Improving Child Outcomes With Data-Based Decision Making: Collecting Data

Abstract

Ms. Carol is concerned about Dominique, one of the children in her preschool class, who has difficulty interacting appropriately with peers and often engages in aggressive behaviors. Ms. Carol wants to intervene with Dominique and collect data to see how she responds. Similarly, Ms. Kathy is concerned about the early literacy development of one of the children in her class. Jaylen does not seem to be acquiring phonological awareness skills at the same rate as his peers. Ms. Kathy wants to work with him individually and track his progress, but she is not sure how to go about doing this. Another teacher, Mr. Nick, has been working on increasing Trevor's participation in activities in his inclusive preschool classroom. However, after 3 months, Mr. Nick is not seeing much improvement in this area, according to his daily class notes. These teachers have similar needs and interests_they wish to intervene with children individually and intentionally and to systematically assess the effects of their efforts to determine whether the children are making adequate progress. Where do they start?