What We’re LearningBuilding & Improving an RTI System

Seven Key Foundations

RISS 2009

October 2009 Intro to RTI 2

5% 5%

15% 15%

80%80%

Intensive•Few students•1:1 instruction•High intensity•Weekly progress monitoring

Intensive•Few students•Functional assessment based•Intensive instruction and support•Daily progress monitoring

Targeted•Some students (at-risk)•Small group instruction•Monthly Progress monitoring•In addition to core instruction

Targeted •Some students (at-risk)•Small group instruction•Rapid response•Weekly progress monitoring

Universal Intervention•All students•Core curricula•Preventive•Tri-annual assessment

Universal Intervention•All students •Present across settings•School-wide •Preventive•Incidence-based screening

SPECIAL

EDUCATION

Teaching and Supporting All Students

Academic Skills Social Skills

The Goal

The goal of a Response to Intervention system is ensuring that 80% of students meet grade level and content expectations (standards and benchmarks) in their regular classrooms.

AND

Struggling students receive increasingly more intensive support both in and outside their classrooms.

RISS 2009

Why RTI?Maine Student Achievement

Reading researchers estimate about 40% of entering Kindergarten students are at least one year behind their chronological age in language development. 20% are two or more years behind.

2008-09 MEA Reading Results

Grade 3: 65% met or exceeded standards

Grade 8: 71% met or exceeded standards

Grade 11: 49% met or exceeded (SAT)

Seven Foundations1. Ensure leadership, structure, coordination, and continuous

improvement.

2. Know what all students need to know and be able to do and how well.

3. Use universal screening data.

4. Target interventions (research-based strategies and programs)

5. Track response to the intervention (progress monitoring)

Throughout 1-5, continually think about how to:

6. Strengthen the core program.

7. Build shared responsibility.

RISS 2009

1. Ensure leadership, structure, coordination, and continuous

improvementRTI Leadership Team (new or existing):

• RTI system understanding and expertise

• Representative

• Assesses needs, develops plan/blueprint

• Monitors plan implementation

• Provides for ongoing training and support

• Time to meet and make adjustmentsRISS 2009

Structure

What groups and processes are in place to ensure students receive effective support?

Think about a combination of:

• Standard protocols

• Problem solving

RISS 2009

RISS 2009 8

Standard Protocols• Standard Protocols are a scientifically based set

of instructional practices that have proven to be effective

• The actual process of implementing RTI involves daily activities in each Tier

• The most efficient and effective instruction is that which works for the most students

• When instruction is used for all or small groups of students this is known as a standard protocol

• Core Tier 1 instruction is a standard protocol

RISS 2009 9

Problem Solving

• When standard protocol approaches have not worked, problem solving is used to identify and address the needs of individual students

• This is more time consuming but is very effective for certain students

• The RTI team helps to facilitate problem solving

2. Know what all students need to know and be able to do and how

well.

(Standards, skills, sub-skills, benchmarks)

In Literacy:

fluency, comprehension, phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary

RISS 2009

Phonemic awareness:

• Blending: Complex Words

• Blending: Words (2-3 syllables)

• Rhyming: Detection

• Rhyming: Production

RISS 2009

3. Use Universal Screening Data

• To see the core program.

• To pinpoint strengths and needs of groups of students.

• To pinpoint the specific learning needs of individual students at the sub-skill level.

Universal screening tools – 3 times yearly

Managing data – documentation, accessRISS 2009

4. Targeted interventions (research-based strategies and programs)

1. Take inventory -- What is currently being done in Tiers 1, 2, & 3? How well aligned with specific skills and sub-skills?

2. How are the experts in the building contributing to increased student learning at all tiers?

3. What extra time is available for interventions (in addition to the core program)?

RISS 2009

5. Track response to the intervention

(Progress monitoring)

Regular brief assessment of student progress toward a specific learning goal.

Develop “decision rules” to guide student movement across tiers. When is more/less intensity required? Who decides?

RISS 2009

6. Strengthen the Core Program

• Getting to 80% is the school’s mission

• All teachers use data and act on data individually and in collaborative groups

• Strategies that work as interventions can also be embedded in the core program

RISS 2009

Core Program Questions• Is there a universal core program – a

curriculum, instruction, and assessment sequence that all teachers know and can do?

• Is the core program being implemented completely by all teachers (fidelity of implementation)?

• Can ineffective/incomplete instruction be eliminated as the reason for lower student achievement?

RISS 2009

7. Build Shared Responsibility

• Put students at the center

• Take action for students based on data

• Use collaborative work and learning

• Provide appropriate, effective professional development

• Soften silos

• Build on the culture you’ve got and the work you’re already doing

RISS 2009