlooked is the practicality of
managing the change. Student Learning Plans will require a great deal of management because a
plan needs to be created for every student not meeting standards on the WASL. Each plan will need
to be reviewed and adjusted on a yearly basis, and it must follow the student through his or her K–
12 experience. The district, principal, and staff must engage in the process of setting up a system to
manage the Student Learning Plans. Part of this management is creating dialogue about what can be
taken off the plate of staff members who are implementing the plans. People at this stage will be
asking questions like “How will this change be managed in practice?” “Will more time be spent in
meetings?” and “Where will I find the time to implement this change?”
Stage 5: Consequence. People at this stage want to know that when time and effort are put into
making changes, substantive and positive results will occur. They are interested in the impact of
students and the school. They ask questions like “How will this affect students?” and “If I change
this, can I be sure that students will learn better?”
Stage 6: Collaboration. People at this stage see the value in working together for a common goal
and understand that a team effort will speed up the process to make effective change. Staff members
at this stage will ask questions like “How can we increase cooperation among teachers as we work
with this change?” or “Can I learn more about what other instructors are doing?”
Stage 7: Refocusing. Staff members who are in the refocusing stage engage in the process of
making things better. They reflect on the process and come up with ways to be more efficient and
effective. They will make statements like “I have some ideas that would work even better than this”
and, after going through this process, “Here are some ideas that will make us more efficient as a
team.”
Tool 1: Stages of Concern (page 33) gives school leadership teams a quick status check on staff
concern with Student Learning Plans. The results from this worksheet will help with decisions
regarding readiness levels and an entry point for the Student Learning Plan process.

Understanding Student Learning Plan Depth and Level of Service
Student Learning Plans can be developed at three different levels to help students learn: Tier 1, Tier
2, and Tier 3 (see pages 9–10). The school must decide the level of service and determine the extent
and depth that will occur in creating Student Learning Plans. In doing so, each school must identify
resources, time, support, and ways to implement the plans.
Purpose
The purpose of this section is for schools to understand there are different levels of service available
in developing and implementing Student Learning Plans.

• School principals and administrators should collect necessary information on the readiness
level of staff; available resources from school, district, ESD, and OSPI; curriculum and
assessment information; staffing; professional development; and other information. They
should provide this information to staff to prompt discussion about levels of service and
school capacity to implement Student Learning Plans.
• District administrators should be included in the discussion if there is a districtwide plan for
some of the resources.
• Staff members or representatives from staff should be included in the discussion because
they will be involved in the implementation of Student Learning Plans.
The following reflective questions will help focus staff on the level, depth, and scope of service that
the school has capacity to deliver while implementing the Student Learning Plans.
• Have staff members been involved in identifying available resources?
• What are the resources, human and financial, available to the school for the purpose of
developing and implementing Student Learning Plans?
• Has the district developed a preliminary budget for this process?
• Do staff members understand the three tiers of service for developing and implementing
Student Learning Plans?
• Have staff members been involved in identifying their roles and responsibilities in
developing and implementing Student Learning Plans?
• Do staff members know who will be creating the Student Learning Plans?
• Have staff members discussed possible professional development strategies required to
develop and implement the Student Learning Plans?

Identifying Resources
Identifying the resources available to the school will help determine the capacity and level of
service for developing and implementing Student Learning Plan interventions. Resources can
emerge in many different ways and from many different places.
Tool 2: Resources Available for Supporting Student Learning Plans (page 35) helps you
develop a list of available resources. It highlights just a few resources to get you started in the
process. Encourage teachers to think broadly about the resources included here and about others
unique to your school or district.
Three Tiers of Service for Developing Student Learning Plans

Being ready to engage in the Student Learning Plan process is a unique situation for each school. It
depends on staff readiness, the number of plans required, level of support, and resources available.
Because plans are now required by the state, your school’s level of readiness will partly determine
the depth, authenticity, and detail of your Student Learning Plans.
In some cases, the number of plans alone will dictate the level of service and scope of plan
development. School A may develop more than 900 Student Learning Plans. School B may be
working on five plans. School A may be able to address the Student Learning Plans by engaging
only in Tier 1 activities that provide services for the general population (described below) while
School B may have the capacity to drive the Student Learning Plans to Tier 3 activities and
individualize instruction for every student.
Levels of service, depth of interventions, and scope of implementation will be different for all
schools. The following three tiers of engagement (Good, Kame’enui, Simmons, & Chard, 2002)
help school leadership teams identify and target a strategy around Student Learning Plan
implementation.
Tier 1: General Level (Whole-Class or Group Intervention).The first tier of

developing Student Learning Plans is set at a systems level where strategies and
interventions are provided to the general student population. Examples of
interventions at this tier may be after-school programs, summer school programs, peer tutoring
programs, professional development, before-school programs, homework club, curriculum
adoptions, and computer-assisted instruction—to name a few. Interventions at this level are most
likely tied directly to the school improvement process where interventions have been fleshed out
using school-based data and research. These interventions are general in nature and often are
currently available in schools.

Advantages of Tier 1 Interventions Disadvantages of Tier 1 Interventions
• Connected to school improvement process • Does not get to individualized interventions
• Easier for staff buy-in and implementation for students
• Many interventions are already in place in • Planning is less authentic
the school system • Not based on diagnostic assessment
• Additional resources for interventions may • Less focused and targeted interventions
not be required • Less effective in increasing student
• Takes less time for Student Learning Plan achievement
process because many interventions are
already in place
Tier 2: Targeted Group Level. The second tier of developing Student Learning
Plans is set at grouping students with similar academic needs. Diagnostic
assessment data is required for this tier of intervention strategies and is necessary
to focus instruction on student needs. Examples of interventions at this tier may be instruction that
accelerates student progress toward ambitious, specific goals for skill improvement. In reading,
explicit instruction may be targeted at decoding, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and
correlated writing using materials that are age-appropriate and at the appropriate reading level. In
mathematics, explicit instruction in problem solving, making connections, and mathematical
thinking processes are possible targeted areas based on student diagnostic assessments.

• Connected to school improvement process • Requires more resources to implement
• Planning is more authentic and personalized • Requires more time from staff during the
• Planning is based on individualized process
diagnostic assessment • Interventions may not currently be in place
• Targeted and focused intervention strategies • Adding additional tasks to an overtaxed
• More effective in increasing student system
achievement
• Supported by research
• Positive step toward a student-centered
learning system
Tier 3: Individual Level. The third tier of developing Student Learning Plans
connects interventions on an individual basis to every student in the school
needing a plan. Plans are individualized and customized based on needs of every
student. Diagnostic assessments are required for this tier, and each student is carefully processed
during the planning and implementation phase. Tier 3 planning individualizes the instruction for
every student.

• Planning is authentic and personalized • Most expensive model, requiring additional
• Planning is based on individualized resources to implement
diagnostic assessment • Requires a great deal of time from staff
• Targeted and focused intervention strategies during the process and implementation
• Most effective in increasing student • Interventions are most likely not currently in
achievement place
• Supported by research • Requires detailed management to track
individual student progress
• Most difficult for teacher “buy-in”
• Adding additional tasks to an overtaxed
system
• Not necessarily connected to school
improvement process

The Student Learning Plan Process
There are six essential steps in developing Student Learning Plans, as illustrated below. These steps
(which are not entirely exclusive) are ongoing as new students become eligible for plans, as existing
plans are updated to reflect changes in student status, and as new research into student learning
provides alternatives to the interventions already identified. Descriptions of how these steps might
be accomplished follow. Please bear in mind that this is a new process; although the results and
components are prescribed, the process is not. Schools should work to make this process successful
locally.
Six Steps in Student Learning Plan Development
Step 1: Identify students who will be receiving Student Learning Plans.

Step 2: Analyze student assessment data to determine meaningful groupings of students.
Step 3: Identify interventions.
Step 4: Create plans and assign interventions to students.
Step 5: Communicate plans to parents and students.
Step 6: Implement, review, and adjust plans.
Step 1: Identify Students Who Will Be Receiving Student Learning Plans

A Student Learning Plan is required for each student who did not meet one or more standards
identified in the EALRs and measured on the 4th-, 7th-, and 10th-grade WASL. Schools need to
gather and analyze WASL data to identify the students for whom Student Learning Plans are
required. Remember that plans must be written for students not meeting standards in reading,
writing, and mathematics. Though a school may have 100 students needing Student Learning Plans,
a school may be actually writing more than 100 plans based on more than one subject-related plan
for the same student. As you identify the students, it would be prudent to identify the number of
subject-level plans required as well. This information will help identify the school’s capacity to
develop and implement the plans in future steps of this process.
Purpose
The purpose of this step is to identify the number of students requiring Student Learning Plans and
the number of subject-level plans required for identified students.

• District office personnel who may have WASL data
• School principal who may have WASL data
• Staff members
• ESD representatives if engaging in Web-based solutions

• Is data available in our district to find out which students need Student Learning Plans?
• If data are not available in my district, where can I turn for help?
• Who will identify students needing Student Learning Plans?
• What do we know about these students? What do they have in common? How do they differ
in their learning?
• What additional information (assessments, ongoing interventions) should we gather about
these students?
• How will this information be communicated to staff? District? Parents?
• Are we going to create plans for students meeting standards? If so, who will determine
criteria for students receiving plans?
Identifying students requiring plans may seem simple on the surface, but schools will have to
resurrect WASL data from two years ago in some cases to get the appropriate data. This task may
pose an inconvenience as data from the middle school or junior high will need to be available for
the high school. Also, a high mobility rate in your school may pose significant problems for
tracking down assessment data.
After tracking down the WASL data, identify all students not meeting standards in reading, writing,
and mathematics. These are the students for whom schools are required to create Student Learning
Plans. Many schools are electing to go beyond the requirements and creating plans for students
struggling in science, plans for students just above the standard, and—in rare cases—plans for every
student in the school. The web-based Student Learning Plan system will allow for these options.
Local school districts will need to decide to what extent plans will be developed beyond the
requirements.
Tool 3: Number of Plans Needed (page 37) is used to indicate the number of students needing
plans, the number of plans needed in different subject areas, and the total number of plans needed.
The total number of plans needed most likely will be larger than the total number of students
needing plans because one student will need more than just one subject-area plan. Each subject area
for each student must be addressed by a separate plan.
OSPI is creating a database (https://ems.wa-k12.net) that will, among other tasks, help districts
identify students needing Student Learning Plans. The statewide system will create efficiencies for
schools when asking the question “Which students need Student Learning Plans?” This database
will be populated with student data before school personnel log on so that identifying students
should be made much easier.

Step 2: Analyze Student Assessment Data to Determine Meaningful Groupings
of Students
An important step in creating Student Learning Plans is collecting and analyzing student assessment
data to identify the academic needs of students. Though the WASL data are the trigger that
determines whether a student is required to have a learning plan, it should not be the sole source of
data that determines student interventions. It’s imperative that schools analyze multiple measures of
student assessment data to authentically understand the needs of each student based on the Essential
Learning skills the student is struggling to master. Data sources like the WASL, the ITBS (Iowa
Test of Basic Skills), and the ITED (Iowa Test of Educational Development) provide only broad
pictures of student performance. These tests can identify students who are having difficulty, but
they are not particularly effective in identifying the particular difficulty students face. Fluency
assessments, levels assessments, district and schoolwide assessments, and classroom-based
assessments should be considered before determining student needs because these measures provide
a more descriptive view of an individual student’s challenges.
After the needs of each student are understood, schools can effectively group students with similar
academic needs to create efficiencies with delivery of interventions. By grouping students with
similar academic needs, schools can focus on specific areas where the actual help is needed.
For example, imagine that a school has 100 students not meeting standard in reading. Gathering
assessment data from multiple measures of these students shows that 45 of them need additional
help with fluency in reading. Identifying students and placing them into meaningful groups creates
efficiencies for the schools with the delivery of additional explicit fluency instruction in reading.
Research-based interventions are linked in the web-based Student Learning Plan tool. (This would
be an example of Tier 2 service, described on pages 9–10 of this guide.)
Purpose
The purpose of this step is to analyze student assessment data and establish meaningful groups of
students to accurately align needs to interventions.
Who Should be Involved?

The building principal should lead this process, making sure to protect sensitive student data. The
principal should work with counselors and selected staff to help with grouping students based on
additional assessment data.
• What measures beyond the WASL do we have that we can use to identify student
difficulties?
• Does staff have a clear understanding of the Essential Academic Learning Requirements?
• Do we have diagnostic tools currently in place that could help us group students?
• Should we add diagnostic assessments to our school program? If so, which ones?
• Can we efficiently utilize classroom-based assessments to help group students?
• Who decides the criteria for the grouping of students?

• What are the criteria for grouping students?
Collecting Student Data

Disaggregated data can help schools identify students with similar academic needs. It is necessary
to collect data from many sources to give schools a complete picture of the student. Collecting and
using information about the student moves the message from intuition to facts. Gathering the right
data from a variety of sources can:
• Create a baseline on student skills and knowledge.
• Provide an accurate picture of current school processes and programs.
• Guide actions taken to change outcomes.
• Accurately assign appropriate interventions to students who need help.
• Track student progress and improvement.
A student list should be created that aligns multiple assessments with each student so staff can
quickly review status and determine if academic interventions are needed. This list will help schools
identify needs of students and aggregate students with similar needs into groups.
Goal of Grouping
The goal for school staff should be to authentically identify the needs of every student struggling in
reading, writing, mathematics, and science. If a school does not have the capacity to administer
diagnostic assessments or is unable to manage and analyze classroom-based assessments in a
meaningful way, it may be very difficult to get to target explicit instruction (Tier 2). It cannot be
overemphasized that WASL data alone are not enough data to meaningfully group students for
Tier 2 interventions. The WASL measures specific Essential Learning Requirements and the
information can target specific student needs but there are many ways to measure these skills. This
additional information allows targeting instruction to ensure student needs are met. Multiple
measures are necessary to establishing an understanding of the academic needs of students. Using
the WASL data alone to make Tier 2 and Tier 3 decisions could actually hinder the progress of
students.
Tool 4: Student Learning Needs (page 39) provides an opportunity to list students and their
assessment data. It helps you to organize students into groups based on shared academic need.
In addition, the OSPI Student Learning Plan Education Management System Web site provides an
opportunity for you to review state assessment data. It also allows schools to import batch
assessment data and provides opportunities to enter assessment data for individual students. Contact
your ESD to find out more information about this system.
Research about indicators most important in identifying student needs is evolving, and emergent
research is published on an ongoing basis. To date, research shows that the clearest indicator of
reading competency is oral reading fluency rates. If fluency rates are not available as staff prepare
to collect and analyze data, schools should conduct fluency checks on students as one of the first
diagnostic assessments.

Tool 5: Student Groupings (page 41) is used to identify groups of students who exhibit similar
needs. Use the Tool 4 assessment information that is aligned to individual students. Place these
students into groups based on similar academic need. Organize the list by titling each group and
listing the needs. Students may end up in more than one group, depending upon individual needs.

Step 3: Identify Interventions
Step 3 is designed to help schools identify interventions that help improve student achievement in
reading, writing, mathematics, and science. Schools will find they already have practices that will
work for some groups of students but will also find that there are groups of students for which no
current practices are in place. For groups of students where no interventions are currently available,
schools will need to identify interventions based on student needs determined through data analysis.
Identifying interventions will help schools focus on the developing and implementing successful
Student Learning Plans. There are many activities currently taking place in schools that are helping
students achieve at higher levels. Staff members should take some time to list and identify current
ways they are helping students.
Purpose
The purpose of this step is for schools to identify, prioritize, and list interventions that will be
implemented to help improve student achievement.

• School principals, administrators, and staff members should list intervention practices
currently implemented in the school.
• District administrators should be included in the discussion to help identify existing
districtwide intervention practices or practices that have proved effective at other district
schools.
• Parents or representatives from a parent group should be included in the development of the
intervention list.
• Students or representatives from a student group should be included in the development of
the intervention list.
• How do we support all learners in our schools?
• What do we currently do in reading, writing, and mathematics to support struggling
students?
• Is the list of interventions adequate to meet the needs of students identified in the grouping
process?
• Who will determine whether students need more intensive interventions if progress is not
evident?
• What system of tracking and reporting progress has been established to determine student
success as a result of academic interventions?
• What communication plans have been developed to consistently and clearly communicate
the interventions to staff, students, and parents?
• Did the school review the school improvement plan to transfer applicable interventions to
the Student Learning Plans?

• What do data from our school improvement planning process tell us about curriculum,
instruction, and assessment?
• Are there any glaring gaps in our curriculum, instruction, and assessment programs that
could be shored up to help students struggling in reading, writing, and mathematics?
• Do we have enough resources to support the interventions outlined in this step?
• Are all of the identified interventions effective in improving student achievement?
• Are the identified interventions cost-effective?
Where to Start?
A good place to start collecting interventions is the most current school improvement plan. Schools
have already gone through a data-driven process that identified patterns driving out academic goals
in reading, writing, and mathematics. School leadership teams have spent a significant amount of
time researching these goals to develop school improvement strategies for implementation. Review
your school improvement plan to find what strategies are already identified and note which
strategies are being implemented. You may be surprised how many interventions already are
available for Student Learning Plans. Figure 2 outlines a conceptual design of moving from the
school improvement plan to the first steps in identifying interventions for Student Learning Plans.
Figure 2. School Improvement Planning Process
School Improvement
Planning Process
Math
Reading Writing
Strategies and
Interventions
Student
Learning
Plans
A simple question posed before your school leadership team or entire staff will garner additional
interventions to add to the list: “What are we currently doing to help students who are struggling
in reading, writing, and mathematics?”
Posed to a variety of stakeholders, this question will draw a variety of answers. Don’t forget to ask
this question of parents and students because they certainly will have a different perspective from
teachers, principals, and other staff members.

Tool 6: Current Interventions (page 43) is useful for documenting your school’s interventions and
noting where each fits among the tiers of intervention.
Digging Deeper for Interventions

You now have groups of students identified from Step 2 and have reviewed some intervention
strategies that were gleaned from the school improvement process in Step 3. It’s time to review both
data sets and consider digging deeper to create interventions that currently are not in place in the
school to better serve students who need help.
If you truly believe that all students can learn, then what do you do with students who still are not
demonstrating proficiency on standards of learning? The answer is to align appropriate
interventions based on the needs of students. In order to do this authentically, schools will need to
dig deeper with their interventions and move to Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels of service (outlined on
pages 9–10 of this guide) if they have capacity to do so. If school capacity does not allow the school
to include Tier 2 and Tier 3 options, the school should look at ways to include these two tiers and
the more intensive levels of service in the near future.
Brainstorming With Staff

It’s likely that your school will have some gaps between your student needs and the interventions
that are being provided. In this case, the school will need to consider additional options to help
students. The needs of students should drive the interventions. Look closely at the groupings of
students from Step 2 and ask staff to brainstorm ideas about how to help students in each grouping.
In some cases, the interventions will be evident based on what the assessment data is telling you.
Students whose assessment measures pinpoint a deficit in fluency in reading, for example, should
receive additional explicit instruction on fluency. In other cases, it may not be so evident.
Tool 7: Interventions to Consider (page 45) provides an opportunity to suggest interventions that
the school may wish to consider. Look for data patterns to determine appropriate interventions.
Researching Interventions
In addition, each school should select a research team to investigate other interventions that may be
effective but which the school has yet to include on either of the previous two lists (Tools 6 and 7).
This third way of collecting intervention strategies may be the most difficult and time-consuming
but likely will be the most productive of the three. A good place to start the search is with the OSPI
intervention library. You can access this information in the Student Learning Plan Education
Management System Web site (available at https://ems.wa-k12.net). Another resource is your
regional ESD, which has been partnering with OSPI to get the Student Learning Plan system out to
schools.
Tool 8: Interventions Identified Through Research (page 47) provides an opportunity to list
additional interventions that the school should consider. Again, the interventions should be grouped
according to the tier system.

Determining the Effectiveness of the Interventions
The school leadership team in charge of selecting and creating options to help students should
research each strategy to make sure the practices are effective in improving student learning and
that it’s possible to implement the selected practices with available school resources. If schools find
practices that are not effective, are not backed by research, or do not demonstrate improved student
learning, the school should drop the practices from the list or not consider new practices unless they
meet the effective practice criteria. When selecting intervention strategies to help students, a school
should consider the following:
• Subject area
• Effectiveness of the intervention
• Intensity of intervention strategy
• Research supporting the intervention
• Feasibility of implementation
• Training required
• Cost per participant
• Overall cost
After stakeholders have listed interventions, the team should prioritize the practices in order from
most promising to least promising based on effectiveness, intensity, value, areas of need, and level
of service. Expect spirited conversation with this process as it will expose both challenges and areas
to celebrate. From this information, the team should decide whether to add, delete, or refine the
interventions targeted toward implementation. The refined list should be the interventions that will
be used in the Student Learning Plans to help improve student achievement.
Tool 9: Analysis of Interventions (page 49) can help staff in analyzing the selected interventions.
Using this tool, a final list of interventions that will be used to develop Student Learning Plans can
be created.
Pyramid of Interventions
One way of organizing these interventions is by classifying and sorting them into a list ranked from
the least intensive to most intensive. Many practitioners have termed this the “Pyramid of
Interventions.”
Start by taking all of the interventions identified in Tool 9 that your team has decided to keep as
options for students. Place them into a “Pyramid” with the least intensive strategy on the bottom and
work your way toward the top of the pyramid with the most intensive strategy. Ordering
interventions in this manner will help schools answer the question “If this doesn’t work, what’s
next?” Your pyramid may look like Figure 3.

Figure 3. Sample Pyramid of Interventions
The pyramid is made up of a multilayered continuum of intervention options for all students at
various points of success who are struggling in one or more content areas. The pyramid provides:
• Increasing levels of time and support for students experiencing difficulty.
• Timely and systematic intervention independent of the discretion of individual teachers.
• Interventions that are directional rather than invitational; students are not invited to seek
help but are required to get help.

All options in the “Pyramid of Interventions” should be designed to improve student learning,
engagement, and relationships.
The process of creating a pyramid like this one can be lengthy, but it is in itself a team-building
endeavor. Combined with a belief in students’ ability to learn and a common philosophy for action,
the process has turned around schools by rescuing many students who otherwise would have failed.
Through the successful implementation of meaningful interventions, schools are creating powerful
cultures in which failure is no longer an option.
Suggestions for Students

Educators know the importance of engaging students in the learning process. Creating effective
Student Learning Plans is no different. Students have a vested interest in their own learning and
need to acknowledge that they have a role and responsibility in improving their skills and
knowledge.
Bring staff members together and create a list outlining things that students can do to help
themselves become better learners. Think in terms of specifics that are age-appropriate for students
in your school. Don’t discount the obvious suggestions because many students have never been
explicitly taught about actions they can take to improve their learning.
Tool 10: Student Roles and Responsibilities (page 53) can be used to record those responsibilities
you believe students should take on in an effort to support their learning. These responsibilities may
be generalized across groups of students, or they may be specific to groups or to individuals.
The following items may provide a spark for your team to start the process. Consider digging
deeper into each category listed below.
• Time management • Eating patterns

• Goal setting • Study groups
• Assignment completion • Test-taking skills
• Being prepared for class (pencil, • Listening skills
paper, textbook, assignments)
• Active participation in class activities
• Concentration skills
• Following directions
• Taking, managing, and reviewing
• Sleep patterns
notes
Strategies for Parents

Research indicates that parents’ involvement in their children’s education positively impacts student
learning. To help parents get involved, a school team can create a list of parent strategies and
reminders to establish and maintain a positive home environment that supports the school’s efforts
and enhances opportunities to improve their own children’s learning.

Tool 11: Parent Roles and Responsibilities (page 55) can be used to record actions that parents
can take to help their children with learning. Bring staff members together and create a list outlining
things that parents can do to help their children become better learners. Think in terms of specifics,
but don’t discount the obvious suggestions.
The following general items may provide a spark for your team to start the process. Consider
digging deeper into each category listed below.
• Help your child arrive at school on • Ask questions about your child’s
time, well rested, and well nourished. schoolwork and take a genuine interest
in what he or she is doing.
• Help your child understand the
importance of managing time. • Create a quiet place for your child to
study, read, and do homework.
• Encourage your child to set short-term
and long-term goals. • Monitor and limit your child’s
television and video game playing.
• Emphasize the importance of
completing assignments and work on • Have your child read every day at
time. home. Model good reading habits for
your child.
• Be involved with your child’s
education by staying in touch with • Actively volunteer at your child’s
what’s happening at school. school.
Resources
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has developed a list of interventions to help
students and parents. Please log on the Student Learning Plan Education Management System Web
site (https://ems.wa-k12.net) to gain access to all of the interventions provided. Even those districts
and schools not using the electronic system to manage Student Learning Plans can benefit from the
interventions database included with the system. Contact your ESD if you would like more
information about the Web-based system.

Step 4: Create Plans and Assign Interventions to Students
By this point, schools have identified students who need Student Learning Plans and have analyzed
student assessment data to appropriately group students. They also have selected the most effective,
research-based interventions. Now schools will need to assign interventions to the students by
creating the actual plans.
Purpose
The purpose of this step is to develop a Student Learning Plan that helps each individual student not
meeting standard on the WASL to improve learning in the targeted area of need (reading, writing,
mathematics, science).

All staff members have a role and responsibility in the creation of Student Learning Plans. Local
schools will need to determine, based on their process and capacity, how this will be accomplished.
• Does the Student Learning Plan template we selected effectively communicate to parents,
students, and staff members?
• Do interventions that have been assigned in the Student Learning Plan meet the student’s
needs?
• Does the school have capacity to carry out assigned interventions?
• Have all interventions been effectively communicated to staff?
• Can we group students by similar needs and create a basic plan that is comprehensive
enough to work for many but flexible enough to be tailored where needed?
• Who will be involved in actually filling out the plans?
• What time and resources are available for creating the plans?
• Who will be responsible for determining that all students needing plans have them in place?
• Will we be able to create the Student Learning Plans in time for fall conferences?
• How are we going to assess if students are progressing and being helped by the plans?
• How are we going to hold the students accountable for following the interventions outlined
in the plans?
• What do we expect from parents as they support their children’s education?
Sample Student Learning Plans

The school leadership team should select a template for the Student Learning Plan. Some districts or
schools may wish to create their own format; however, many premade templates are available for
download at the Superintendent of Public Instruction Web site (http://www.k12.wa.us/
CertificateAcademicAchievement/StudentLearningPlan/SamplePlanTemplates.aspx).

Tool 12: Student Learning Plan Templates (pages 57–70) presents the seven sample templates
from the Superintendent of Public Instruction Web site.
Schools also may use the Student Learning Plan Education Management System Web site, which
that allows schools to create their own template online and automatically prefills many of the
Student Learning Plan requirements in the template. You can find out more information about the
OSPI Web-based tool by contacting your regional ESD.
Assigning Interventions
Refer back to the documents generated in Steps 1, 2, and 3 to assign appropriate interventions to
groups of students with similar academic needs. If the steps were followed, you will have the names
of students grouped into areas of similar academic need. You also will have interventions that align
directly to the groupings. This part of the process is asking schools to “connect the dots” by
assigning the interventions to the groups. In doing so, every student within each group should have
interventions assigned to them, thus creating the foundation for Student Learning Plans for each
individual student not meeting standards on the WASL.
Tool 13: Intervention Assignments (page 71) is provided to guide you in associating interventions
with groups of students.
There also will be schools where a minimum number of plans are required. It may make more sense
for these schools to individualize the plan for every student. This scenario likely will be in small
schools where the number of plans does not exceed more than 20 or 30 students.
Use the organizational document that you created to place the information into the template for each
student. To save time in the duplication process, you may want to create one template with the
interventions and copy off the template by the amount of students grouped with the interventions.
You also may customize plans for each student by using diagnostic assessments to develop
individualized plans that more closely respond to the specific needs of each student.
Remember that assigning interventions should not be driven by one assessment measure. Multiple
assessments should be considered in the crafting of Student Learning Plans. All available data
should be utilized, including other standardized testing data, classroom evidence, internal
assessments, and the professional opinion of the team writing the plan.
Communicating Roles, Responsibilities, and Expectations to Parents and Students

In Step 3 of this process, you identified interventions to help students increase student achievement.
You also created a list of strategies that students (Tool 10) and parents (Tool 11) can use to
reinforce practices identified by the school. Parents and students have a definite role and
responsibility to support the school in its efforts to help all students become proficient before
graduating from high school. At this point, these parent and student strategies should be input into
the Student Learning Plan Templates (Tool 12) to create a communication component that engages
the parents and students.

Many of the parent and student strategies will be similar for the Student Learning Plans. Certain
universal study skills can be used by all students to either reinforce habits or change habits for the
better. Actions such as eating a good breakfast, showing up for classes on time and prepared, having
quiet time available at home for studying, turning off the television and radio during studying, and
using time management strategies are examples of universal behaviors to help all students create
and develop habits that will foster improvement in achievement.
Use these universal strategies to develop sections in the Student Learning Plan template that could
save you time and energy when filling out each plan. You could decide as a staff which parent and
student strategies are good for all students and fill out one plan. Copy the plan by the number of
students you have in each student grouping based on similar academic need. Use the prefilled plans
as the basis for your academic intervention practices that you will complete for each student.

Step 5: Communicate Plans to Parents and Students
For any Student Learning Plan to be successful, all stakeholders must be in agreement regarding the
plan. Most important among those stakeholders are the student themselves and their parents.
Opening clear lines of communication for a collaborative relationship will help the students and
their parents to be more receptive to their plan and will increase the likelihood of a successful
implementation of the plan.
Purpose
The purpose of this step is to suggest ways to effectively communicate Student Learning Plans to
parents and students. The law requires that schools make a valid attempt in communicating this
information.

In order for communication practices to be effective, all staff members should be involved in
helping spread the work about Student Learning Plans. In addition, teachers conferencing with
parents and students would be the best way to communicate and deliver the Student Learning Plans.
Administrators, counselors, and teachers will all be involved in this process. Secretaries will need to
be involved in mailing out plans to parents and students who did not attend the conferences.
• How will we communicate Student Learning Plans to students and parents?
• Do we want students to sign the plan, signifying that they understand the interventions
involved? Do we want parents to sign the plan?
• Who will students or parents contact at the school if they have questions about the plan?
• Should students and parents be involved in individualizing their plan?
• Do we notify parents of each update to the Student Learning Plan?
Because all schools have a process in place for handling parent conferences, communication of
Student Learning Plans could be easily embedded within the existing process. Plans can be mailed
home to parents and students who did not attend the conferences. Schools could mail the plans at
the same time they mail report cards home. Some parents will need to be reassured that the purpose
of the Student Learning Plan is to personalize their children’s education and give them support in
helping them to learn and grow with optimum efficiency. Schools should be prepared to be able to
address these inquiries, which are sure to develop after the initial communication.
During and after the initial communications with parents and students, schools should avoid
disclosing a list of all available interventions because parents will likely ask for them all. Some
parents will be resistant to the implementation of any plan. In this case, the school will have to hold
firm to the legal requirement of creating a Student Learning Plan for each student not meeting
standards on the WASL.
Parent signatures are not required on the Student Learning Plans. Schools will need to decide for
themselves if they want to require signatures by parents and students.

Schools may want to add a check step to the Student Learning Plan, documenting when and how
parents have been notified of their child’s Student Learning Plan. This checkbox may come in
handy down the road when parents question the documentation and implementation of their child’s
Student Learning Plan.

Step 6: Implement, Review, and Adjust Plans
Step 6 – Implement, review and adjust plans
After Student Learning Plans have been created, it is important to build an action plan for the
implementation of the interventions by teachers. This step should explicitly tie into larger school
improvement initiatives and, in some cases, even drive the decision making of a school leadership
team. An action plan describes how and when the interventions will be implemented and by whom.
It pulls together the results of the activities that led to building Student Learning Plans into a
collective and individual commitment to act. The action plan outlines:
• The activities for implementing the interventions.
• The support teachers will have in implementing interventions.
• The process through which individual and group interventions will be modified.
• The manner in which the success of the effort will be measured.
Purpose
The purpose of this step is to ensure that the interventions adopted to support the learning of
individual students are sustained within the larger context of a school or district; that, where
appropriate, there is a consistency in approaches to addressing common needs; and that a
monitoring process is in place.
Who Should be Involved?

All staff members have a role and responsibility in the implementation of Student Learning Plans.
Administrators, school leadership teams, parents, and students have a role and responsibility for
supporting these implementations and monitoring their success.
• Will the activities planned for implementing group and individual interventions be
successful?
• How can we ensure that every person responsible for implementation of a child’s Student
Learning Plan is informed?
• What does successful implementation of a Student Learning Plan look like?
• How can we track the impact of interventions as time goes on?
• Who determines whether an intervention is being successful or not?
• Do our staff members have the skills and knowledge to implement selected interventions?
• Do we have a professional development model in place to support staff not skilled in
implementing selected interventions?
• Have we reviewed Student Learning Plans from feeder schools?
• Do we need to adjust Student Learning Plans from feeder schools and schools outside our
district because we don’t have capacity to implement some of the strategies from other
schools?
• Who will be following up with the students to see if they are following the plans?

A school-based process for implementing each Student Learning Plan and tracking its success is the
final step of the process. The existence of the plan and the content must be communicated to the
persons responsible for carrying out the interventions contained in the plan. If a student’s plan calls
for classroom-based interventions, a mechanism must be put in place so that the child’s classroom
teachers in the areas covered by the plan will be notified. For interventions happening outside the
classroom but still within the greater school context, the persons responsible for supervising the
programs to which students are assigned must be aware of the specific interventions required for
each student. In other words, schools will need to establish a process for clearly and reliably
communicating the goals and interventions of each student’s plan to the appropriate staff members
and personnel implementing the interventions.
Proper implementation requires that the effectiveness of each intervention be followed for each
student. This task could be as simple as occasionally gathering data on general academic progress or
as complex as monitoring reading rates or timed accuracy for mathematics. It is equivalent to the
idea of formative assessment practices—gathering data on the efficacy of an intervention over time
as it is implemented with a student.
If an intervention is demonstrated to be ineffective, it should be discontinued and a judgment made

as to whether an alternative intervention should be attempted. If, on the other hand, an intervention
is demonstrated to result in significant growth for a particular student, it should be viewed as a clue
to discovering similar interventions that will further increase the student’s learning.
Periodic Review and Adjustment of Plan

Every Student Learning Plan is required to be reviewed and adjusted as necessary on an annual
basis. Schools should not feel limited, however to review only once per year. If a student is
identified as struggling, despite the interventions laid out in his or her Student Learning Plan, the
school should not hesitate to review the document and look for more appropriate interventions.
Professional Development Process to Support Teachers

Schools may identify instructional gaps where concentrated professional development will need to
be deployed to support the intervention strategies being implemented. For example, most high
school teachers are not reading experts. If part of a school’s plan was to assess every student in
fluency, staff members will need training on how to give reliable fluency checks to students and
also training on making sense of the assessment information. The administrators or school
leadership team will need to pay special attention to the needs of staff.
Follow Up
Schools should create a system that follows up on the implementation of interventions to ensure that
all staff responsible for implementation are upholding their responsibility. Interventions laid out in a
Student Learning Plan are not optional for classroom teachers. If an intervention is placed on a
Student Learning Plan and the school does not follow through, school staff expose themselves to the
potential for litigation.
Tool 14: Intervention Tracking (page 73) is used to record implementation of interventions and
monitor evidence of effectiveness of particular interventions.

In Closing
Schools have been forced to respond to a new statutory requirement requiring Student Learning
Plans for every student not meeting standards in reading, writing, mathematics, and science.
Schools can choose two distinctly different approaches: compliance or changing a culture.
Two Approaches
• Compliance: Schools can create plans for students who did not meet standard on the WASL
by including school interventions, student interventions, and parent interventions.
• Cultural Shift: Schools can create a system that does not accept failure—a system that is
clear and consistent, that increases in intensity, and that is characterized by personalized
education.
Reflective Question
• How will your school respond when it becomes apparent that students are not succeeding?

References
Good, R. H., Kame’enui, E. J., Simmons, D. S., & Chard, D. J. (2002). Focus and nature of
primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention: The CIRCUITS model (Technical Report No.
1). Eugene: University of Oregon, College of Education, Institute for the Development of
Educational Achievement.
Hord, S. M., Rutherford, W. L., Huling-Austin, L., & Hall, G. E. (1987). Taking charge of
change. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Web Resources
Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
http://www.k12.wa.us
Student Learning Plan

http://www.k12.wa.us/CertificateAcademicAchievement/StudentLearningPlan/default.aspx
Student Learning Plan Education Management System

https://ems.wa-k12.net
Student Learning Plan: Sample Plan Templates

http://www.k12.wa.us/CertificateAcademicAchievement/StudentLearningPlan/SamplePlanTemplates.asp
x

Tool 1: Stages of Concern
Directions: After discussing with staff the seven stages of concern, hand out the chart below and
allow your team several minutes to fill it out on their own. Then bring staff members together in
groups of four and have them discuss the results and strategize on how to respond to each
concern. Report back to the entire staff and have someone record the results. Ask other teams to
help with brainstorming ways to respond to concerns from each stage on the continuum. This
activity will provide a snapshot of the school’s stages of concern related to Student Learning
Plans.
Another way to do this exercise is have a large replica of the chart below on butcher paper hung
in front of the room. Give colored “sticky” dots to all staff members and have them align their
colored sticky dot to their level of concern on the paper. Collectively, describe ways that staff
could respond to the concerns.
Question: When you think about developing Individualized Student Learning Plans, what
are your concerns?
Stage of Concern Teacher/Staff Response Responding to Concern

0 - Awareness “I’ve heard of this, but I don’t teach
English or math so I’m not concerned.”
1 - Informational “I haven’t heard much about this, but
I’m curious about what’s going on.”
2 - Personal “How is this going to affect someone
like me who teaches ________?”
3 - Management “How are we going to track student
progress on all these plans? Where will
the plans come from in the first place?”
4 - Consequence “Are the plans we’ve developed really
going to help kids pass the WASL?
What can we do to ensure benefits to
students?”
5 - Collaboration “I see the potential for benefit, but it
will require cooperation and staff
development. We really need to work
together.”
6 - Refocusing “I’ve learned a lot about how to monitor
students’ plans and have some ideas
about how we can all do things
differently as we proceed further.”

Tool 2: Resources Available for Supporting
Student Learning Plans
Categories Resources
Time
Money
Staff
Professional
Development
Curriculum
Available Data
Educational
Service District
Local School
District
Office of
Superintendent
of Public
Instruction
Parent
Volunteers

Tool 3: Number of Plans Needed
A. Number of Students Needing Plans
B. Number of Plans in Reading
C. Number of Plans in Writing
D. Number of Plans in Mathematics
E. Number of Plans in Science

(Not required until 2010)
F. Total Number of Subject-Area Plans

(Sum B-E for Total)

Tool 4: Student Learning Needs
Use the following chart to help organize your student list and to review aligned assessment data.
R = Reading W = Writing M = Mathematics S = Science

WASL = Washington Assessment of Student Learning
ITBS = Iowa Test of Basic Skills
Student Name WASL ITBS Reading Local Assessments Need
Score Score Fluency
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:

Student Name WASL ITBS Reading Local Assessments Need
Score Score Fluency
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:
R: R:
W: W:
M: M:
S:

Tool 5: Student Grouping
Group Name Needs of Students in Each Group

Group Name Needs of Students in Each Group

Tool 6: Current Interventions
What interventions are we currently using to help students in reading, writing,

mathematics, and science?
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3

Tool 7: Interventions to Consider
What interventions that we are not currently using in our school should we consider to
help students in reading, writing, mathematics, and science?
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3

Tool 8: Interventions Identified Through Research
What interventions did we uncover during our school research process that we will
consider for implementation?
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3

Date:
Tool 9: Analysis of Interventions

Directions:
1. List the interventions selected by using the process in this step 4. Rank each intervention based on its effectiveness in improving
of the guide. student achievement.
2. Identify each intervention’s tier of service (based on 5. Rank each intervention based on level of intensity.
descriptions provided below). 6. List the total cost of program and cost per participant.
3. Identify the subject area(s) for each intervention (reading, 7. Process and analyze the results to determine whether to
writing, mathematics). continue current intervention practices.
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3
The first tier of developing Student Learning The second tier of developing Student Learning Plans is set at The third tier of developing Student Learning
Plans is set at a systems level where strategies grouping students with similar academic needs. Diagnostic Plans is connecting on an individual basis to
and interventions are provided to the general assessment data is required for this tier. every student in the school needing a plan.
student population. Plans are individualized and customized,
• Reading: Explicit instruction may be targeted at decoding,
Examples: based on needs of every student. Diagnostic
vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and correlated writing
• After-school programs assessments are required for this tier, and each
using materials that are age-appropriate and at the appropriate
• Summer school programs student is carefully processed during the
reading level.
• Peer tutoring programs planning and implementation phase.
• Professional development • Mathematics: Explicit instruction in problem solving, making
• Homework club connections, and mathematical thinking processes are possible
• Curriculum adoptions targeted areas based on student diagnostic assessments.
• Computer-assisted instruction
Cost of
Intervention Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Subject Area Effectiveness Intensity
Program
Reading High High

Writing Medium Medium $
Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low

Cost of
Program
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low

Date:
Cost of
Program
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low

Cost of
Program
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low
Reading High High

Mathematics Low Low

Tool 10: Student Roles and Responsibilities
Actions That Students Can Take to Help Themselves With Their ; indicates we
Learning: will use this
strategy in the
Student Learning
Plans
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Tool 11: Parent Roles and Responsibilities
Actions That Parents Can Take to Help Their Children With ; indicates we
Learning: will use this
strategy in the
Student Learning
Plans
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(Tool 12: Template Sample 1)
CERTIFICATE OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

STUDENT LEARNING PLAN
Student Name _______________________________ Grade: _____ Date of Plan __________
WASL Scores
Student’s Score
Subject Required Score:
Grade 4 Grade 7 Grade 10
Reading 400+
Writing 9+
Mathematics 400+
Science (2010) TBD
School Interventions:
These actions are needed to improve the student’s skills:
For Students in Grades 8-12:

These courses and competencies are needed to meet academic standards for student to stay on
track for graduation:
Other:
Parent Strategies:
These strategies will help parents improve their child’s skills:
Parent and Student have received a copy of this Student Learning Plan.
A copy of the Student Learning Plan has been placed in the student’s cumulative folder.
School Official: __________________________________ Date ____________
Student: ________________________________________ Date ____________

(Optional for Primary)
Parent/Guardian Contact: Phone Letter Conference Date ___________

CERTIFICATE OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

STUDENT LEARNING PLAN
Student Name ________________________________ Grade: _____ Date of Plan _________
WASL Scores
Student’s Score
Subject Required Score:
Grade 4 Grade 7 Grade 10
Reading 400+
Writing 9+
Mathematics 400+
Science (2010) TBD
School Interventions:
These actions are needed to improve the student’s skills:

Other:
Parent Strategies:
These strategies will help parents improve their child’s skills:
Parent and Student have received a copy of this Student Learning Plan.
A copy of the Student Learning Plan has been placed in the student’s cumulative folder.
School Official: __________________________________ Date ____________
Student: ________________________________________ Date ____________

(Optional for Primary)
Parent __________________________________________ Date ____________

(If present)
Date Plan Completed: ______
Certificate of Academic Achievement

School Year: __________
In the 2004-05 school year, school districts are required to develop plans for 9th grade students in
the Class of 2008 who did not meet the reading, mathematics, and/or writing standards on the
2003 7th grade WASL. The purposes of the plan are to “help assure continued progress in
academic achievement as a foundation for high school graduation and to assure that students are
on track for high school graduation.” Progress made on the student plan is to be reported to the
student’s parents or guardian at least annually. Adjustments to the plan are to be made as
necessary.
Name: Grade
School: Next parent progress report:
• Washington Assessment of Student Learning Results: (For more information, see the
student’s WASL Individual Student Report)
Subject Student’s Score needed to Met Proficiency Level

score meet Standard standard? (Level 1, etc.)
-Reading 400
-Mathematics 400
-Writing 9
• Other Assessment Data: (If available)
• Parent Strategies: (Include strategies the student’s parents or guardians may take to help
them improve their child’s skills)
• Actions Needed to Meet the Standards: (For each subject in which the student did not meet
the standard, identify the courses, competencies, and other actions needed to be taken by the
student to meet the standard and stay on track for graduation. Use additional pages, as needed.)

School Official _________________________________________ Date ________________

Certificate of Academic Achievement - Student Learning Plan

Student Name Student Number
Current School
School Year Grade Level Today’s Date
Parent/Guardian Name
Address Phone Number
Advisor Counselor
STUDENT PROFILE
The following information was reviewed:
Middle School Academic History and Attendance Yes No Not Applicable
History of Instructional Support (IEP, 504, Chapter, LAP, etc.) Yes No Not Applicable
Current Schedule Yes No Not Applicable
Student’s Score Needed to

Met Standard
Score Meet Standard
th
7 WASL Reading
7th WASL Writing
7th WASL Math
STUDENT LEARNING PLAN SUPPORT OPPORTUNITIES

Check the boxes that apply
Academic:
Literacy Intervention Pre AP/IB/Honors
Credit Recovery Skills Center
Tutoring (building-based) Running Start
Extended Day Learning Magnet
Summer School Other
Social:
School Counseling Mentoring
Extra-Curricular Activities Parent/Teacher Compact
Other
EDUCATIONAL GOALS FOR YEAR

Example: Increase reading from basic to proficient
Academic: READING
Academic: WRITING
Academic: MATH
Self Management:
Attendance:
Other:

ACTION PLAN TO ACHIEVE EDUCATIONAL GOALS
Example: I will meet my reading goal by working hard in my Academic Literacy block
Academic: READING
Academic: WRITING
Academic: MATH
Self Management:
Attendance:
Other:

Parent Strategies: (Include strategies the student’s parents or guardians may take to help them
improve their child’s skills)
PROGRESS REVIEW
SIGNATURES
Student forecast of upcoming year’s classes is based on plan to achieve educational goals.
Student Date
Parent Date
Advisor Date


Date:
Student: Age: Grade: School:
Parent/Guardian Contact Information:
Date: Date: Date:
Contact Name: Contact Name: Contact Name:
Phone Letter Conference Phone Letter Conference Phone Letter Conference
Current Levels of Performance:

Student's Student's
Required Score ITBS/ITED Score: Other
WASL Scores Results
Score: 4 7 10 Scores 3 6 9 Assessments
Reading 400+ Reading:
Writing 9+ Math/Quant:
Mathematics: 400+ Expression:
Science TBD
(2010):
EDUCATIONAL GOALS FOR YEAR
Example: Increase reading from basic to proficient
Academic: READING
Academic: WRITING
Academic: MATH
Self Management:
Attendance:
Other:
ACTION PLAN TO ACHIEVE EDUCATIONAL GOALS

Example: I will meet my reading goal by working hard in my Academic Literacy block
Academic: READING
Academic: WRITING
Academic: MATH
Self Management:
Attendance:
Other:

PROGRESS REVIEW

Parent Strategies: (Include strategies the student’s parents or guardians may take to help them
improve their child’s skills)
SIGNATURES
Student forecast of upcoming year’s classes is based on plan to achieve educational goals.
Student Date
Parent Date
Advisor Date


Date:
Student: Age: Grade: School:
Parent/Guardian Contact Information:

Date: Date: Date:
Contact Name: Contact Name: Contact Name:
Phone Letter Conference Phone Letter Conference Phone Letter Conference
Current Levels of Performance:

Student's Student's
Required Score ITBS/ITED Score: Other
WASL Scores Results
Score: 4 7 10 Scores 3 6 9 Assessments
Reading 400+ Reading:

Writing 9+ Math/Quant:
Mathematics: 400+ Expression:
Science TBD
(2010):
Interventions, Roles, Responsibilities and Goals
Subject: Annual Progress
Date:
School Level
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Classroom Level
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:

Student Name: ________________________________
Date:
Date:
Student
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Parent
Date:
Date:
Date:
Date:
Is student taking appropriate courses to achieve Student Learning Plan objectives? Yes No
If no, identify appropriate courses and/or competencies:
Student Reflection: Am I making satisfactory progress toward achieving my goals?

Date:
Date:
Date:
School Official Student Parent (if present)

Print Name & Title: Print Name Print Name:
Signature: Signature: Signature:
Date: Date: Date:
Date: Date: Date:
Date: Date: Date:


Student Name (Please print) School: School Year: Beginning date of plan:
State Assessment Results

WASL: Student’s ITBS/ITED: Student’s Other Assessments: Results:
Score: Score:
Reading: Reading
Writing: Math/Quant:
Mathematics: Expression:
Science (2010):
Indicate Intervention subject area(s) addressed by this Student Learning Plan:

Reading Writing Mathematics Science

Intervention is based on: Assessment Results Other

If other, please describe:
Interventions:
Monitoring Status
Specific
Subject: Intervention/Strategies Monitoring Date Insufficient Some
Needs Mastery
Progress Progress

Student is not progressing in a timely manner. Intervention/Strategies need to be revised Date: ________
Intervention Status Student is making some progress. Continue with plan as is Date: ________
Student has mastered and completed Student Learning Plan Date: ________

Date
Student Date
Reflections:
Date
Date

These courses and competencies are needed to meet academic standards for student to stay on track for graduation:
Parent Strategies: (Include strategies the student’s parents or guardians may take to help them improve their child’s skills)
Parent has received a copy of Student Learning Plan by: Mail Conference Date:
Parent
Parent has received a copy of Student Learning Plan after each monitoring update:
Information
Mail Conference Date: Mail Conference Date: Mail Conference Date:
Signatures:
School Official: Date:
Parent Date:
Student Date:

Date:
Tool 13: Intervention Assignments

Students With Similar Group Title Interventions
Academic Needs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Group Title
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Group Title
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Group Title
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Date:
Tool 14: Intervention Tracking

Use the organizer below to track progress on interventions used in Student Learning Plans.
Intervention Group Title Evidence of What progress has been

Implementation made toward
implementation?

Date:
Appendix: Building Consensus

Participatory Decision-Making Guidelines:
In making decisions, the following parameters will help keep the team on track through the process:
• Stay within the curriculum, policies, and agreements of the district.
• Establish an acceptable percentage for staff approval.
• Use research and assessment data as a basis for decision making.
• Work with central office regarding curriculum, funding, and Board decisions.
• Remember that agenda items and decision making are limited to academic achievement-
related tasks
Working Toward Consensus

After generating a list of possible actions, intervention strategies, or ideas to pursue, number each
item. Ideally, the list should have no more than five or six items. Allow time for each item to be
explained. Ask that the explanation be stated by a single person and that the explanation provide
any necessary background information for others to understand. Explanations should not be more
than one minute in length.
After each item has been explained, ask if anyone would like to participate as an advocate for any of
the listed items. As an advocate, your time is limited to two minutes. The advocate must state why
this action or idea is important. Do not worry if not all items have an advocate. The group process
will support individual opinions.
When all advocates have had their time to share, a collective vote is taken. The facilitator asks the
group to look at and consider each item and vote with their hand.
Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down

Use this method in small groups to get a quick reading on group consensus. Be sure to take the time
for neutral and thumbs-down explanations.
Thumbs up if they agree.
Thumbs sideways if they are neutral. (Explain why.)
Thumbs down if they disagree. (Explain reasons for disagreement.)
Group Agreement Scale

Use this method two or three times to gauge group support. Make the following voting indicators
for each member of the group:
3 = total agreement
2 = support idea with reservations
1 = can’t support
? = need to have more questions answered
Write statement, concept, or action so all group members can see it. Ask everyone to hold up a
piece of paper indicating a number or a question mark. Tally the numbers and fully discuss the

questions. Poll again and continue cycle of discussion and voting until highest level of agreement is
achieved.
Fist to Five
Participants will hold up:
5 fingers if they totally agree
4 fingers if they think it’s a good idea and will support it
3 fingers if they are neutral but will support
2 fingers if they don’t agree, but will support
1 finger if they won’t support
Fist if they will resist—BUT WILL HELP FIND ANOTHER SOLUTION
• Total Agreement
• Best Solution
• Complete Support
• Agreement
• Support
• Good Solution
• Neutral, but will support
• Don’t Agree, but willing to support
• Don’t Agree
• Will Not Support
• Cannot Go Along
• Will Openly Resist

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Student Learning Plans

SLP Process Guide Vol 2.1 – February 2006

Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

SLP Process Guide Vol 2.1 – February 2006

The Student Learning Plan Process..................................................................................................12

Web Resources .................................................................................................................................33

SLP Process Guide Vol 2.1 – February 2006

Appendix: Building Consensus ........................................................................................................77

SLP Process Guide Vol 2.1 – February 2006

Who Is Required to Have a Plan?

When Are the Plans Required?

What Information Must Be Included in the Plan?

When Do the Plans Have to Be Completed in the School Year?

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—1

Guiding Principles for Implementing Student Learning Plans

• Empowering teachers, counselors, parents, and students to take on leadership roles

• Decisions about Student Learning Plan interventions must be based on careful

• Improvements in student academic performance are directly related to what happens

Web-Based Student Learning Plans

2—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

2. Allows building-level staff members to develop individualized Student Learning Plans by

Audiences and Stakeholders for Student Learning Plans

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—3

4—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

Educational Service District (ESD)

Who Should Be Involved?

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—5

Seven Stages of Concern

Figure 1. Seven Stages of Concern Continuum

6—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—7

Who Should Be Involved?

8—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

Three Tiers of Service for Developing Student Learning Plans

Tier 1: General Level (Whole-Class or Group Intervention).The first tier of

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—9

Advantages of Tier 2 Interventions Disadvantages of Tier 2 Interventions

10—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—11

Six Steps in Student Learning Plan Development

Step 1: Identify students who will be receiving Student Learning Plans.

Step 1: Identify Students Who Will Be Receiving Student Learning Plans

Who Should Be Involved?

12—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—13

Who Should be Involved?

14—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

Collecting Student Data

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—15

16—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

Who Should Be Involved?

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—17

Figure 2. School Improvement Planning Process

18—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

Digging Deeper for Interventions

Brainstorming With Staff

OSPI Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide—19

20—Student Learning Plans: Development and Implementation Guide OSPI

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High

Reading High High