challenges to response to intervention (rti) models: equity & cultural considerations alfredo j....
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Challenges to Response to Intervention (RTI)
Models:Equity & Cultural Considerations
Challenges to Response to Intervention (RTI)
Models:Equity & Cultural Considerations
Alfredo J. ArtilesArizona State University
www.nccrest.org
Alfredo J. ArtilesArizona State University
www.nccrest.orgResponse to Intervention Community of Practice
September 24, 2007
PurposePurpose
1. Foreground Equity in learning opportunities and outcomes.
2. Identify problematic assumptions about culture and learning and challenges to RTI models.
3. Outline next steps to address these challenges.
1. Foreground Equity in learning opportunities and outcomes.
2. Identify problematic assumptions about culture and learning and challenges to RTI models.
3. Outline next steps to address these challenges.
Why focus on Equity?Why focus on Equity?
A significant proportion of struggling learners and students in sped come from ethnic and linguistic minority communities.
Historical legacies. Demographic trends. Proposed solutions are based on limited visions of systemic change.
A significant proportion of struggling learners and students in sped come from ethnic and linguistic minority communities.
Historical legacies. Demographic trends. Proposed solutions are based on limited visions of systemic change.
Foregrounding Equity:History & DemographicsForegrounding Equity:History & Demographics
44% of children in urban contexts are students of color (Zhou, 2003).
Disparities in service outcomes across multiple domains, including achievement gaps (Artiles, Trent, & Palmer, 2004; Lee, 2002).
Structural differences in opportunity to learn (e.g., teacher quality, funding, professional learning support)
Persistence of prejudice and stereotyping connected to historical segregation.
Foregrounding Equity:Visions of Systemic
Change
Foregrounding Equity:Visions of Systemic
Change
There is considerable consensus that considerably more is known about effective instruction than is implemented…research-based practices are not broadly implemented (Donovan & Cross, 2002).
There is considerable consensus that considerably more is known about effective instruction than is implemented…research-based practices are not broadly implemented (Donovan & Cross, 2002).
Expose educators to specialized knowledge at pre- and in-service levels
Oversimplified view of educators’ work and a naïve understanding of school change.
Cultural Construction of Disabilities (Harry &
Klingner, 2006)
Cultural Construction of Disabilities (Harry &
Klingner, 2006)
Teacher hiring and placement practices OTL in GenEd,
referral and assessment practices, eligibility decisions, work with families.Institutional bias, racism, and the
elusive quest for equity in sped
Voices from the Classroom
adapted from Wright & Choi, 2005
Voices from the Classroom
adapted from Wright & Choi, 2005
Teachers reported confusion in their schools about what Prop 203 allows with regard to L1 support. Practices vary widely from school to school.
Some teachers described a climate of fear
in their schools
when it comes to
providing L1 assistance to students who need it.
Many administrators issued school policies that are more restrictive than Prop 203 itself, and state education leaders have also contributed to the false notion that state law forbids all use of students' native language(s).
Foregrounding Equity:Visions of Systemic
Change
Foregrounding Equity:Visions of Systemic
Change
Transcend purely technical analyses and solutions.
Account for the interplay of research-policy-practice.
Rely on a sound model of professional learning to infuse innovations.
Transcend purely technical analyses and solutions.
Account for the interplay of research-policy-practice.
Rely on a sound model of professional learning to infuse innovations.
PurposePurpose
Foreground Equity in learning opportunities and outcomes.
2. Identify problematic assumptions about culture and learning and challenges to RTI models.
3. Outline next steps to address these challenges.
Foreground Equity in learning opportunities and outcomes.
2. Identify problematic assumptions about culture and learning and challenges to RTI models.
3. Outline next steps to address these challenges.
Problematic Assumptions about Culture & Learning
Problematic Assumptions about Culture & Learning Knowledge base. Design of instructional and behavioral interventions.
The role of culture in learning.
Knowledge base. Design of instructional and behavioral interventions.
The role of culture in learning.
Assumptions & Challenges:
The Current Knowledge Base
Assumptions & Challenges:
The Current Knowledge Base
Problems with the use of a culture-less knowledge base (Artiles, Trent, & Kuan, 1997) in the implementation of research based practices.
Problems with the use of a culture-less knowledge base (Artiles, Trent, & Kuan, 1997) in the implementation of research based practices.Of the 180 intervention studies of
students with LD that were synthesized by Swanson et al (1999:78), the majority did not report ethnicity … Findings disaggregated by ethnicity were neither provided nor possible to calculate (Donovan & Cross, 2002, p. 330).
Assumptions & Challenges:The Current Knowledge BaseAssumptions & Challenges:The Current Knowledge Base
… analysis for this report of the effect of race/ethnicity on special education placement or outcomes was made more difficult because many research studies did not specify the racial/ethnic composition of the sample or had too few minority children to measure effects by race/ethnicity (Donovan & Cross, 2002, p. 381).
Design of Interventions:The Question of Ecological
Validity
Design of Interventions:The Question of Ecological
Validity
Ecological validity is defined as “the extent to which behavior sampled in one setting can be taken as characteristic of an individual’s cognitive processes in a range of other settings” (Cole, 1996, p. 222).
Ecological validity is defined as “the extent to which behavior sampled in one setting can be taken as characteristic of an individual’s cognitive processes in a range of other settings” (Cole, 1996, p. 222). To what extent are RTI
interventions designed to meet ecologically valid criteria?
Ecological Validity: 3 Conditions
(Cole, 1996)
Ecological Validity: 3 Conditions
(Cole, 1996)
1. Target situations that are authentic to the person’s routine experiences
2. Work in settings that accurately resemble the individual’s sociocultural everyday milieu
3. Align the person’s definition of the situation (i.e., experiment conditions and outcomes) with the study’s definition.
Assumptions & Challenges:Ecological Validity of
Interventions
Assumptions & Challenges:Ecological Validity of
Interventions
RTI models assume that all instruction should be evidence-based, but
Instructional methods work in relation to the socio-cultural contexts in which they are implemented (Artiles, 2002; Gee, 2001).
RTI models assume that all instruction should be evidence-based, but
Instructional methods work in relation to the socio-cultural contexts in which they are implemented (Artiles, 2002; Gee, 2001).
… evidence derived in what contexts? under what conditions? with what kinds of samples?
Variations in intervention, program, and implementation across schools can affect performance of students.
Assumptions & Challenges:Culture and its Role in
Learning
Assumptions & Challenges:Culture and its Role in
Learning
Focus on Student & Professional Learning Focus on Student & Professional Learning
RTI’s view of students’ low performance:
Poor instruction v. disability
Learning is:
•Acquisition of skills or knowledge
•Individual process
• Promoted by instructional strategies only
Assumptions & Challenges:
Professional learning and competence
Assumptions & Challenges:
Professional learning and competence
Teachers should be familiar with the beliefs, values, cultural practices, discourse styles, and other features of students’ lives that may have an impact on classroom participation and success and be prepared to use this information in designing instruction (Donovan & Cross, 2002, p. 373).
Top down model Exposure to knowledge Culture is not relevant: Teacher proof curriculum and PD
1. Cultures in the Classroom
3. Classroom CultureS
2. The Classroom Culture
What’s already there
The work that people do together
What students and teachers bring with
them
ConcludingConcluding
Assumptions about Culture & Learning Cultureless knowledge base Future research must account for how contextual contingencies and variability across contexts challenge ecological validity.
Intervention designs should be based on a theory of culture in student and professional learning.
Assumptions about Culture & Learning Cultureless knowledge base Future research must account for how contextual contingencies and variability across contexts challenge ecological validity.
Intervention designs should be based on a theory of culture in student and professional learning.
Emerging Questions & Sociocultural Challenges
(Artiles, 2005)
Emerging Questions & Sociocultural Challenges
(Artiles, 2005)
Equity IssuesEquity Issues
How do we explain the achievement of minority students beyond dichotomies (instruction or child traits) and account for cultural and historical factors?
How do we design RTI models that allow us to examine the interactive construction of heterogeneity, difference, and disabilities?
Emerging Questions & Sociocultural
Challenges (Artiles, 2005)
Emerging Questions & Sociocultural
Challenges (Artiles, 2005)Equity IssuesEquity Issues
How do we design implementation fidelity systems that account for the complex and ideologically charged contexts of schools?
How do we know whether the “problems” (or goals) we pursue in interventions are construed the same way by students and their families?
Do these problems or questions have the same meaning and importance in the communities where students come from? (Boesch, 1996).
Emerging Questions & Sociocultural
Challenges (Artiles, 2005)
Emerging Questions & Sociocultural
Challenges (Artiles, 2005)
Assumptions About the Role of Culture in Learning
Assumptions About the Role of Culture in Learning
How can the current knowledge base be adapted for use today, while we invest in the generation of a knowledge base that’s mindful of culture?
What models of professional learning that are mindful of culture and equity can be used to build capacity in RTI efforts?
Emerging Questions & Sociocultural
Challenges (Artiles, 2005)
Emerging Questions & Sociocultural
Challenges (Artiles, 2005)Assumptions About the Role of Culture in Learning
Assumptions About the Role of Culture in LearningHow do RTI
literacy practices interface with communities’ literacy practices? (Artiles, 2002; Gee, 1999).
When designing RTI interventions, how can researchers sample situations and tasks that account for the cultural nature of learning? (Goodnow, 2002).
How can educators use their understanding of the experiences lived by students in the design of interventions? (Boesch, 1996).
PurposePurpose
Foreground Equity in learning opportunities and outcomes.
Identify problematic assumptions about culture and learning and challenges to RTI models.
3. Outline next steps to address these challenges.
Foreground Equity in learning opportunities and outcomes.
Identify problematic assumptions about culture and learning and challenges to RTI models.
3. Outline next steps to address these challenges.
Beginning to Address these Challenges
Beginning to Address these Challenges
1. Broaden the unit of analysis in RTI models.
2. Build disproportionality analysis into RTI models.
3. Infuse culture and language considerations in RTI models.
1. Broaden the unit of analysis in RTI models.
2. Build disproportionality analysis into RTI models.
3. Infuse culture and language considerations in RTI models.
Broaden the Unit of Analysis
Broaden the Unit of Analysis
Multiple levels of analysis- District, school,
classroom
Multiple levels of analysis- District, school,
classroomMore Complex Views of the Curriculum in
Tier 1 Beyond isolated reading skills. Other dimensions of the curriculum:
Students’ funds of knowledge Hidden curriculum (interaction rules, views of competence, learning and knowledge) Social organization of learning.
NCCRESt tools District rubric, school tool.
RTI Primary Focus: Equity
Include Disproportionality Analysis
RTI Primary Focus: Equity
Include Disproportionality Analysis
NCCRESt resources: Maps and other data based resources.
Use of tools for TA and PD activities.
NCCRESt resources: Maps and other data based resources.
Use of tools for TA and PD activities.
Culture & Language Considerations
Culture & Language Considerations
Create tools for Implementation of interventions within tiers
Movement across tiers that compel school personnel to be mindful of language and cultural differences.
NCCRESt additional resources: Briefs, exemplars, rubric, and tools <www.nccrest.org>
Create tools for Implementation of interventions within tiers
Movement across tiers that compel school personnel to be mindful of language and cultural differences.
NCCRESt additional resources: Briefs, exemplars, rubric, and tools <www.nccrest.org>
PurposePurpose
Foreground Equity in learning opportunities and outcomes.
Identify problematic assumptions about culture and learning and challenges to RTI models.
Outline next steps to address these challenges.
Foreground Equity in learning opportunities and outcomes.
Identify problematic assumptions about culture and learning and challenges to RTI models.
Outline next steps to address these challenges.
Challenges to Response to Intervention (RTI)
Models:Equity & Cultural Considerations
Challenges to Response to Intervention (RTI)
Models:Equity & Cultural Considerations
Alfredo J. ArtilesArizona State University
www.nccrest.org
Alfredo J. ArtilesArizona State University
www.nccrest.orgResponse to Intervention Community of Practice
September 24, 2007