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Student Improvement Teams
Student improvement teams (SITs) are school-based teams that use a problem-solving process and the collective expertise of educators and families to assist students who are having difficulty, either academically or behaviorally. The role of the student improvement team is to facilitate a problem-solving process that results in the creation of a plan that will adequately address these academic or behavioral concern(s). Over the last decade, these teams have become instrumental in facilitating understanding of what is needed for any child to be successful in the educational setting.
In contrast to multidisciplinary teams, SIT teams use a systemic problem-solving process that fulfills state and federal requirements to intervene on behalf of students that are beginning to exhibit classroom problems but have not been identified as having an educational handicap. The SIT process can be used to meet:
- State requirements for a Student Improvement Plan when a student does not demonstrate continuous progress on state assessments
- District requirements for responding to students identified as “at risk”
- State requirements for students who are suspected of having a disability under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or special education regulations
The alignment of a problem-solving process to meet several responsibilities is one step toward eliminating a categorically driven approach to meeting student needs and more effectively using limited resources.
The Problem-Solving Process
Problem solving is a systematic process that enables teams to collect, understand, and analyze data to develop, implement, and monitor interventions for effectiveness (Tilly, 2002). The generic components of a problem-solving process include:
- Asset identification
- Problem identification
- Problem analysis
- Intervention generation and selection
- Goal setting and progress monitoring
- Evaluation of effectiveness
Each of these components is described in the following sections. To increase the likelihood that plans will improve student outcomes, teams are encouraged to monitor the degree to which they follow the problemsolving process in team meetings (Flugum & Reschly, 1993; Upah & Tilly, 2002).
Asset Identification
The purpose of identifying assets is to recognize student academic and social strengths. Assets include internal strengths (e.g., responsible, strong math skills, able to resist peer pressure, many friends) and external strengths (e.g., involved parents, opportunities to participate in community activities, caring neighborhood). The importance of identifying assets is realized when the team selects interventions. If the team is considering two interventions that both seem powerful and one is more closely aligned with a strength of the student, the team can use the information to assist in the selection decision. It is important that the team understand the function of identifying assets. When the team moves from identifying assets as a nice way to start a meeting, to mining for strengths as a way to increase the probability that the resulting interventions will work, it is extending to a higher intent of the problem-solving process.
Problem Identification
Teams frequently encounter students presenting multiple problems. While multiple concerns should be noted, the team must select no more than two concerns to be targeted on an improvement plan so that the plan is manageable to implement and not too overwhelming for the student or the teacher. The team needs to determine where to start the problem identification process by
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- Assessment
- Academic Achievement
- Adaptive Behavior Assessment
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- Authentic Assessment
- Behavioral Assessment
- Bias (Testing)
- Buros Mental Measurements Yearbook
- Career Assessment
- Classroom Observation
- Criterion-Referenced Assessment
- Curriculum-Based Assessment
- Fluid Intelligence
- Functional Behavioral Assessment
- Infant Assessment
- Intelligence
- Interviewing
- Mental Age
- Motor Assessment
- Neuropsychological Assessment
- Outcomes-Based Assessment
- Performance-Based Assessment
- Personality Assessment
- Portfolio Assessment
- Preschool Assessment
- Projective Testing
- Psychometric G
- Reports (Psychological)
- Responsiveness to Intervention Model
- Social–Emotional Assessment
- Sociometric Assessment
- Written Language Assessment
- Behavior
- Consultation
- Demographic Variables
- Development
- Diagnosis
- Disorders
- DSM-IV
- Adjustment Disorder
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Bipolar Disorder (Childhood Onset)
- Communication Disorders
- Conduct Disorder
- Depression
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- Echolalia
- Fears
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Learning Disabilities
- Mental Retardation
- Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder
- Pedophilia
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
- Psychopathology in Children
- Reactive Attachment Disorder of Infancy and Early Childhood
- Selective Mutism
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- Somatoform Disorders
- Stuttering
- Ethical/Legal Issues in School Psychology
- Family and Parenting
- Interventions
- Issues Students Face
- Learning and Motivation
- Legislation
- Medical Conditions
- Multicultural Issues
- Peers
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- Reading
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- School Actions
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- School Psychologist Roles
- Careers in School Psychology
- Consultation: Behavioral
- Consultation: Conjoint Behavioral
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- Counseling
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- Home–School Collaboration
- Multidisciplinary Teams
- Parent Education and Parent Training
- Program Evaluation
- Reports (Psychological)
- Research
- Responsiveness to Intervention Model
- School Reform
- School Psychology Organizations
- American Board of Professional Psychology
- American Psychological Association
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- Division of School Psychology (Division 16)
- International School Psychology Association
- Licensing and Certification in School Psychology
- National Association of School Psychologists
- School-Related Terms
- School Types
- Schools as Organizations
- Special Education
- Statistical and Measurement Terms
- Student Problematic Behavior
- Technology
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