Response To Intervention - RTI -

1. Response To Intervention- RTI - “Most struggling readers never catch up with their higher-achieving classmates because schools create school days for them where they struggle all day long.” Richard Allington An effective RTI model can change that!

2. RTI Model “For 30 years, American schools used a discrepancy model to determine whether a struggling child would receive additional time and support through special education. The discrepancy model measures the difference a child's potential and actual achievement to determine whether the child has a learning disability. The problem with this system, of course, is that no action can take place until there is a discrepancy - until the child has already failed." “Response to intervention (RTI) is a new movement that shifts the responsibility for helping all students become successful from the special education teachers and curriculum to the entire staff, including special and regular education teachers and curriculum.” From Pyramid Response to Intervention – page 2

3. RTI Model

4. RTI Model Tier 1 – High quality instruction for all students • Meets the needs of 80% of students Tier 2 – Targeted very small group intervention • Needed by 10-20% of students • Increased frequency, increased intensity, increased duration Tier 3 – Intensive, individualized intervention • Meets the needs of 5-10% of students • Increased frequency, increased intensity, increased duration • Specialized interventions or alternative curriculum

5. RTI Model It is the right intervention… at the right time!

6. History of RTI • 1975 Public Law 94-142 Education of All Handicapped Children Act - later known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) required states and school districts to guarantee a free and appropriate public education to children identified as having learning disabilities. • 1983 A Nation At Risk – The federal government, states, and school districts began focusing on improving student performance in public schools. • 1997 Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) - This changed the interaction between classroom teachers and special education teachers, attempting to create a single system rather than two separate systems. • 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) - Shines a spotlight on accountability as it relates to student performance, public funding, data accessibility and teacher effectiveness. • 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) - This was the 1997 IDEA act, reauthorized and re-named. This removed the discrepancy formula to classify students as learning disabled, but required states to adopt an alternative model like RTI. It also allows school districts to use up to15% of special education funds to support implementation, early identification, and early interventions for general education students.

7. RTI in Washington State • The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has been working with the National Center for Response to Intervention (NCRTI). The NCRTI has been working with several school districts in Washington State to implement and gather information from RTI pilot programs. • Washington State has also prepared RTI resources and support for all schools. They focus on personalized education, data-based decision-making, universal screening, collaboration, progress monitoring, and continuous evaluation and improvement programs and instruction. RTI systems vary from districtto district, and even school to school, but share seven core principles: 1. Use all school resources to help all students learn. 2. Use research-based programs for instruction. 3. Focus on the core program. 4. Universally screen student so that none fall through the cracks. 5. Use a multi-tiered approach to meeting student needs. 6. Use data to drive decision-making. 7. Monitor progress often. (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction – Washington State)

8. RTI in Elementary Schools • RTI’s underlying premise is that schools should not wait until students fall far enough behind to qualify for special education to provide them with the help they need. Instead, schools should provide targeted, systematic and early interventions to all students as soon at they demonstrate the need. • Students in early grades should have a solid academic program with plenty of opportunities for review in the instructional day when needed. • Resources in the school focus on enhancing and building upon the academic core program to enhance students learning. • A narrow concentration on reading, writing, and mathematics, while maintaining an overall focus on critical thinking skills, helps young students master foundational skills.

9. RTI in Elementary Schools • Grade level teams, reading teachers, resource teachers and administrators meet during the week to review common assessment data, identify students for extra support, design interventions and place students in appropriate intervention groups. • Kids who have been identified as needing additional support are given targeted instruction during other times of the day such as PE, art, or music. • After school homework clubs can be designed to give highly structured instruction. • Students who continue to show low content area skill and/or lack of progress after other interventions have failed are given small group, intensive instruction lasting between 3 and 4 months, with the goal of closing specific learning gaps. • Students receiving highly intensive remediation are supported by a large cross section of various staff at a given school sometimes as much as 2 hours a day in and out of the general education classroom.

10. RTI in Middle & High Schools • The academic tasks in middle and high school are complex. To identify the reasons for academic underachievement at these levels, an accurate task analysis (Crawford & Tindal, 2002) is required for the desired performance areas. The task analysis might indicate that the student lacks the basic skills necessary for the task, or it might indicate that the student is unable to perform the more complex task of integrating a number of skills. • School psychologists and other educators skilled in the problem-solving process can place these complex tasks in perspective through the use of task analyses. Assessment and intervention with specific skill areas can then be addressed. • At the secondary level data such as accuracy on weekly tests, study and organizational skills and amount of work completed might be collected. • RTI methods are not specific to any particular area of student performance. If frequent data sensitive to small changes in performance can be collected, if that data can be compared to levels of desired performance, and if that data is used to inform and evaluate interventions then RTI can be effective in middle and high schools.

11. RTI in Middle & High Schools • Teachers in secondary schools should intentionally differentiate and build strong instructional practices into their core academic programs based on universal screenings and diagnostic assessments. • Students needing extra support are given opportunities during and after school to review skills not mastered during regular instruction. • Flexibility for making up assignments and repeating failed tests is afforded students. • Support electives in reading, language arts, and math should be offered for those students falling behind. • Students still struggling should be given mandatory tutorial periods and mandatory homework help. • Parents of students who are struggling should be consistently kept informed of their child’s progress.

12. Challenges for Administrators • Facilitate a collaborative environment where every staff member is using their instructional expertise to support colleagues and students within and outside of their own classrooms. • Facilitate ongoing staff development and training for staff. • Ensure strong collaboration between classroom teachers, specialists, and parents. • Funding and time are limited, so they must be managed at an optimal level.

13. Challenges for Teachers • Teachers MUST know their students! • Teachers MUST be able to provide high quality instruction for all of their students and be willing to seek support to continually improve their teaching. • Teachers MUST be able to provide and document the effectiveness of some tier 2 intervention for students. • Teachers MUST be willing to collaborate with specialists and other teachers to ensure the success of every child in the school. • Teachers Must be willing to let go of older, narrower instructional paradigms and accept a broader paradigm that focuses on all students.

14. Pros of RTI “What RTI does is put everybody on the same playing field. It doesn’t matter what your language structure is, whether or not you’re disabled, or whether or not you’re poor. What matters is what you need to progress at a satisfactory pace in the general curriculum.” From Wayne Sailor, associate director, Beach Center on Families and Disability, University of Kansas Pyramid Response to Intervention – page 99

15. Pros of RTI • Students no longer have to wait to fail to receive the support they need. • RTI has the potential to reduce the number of students who become classified as special education students by as much as 70%. (Allington) The process helps determine which students have true learning disabilities vs. students who have not had the instruction they need to learn. • Evidence exists that the use of a problem-solving process that includes adherence to the principles of RTI, early intervention, and a tiered system of intervention delivery results in a reduction in the percent of students found eligible for SLD services (Barbour, 2002; Marston, 2002; Tilly, 2005; VanDerHeyden et al., 2005; VanDerHeyden & Witt, 2005). • RTI is perhaps more concerned with the improvement of instruction for all students (see Kovaleski, 2005)

16. Cons of RTI • We must caution as students enter tier 3 intervention because their need for tier 3 intervention doesn’t necessarily mean they have a learning disability. The language around RTI and learning disabilities is vague. • If the right intervention isn’t provided and/or progress monitoring doesn’t catch slow progress, precious time can be wasted. • An effective RTI program has many components that must all work together to ensure success for students. • At this time, RTI models are inconsistent.

17. Great Resources What Really Matters in Response to Intervention by Richard Allington Pyramid Response to Intervention by Austin Buffum, Mike Mattos, & Chris Weber Beyond the RTI Pyramid: Solutions for the First Years of Implementation by William Bender

18. Great Resources RTI International – Publications Database http://www.rti.org/publications/publications.cfm OSPI - Response To Intervention Information http://www.k12.wa.us/RTI/default.aspx Identification of Students With Specific Learning Disabilities – Washington State – December 2011 http://www.k12.wa.us/SpecialEd/pubdocs/SLD_Guide.pdf National Center for Response to Intervention http://www.rti4success.org/aboutusn Howell, R., Patton, S., & Deiotte, M. (2008). Understanding Response to Intervention: A practical guide to systematic implementation. Bloomington, IN. Solution Tree Press