The purpose of the RTI/CCP Grant is to enhance the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of in-service teachers, pre-service teachers, and teacher education faculty. The orchestration of the RTI/CCP Grant is a joint effort between the Teacher Education Program in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the Eau Claire School District. The focus of the RTI/CCP Grant is the legal and instructional aspects of Response to Intervention (RTI) as it pertains to the re-authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004 as well as the theoretical and instructional concepts of Culturally-Congruent Pedagogy (CCP). Participants will be engaged in professional practices that will enhance their abilities to better support culturally, linguistically, and developmentally-diverse learners.

RTI is a process for providing high quality instruction, assessment, and intervention that allows schools to identify struggling students early, provide appropriate behavioral and instructional interventions, and increase the likelihood that the students can be successful learners.

Gay broadly defines Culturally ResponsiveTeaching as: Validating, Comprehensive, Empowering, Multidimensional, Transformative, and Emancipatory ("with cooperation,

community, and connectedness central" [p.36]).

A needs assessment will be conducted to gather information about classroom teachers’ understanding of RTI implementation practices and cultural components that can be aligned with intervention systems.

Time will be devoted to analysis and discussion of the first year findings from the year-long ECASD Self-Assessment of Practices and Resources that is currently underway.

Professional development will be delivered in a one week, 5 hours per day session during the summer of 2009.

TEP and A&S personnel will assist the educators from year 1 in crafting practices that can be applied in their classrooms.

TEP and A&S personnel as coaches will work in the classrooms of the cadre to model and monitor application of the culturally-congruent practices that were presented in the professional development.

During these modeled lessons, colleagues from the school will be asked to observe and provide feedback using a CCP critical lens.

Preservice teachers will be paired in practicum settings with teachers who participated in year 1.

Procedures from year 2 will be replicated on a district-wide scale.

Cadre II will join Cadre I as the 23 participant teachers conduct model lessons, open their classrooms to additional student-teacher practicum, and provide intentional alignment of content in preservice courses with the culturally congruent RTI professional development which will be delivered for a second year.

The 23 teachers from prior years are invited to participate in the professional development open to all ECASD personnel two times per year, attend two advanced professional meetings per year in collaboration with the TEP and A&S faculty, and plan professional development for the teachers in their schools.

They will assist other teachers in their classrooms as needed.

Participate in the Beyond Diversity April 30 & May 1, 2009.

Fall 2009- Avail your classroom to pre-service students so that they can observe RTI and CCP practices.

Fall 2009- Work closely with a university faculty member as a coach to support you as you model RTI and CCP practices in your classroom.

Respond to pre- and post- assessments that will gather information pertaining to your knowledge, skills, and disposition as they pertain to RTI and CCP.

Spring 2010- Open your classroom to your colleagues who are interested in observing your RTI and CCP practices.

Participate in the collaborative professional development teacher sessions during the summer of 2009-2010.

Be paired in practicum settings with teachers who participated in year 1 and exit their preservice teaching program with a demonstrative understanding of RTI and culturally congruent teaching practices.

Assess current preservice and inservice educators’

knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Deconstruct RTI in alignment with CCP. Co-develop and participate in a CCP professional

development program designed around the RTI model. Coach and support a growing CCP cadre. Infuse the CCP/RTI model into preservice education

courses to the extent that preservice teachers can show evidence of knowledge and skills in their assessment portfolios.

The UWEC faculty from the Arts and Sciences (A&S) department and the Teacher Education Program (TEP) will work closely with Eau Claire Area School District Teaching and Learning Department personnel to:

Salary Travel Expenses Total

Year 1 $18,308 $12,131 $19,170 $49,609

Year 2 $31,268 $210 $25,300 $56,778

Year 3 $32,349 $210 $25,900 $58,459

Total Grant Request

$93,846 $630 $70,370 $164,846

Assessment and evaluation will rely on surveys of teacher knowledge, observation of teacher skills, and teacher interviews to evaluate their dispositions throughout the three year program.

A needs assessment conducted within the school district will be calculated by conducting a district-wide survey targeting teacher knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to RTI and CCP (diversity, gender, race, social justice).

A similar survey will be administered to the cadre members before professional development and at the end of each year.

A similar pre/post survey is given to preservice teachers taking initial TEP courses to determine if students’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions surrounding RTI and CCP were influenced by the new content.

Dwight C. Watson, Principle investigator Aram deKoven, Research assistant Ann Franke, Director of Secondary Education Robin Criego, Director of Special Ed & Student Services Kris Dimock, Director of Pre-K/Elementary Education Deb Pattee, Cultural Congruent Pedagogy Consultant Ann Collier, Evaluator Liz Kitzmann, English Language Learners Consultant Dale Gable, English Language Learners Consultant Rose Battalio, Special Education Chair Cathy Thorsen, Special Education Consultant