From Concept to Reality: Mapping a Continuum of Interventions for all Students

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What’s All the Buzz About?

Response to Intervention (RtI) Provides high-quality instruction/intervention

matched to student needs and uses frequent and ongoing monitoring of student progress to make important instructional decisions about an individual student.

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RtI is…

the practice of providing high-quality

instruction/intervention matched to student needs

and using learning rate over time

and level of performance to

inform educational decisions

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Why do we need RtI? The discrepancy model fails to address the following:

•new legal requirements for documented intervention attempts within the confines of least restrictive environment before special education supports can be considered.

• “rule out” other factors Curriculum-gaps/lack of instruction ESL issues Environmental, Cultural, or Economic Factors Presence of another condition (e.g., emotional disturbance; visual, hearing, or motor disability)

•Data-Informed Problem Solving: What works? (i.e., What type of instruction does the student need to increase his/her rate of progress?)

Relax- RtI is not totally new!

An RtI approach resembles various initiatives from the past two decades to establish collaborative or consultative problem-solving mechanisms to design and implement effective interventions within general education students who are experiencing difficulties. Child Study Team Teacher Assistance Teams Pre-Referral Interventions Problem-Solving Teams

Relax- RtI is not totally new!

In the past few years, RtI has taken on a more specific connotation, especially in the Individual with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004), as an approach to remedial intervention that also generates data to inform instruction and identify students who may require special education and related services

Steps to Success

1. Assess teacher concerns2. Inventory student strengths/talents3. Review baseline data4. Select targeted teacher concerns5. Set academic and/or behavior outcome

goals6. Design intervention plan7. Plan for parent notification/sharing8. Review intervention and monitoring plans

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Then and now

Problems with the traditional system:

Separation of special ed. and general ed.

Eligibility procedures disconnected from

intervention

Wait-to-fail model (reactive)

Over-representation of some minority students

Over identification of students with disabilities

Failure to serve at-risk and low achieving students

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A blurring of the lines……

From NCLB:“…holding schools, local education agencies, and

States accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students…” and “…promoting school wide reform and ensuring the access of all children to effective, scientifically-based instructional strategies…” [PL 107-110 §1001(4) and (9)]

From IDEA:“…to improve the academic achievement and

functional performance of children with disabilities including the use of scientifically based instructional practices, to the maximum extent possible.” [20 U.S.C. 1400(c)(5)(E)]

Target Student

Skill Gap

Avg Classroom Academic Performance Level

‘Dual-Discrepancy’: RtI Model of Learning Disability (Fuchs 2003)

Gap in Rate or ‘Slope’ of Improvement

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RtI Core Principles

Teach all children effectively

Intervene early

Use a multi-tier model of service delivery

Using assessments for: (1) universal screening; (2)

progress monitoring; and (3) diagnostics

Adopt a problem-solving methodology based on

collected data measuring student’s “response to

attempted interventions”

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Essential Components of RtI Implementation

1. Multi-tier model

2. Problem-solving method

3. Integrated data

collection/assessment system

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Essential Component 1: Multi-tier Model

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Tier 1 Summary: Core Instructional Interventions

80%

http://guilderlandschools.rubiconatlas.org/c/maps/unitmap.php?UnitID=21292&TeacherID=148&

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Tier 2 Summary: Targeted Interventions

10-15%

http://guilderlandschools.rubiconatlas.org/c/maps/unitmap.php?UnitID=21614&TeacherID=148&

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Tier 3 Summary: Intensive Interventions

http://guilderlandschools.rubiconatlas.org/c/maps/unitmap.php?UnitID=21615&TeacherID=148&

5%

“Once-a-year tests are incapable of providing teachers with the moment-to-moment and day-to-day information about student achievement that they need to make crucial instructional decisions. Teachers must rely on classroom assessment to do this.”

(Stiggins, 2002)

Frequent Assessment

How do these tests fit in?

So RtI requires assessments at all levels/tiers to help provide the data to answer the questions about students and appropriate instruction and interventions- but the questions is- WHAT ASSESSMENTS?

In order to know best what which types of assessment to use at different levels, we have to know a bit more about the specific assessment tools themselves.

Determining Appropriate Tests to Use in an RtI Model

What questions do we want answered by the test we’re going to use?

What is the level of a student’s mastery of a given subject matter at the end of the course?

How can I get useful information about a student’s current skills/functioning in a given area to help me better plan instruction and/or behavioral programming in the future?

Why is a given student having difficulty in acquiring academic skills despite good curriculum and intensive interventions from instructors?

Determining Appropriate Tests to Use in an RtI Model

How can we quickly and reliably assess the overall status of our students academic skills on an ongoing basis?

How can we gather the data needed in a reliable, valid and timely and cost-effective manner?

RtI Assessments

Universal Screenings: assessments given to all students; Benchmarking

Progress Monitoring – short probes given regularly to struggling students along with intervention instruction

Universal Screening“Schools use universal screenings in essential academic areas to identify each student’s level of proficiency (usually three times a year). The screening data are organized in format that allow for the inspection of both group and individual performance on specific skills. Teachers meet in grade-level or department teams to analyze data on all students, set group goals for the next assessment period, and plan for whole class instructional change based on the data. Interventions at Tier 1 are oriented towards whole-group instructional procedures.” (NASDSE)

• Purposes of Universal Screening:

Assessment of the Core Curriculum & Core

Instruction

Identify those students who need further

interventions

at Tier 2

Progress Monitoring

“A scientifically based practice used to assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Progress monitoring can be implemented with individual students or an entire class. Also, the process used to monitor implementation of specific interventions.” (RtI Action Network)

• Short probes that are sensitive to small increments of

growth and can

be given efficiently & repeatedly

• Purposes of Progress Monitoring:

Assessment of the intervention strategy (determine

whether to

fade, continue, or change)

Identify those students who need further

interventions

at Tier 3

“Lagging data cannot easily be used to improve teaching and learning because too much time has elapsed between instruction

and assessment. Teachers and principals need high quality leading measures that can provide diagnostic information—data that can be used to update continuous improvement

plans in real time. Ideally, good leading measures will allow sampling of student

performance daily, weekly, or monthly.” (Dr. Steve Benjamin, 2006)

Leading Measures Rock

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Essential Component 2: Problem-Solving and Decision Making

Define the Problem(Screening and Diagnostic Assessments)

Implement Plan (Treatment Integrity)

Carry out the intervention

Analysis of all collected data

Did the intervention

work?

What is the problem and why is it happening?

What are we going to do?

Define and Identify Intervention and Progress

Monitoring

Essential Component 3: Integrated Instructional Data Collection/Assessment Systems

Assessment of Skills in State

Standards “Marker

variables” (benchmarks) leading to ultimate instructional target

To be administered Efficiently Repeatedly

Provide Data specific to

strategy implemented Individual student

progress monitoring data, sensitive to small increments of growth

Comparison data across students

User-friendly data displays

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Essential Component 3: Integrated data collection/assessment system

RtI Advisory Council Subgroup: Researched and adopted Performance Plus Assessment data management solution for

tracking and monitoring student achievement and “response to interventions”

Aligns district performance results to NYS Learning Standards

https://guilderlandschools-ny.perfplusk12.com/

Essential Component 3: Integrated data collection/assessment system

Provides complete longitudinal profiles and analyses of student achievement

Includes Assessment Builder for efficient development, scoring and analysis of state and local benchmark assessments

Immediate review of student response to intervention supports data-informed instruction and problem solving efforts.

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Professional Development Needs

Critical Areas: Collaboration between general and

special educators Changing roles and responsibilities School leadership Data gathering and data analysis Identifying appropriate research-

based instruction/interventions

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Professional Development Needs

Critical Areas: Awareness training with teachers

administrators Must include all of the core components of RTI Deeper training with implementers Ideally job integrated Coaching and support

Training is typically ongoing because RtI has many moving parts RtI is ever evolving - new information is

continually becoming available.

‘Circle of Accountability’

•Identify students who need additional support

•Use research-based interventions to assist

students

•Monitor these students progress on ongoing

basis

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Reflections!

Questions?

Discussion. !.?

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