What is RTI? (and why is it getting a bad rap?)

1. What is RTI?(and why is it getting a bad rap?) CORE July 28, 2011

2. The next two hours… • Overview of RTI • How RTI Started on the Wrong Foot • Why does RTI have such a bad rap? • Implementation Mistakes (or What schools do that knock it off the poor one wrong foot it was on to begin with…..) • Professional Opinions (or The Audacity of Thought)

3. Warning! 2 hours is not a lot of time! Everything is circular! Everything is connected! On the surface, RTI is a very simple concept. If you dig deeper, RTI requires a lot of thought and professional judgement…some people hate this!

4. What have you heard?

5. What is RTI? Ready, Think, Inspire Really Thoughtful Insight Rotten Terrible Initiative Radical Time-consuming Insanity Response to Intervention … is the practice of (1) providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student needs and, (2) using learning rate over time and level of performance to (3) make important educational decisions.” National Association of State Directors of Special Education (2005) Response to Intervention: Policy Considerations and Implementation, p. 5

6. Let’s break that down….

7. Behavioral Systems Academic Systems • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • High Intensity • Of longer duration • Targeted Group Interventions • Some students (at-risk) • High efficiency • Rapid response • Targeted Group Interventions • Some students (at-risk) • High efficiency • Rapid response • Universal Interventions • All students • Preventive, proactive • Universal Interventions • All settings, all students • Preventive, proactive 75-85% 75-85% School-Wide Systems for Student Success • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • Intense, durable procedures 5-10% 5-10% 10-15% 10-15%

9. What’s really different about this? Pro-active and Consistent Across Building/District • Everything is decided ahead of time: • Academic expectations across grade level or district • Assessments used early and across school • Interventions available, scheduled, and ready for students • Progress Monitoring assessments in place • Meeting to evaluate progress in place

10. Problem Identification Asking IF there is a problem? • Define area(s) of concern and prioritize. • Review/Collect baseline data on primary area of concern. • Review • Interview • Observe • Test • State discrepancy between what is expected and what is occurring.

11. Problem Identification Occurs at Each Tier Special Education General Education With Support General Education Level of Resources Intensity of Problem

12. A Problem Defined… • At Tier 3: • The difference between an individual student’s performance and a criterion of success in a curriculum area. • At Tier 2: • The difference between non-proficient students’ performance and a criterion of success in a curriculum area. • At Tier 1: • The difference between how many students are proficient on their accountability assessments and 100%. The desired state is for all students to be proficient. (NASDSE, 2006)

13. Example of a Universal ProblemACADEMIC Area

14. Example of a Targeted ProblemACADEMIC Area

15. Example of an Intensive ProblemACADEMIC Area

16. Problem Identification Needs • Prerequisite to stating discrepancy: • Determine what your expectations are for what you want to occur • Determine what data to use and comparison group to use • Collect data – uniformly and consistently Universal Screener!!!

17. Universal Screeners Characteristics of Universal Screeners • Given to everyone • Critical Skills • Brief • Repeatable • Cheap and easy to administer and score • Tells us who needs more assessment

18. Universal Screeners • Examples: • DIBELS • AIMSWEB • Curriculum Based Measures (CBM) • Early Warning System (high schools)

19. Examples of Percentile Rank Norms

20. 2nd Grade Discrepancy Tier 1 At Tier 1, 62% of 2nd grade students have met the expected criteria (55 WRC) compared to 80%.

21. Tier 2 Problem Identification Total meeting criteria = 79% (>40 LNF) Total in Emerging range (19%) (29 < LNF <40) Total in At-Risk range (2%) (LNF < 29) Sample of students in Low Risk criteria Sample of students in Some-Risk criteria Students in At-Risk range

22. Extreme Off Track 2-3 Years Behind No chance for graduation in a traditional school setting Disengagement Example: Credits Earned 1st Semester 09-10 < 3 Credits 08-09 < 9 Credits 07-08 <15 Credits 06-07 < 21 Credits High Off Track Lacking 2 or more graduation requirements Behind 4 or more Credits Currently failing 3 or more classes Excessive Referrals and/or Absences Off Track Lacking 2 graduation requirements Behind 1-3 Credits 10% Absences 3 or less Level 2 referrals or 2 Level 3 Referrals 9th graders indentified “at high risk” (3 F’s in 8th grade) • At Risk for Off Track • Lacking 1 of 3 Graduation requirements • < 5%Absences • 3 or less Level 1 or 2 referrals On Track Exceeding or Meeting all graduation requirements (Credits, FCAT Score, GPA) 6 or less Absences No referrals Pasco County Schools

24. Problem Analysis Why is it happening? A. Review RIOT data to… • Differentiate between skill problem vs. performance problem. • Determine situations in which the problem is most likely and least likely to occur. • Identify the factors of curriculum, instruction and environment that are contributing to the problem. B. Generate plausible and alterable hypotheses. C. Collection additional data as needed to validate or refute hypotheses. D. Select most validated and alterable hypotheses

25. CURRICULUM • Content of materials • Difficulty level of materials • Sequencing • Organization • Perceived relevance INSTRUCTION • Instructional philosophy • Instructional approach or method(s) • Expectations/objectives • Clarity & organization • Pace • Opportunities for practice • Duration of continuous instruction • Nature & frequency of feedback • Academic engaged time • Classroom Management ICEL Domains Environment

26. ENVIRONMENT • Arrangement of the room • Furniture/equipment • Rules • Management plans • Routines • Expectations • Peer context • Peer and family influence • Task pressure LEARNER • Appropriateness of curriculum and instruction • Perception of learning environment • Academic skills • Social/behavioral skills • Adaptive behavior skills • Motivation • Medical Issues ICEL Domains Continued

27. Problem Analysis InterviewInstructional Planning Form (IPF) Student Name_______________________ Teacher Name________________ School Year ____________ Goal ___________________________________________________________________________________ 10/03 Adapted from the U of Oregon

28. IPF for 2nd Grade Reading 20/ day 10/ day 25/ day

29. Problem Analysis Riley 51 wrc Renee 53 wrc Matthew 54wrc Natalie 6 wrc Matthew 14 wrc Etc. Self Monitoring Phonics/Decoding

30. Plan Development • Review interventions and match to student needs • Include decisions about: • Frequency • Intensity • Duration • Data Collection

31. Edmark KIT Michael Heggerty Reading Milestones Trophies Intervention Windows to Literacy Early Steps Tutoring Earobics Edmark Horizons Michael Heggerty Reading Milestones Trophies Intervention Windows to Literacy Earobics Edmark Horizons Michael Heggerty Trophies Intervention Windows to Literacy Horizons QuickReads Read Naturally Reading Milestones Edmark Trophies Intervention Wilson Windows to Literacy Earobics Edmark Horizons Read Naturally QuckReads Reading Milestones Trophies Intervention Wilson Horizons Read Naturally QuckReads Reading Mielstones Trophies Intervention Wilson KIT Jolly Phonics Michael Heggerty Starlit Trophies Intervention Early Steps Tutoring Jolly Phonics Michael Heggerty Read Naturally TCM Nonfiction Trophies Intervention Michael Heggerty Read Naturally TCM Nonfiction Trophies Intervention Read Naturally TCM Nonfiction Trophies Intervention Soar to Success Lexia Read Naturally Rewards TCM Nonfiction Trophies Intervention Soar to Success Lexia Read Naturally Rewards TCM Nonfiction Trophies Intervention Soar to Success Lexia TIER 3 TIER 2 TIER 1 District 204 Literacy Curriculum Scholastic Red &Blue Trophies Text Talk District 204 Literacy Curriculum Scholastic Red & Blue Trophies District 204 Literacy Curriculum Scholastic Red & Blue Trophies District 204 Literacy Curriculum Scholastic Red & Blue Trophies District 204 Literacy Curriculum Scholastic Red & Blue Trophies District 204 Literacy Curriculum Scholastic Red & Blue Trophies K 1 2 3 4 5 Indian Prairie District 204 Reading Materials by Tier

32. Resources Matched with Interventions IV = Intervention Kit TP = Teacher Pals FB = Fluency Builder

33. Plan Evaluation • Review progress data • Make decisions • Re-do Problem Solving cycle • Simple adjustment - Intensify • Continue • Discontinue

34. Plan Evaluation Data Review

35. Plan EvaluationBenchmark Data

36. Plan Evaluation Needs • Pre-requisites: • Determine what is OK growth and what isn’t • Pre-determined alternative paths or possible changes

37. What do all four steps have in common? Did you notice a pattern emerging when we reviewed the problem solving process? There are a lot of pre-requisites to sitting down at a problem solving meeting! What are the pre-requisites?

38. Starting Out of the Wrong Foot Let’s look at RTI definition again… the practice of (1) providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student needs and, (2) using learning rate over time and level of performance to (3) make important educational decisions. Keep this in mind as we review the introduction of RTI to the school system.

39. What does the law say? • Federal Law IN GENERAL….when determining when a child has a specific learning disability as defined in section 602, a local educational agency shall not be required to take into consideration whether a child has a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability…. ADDITIONAL AUTHORITY …in determining whether a child has a specific learning disability, a local educational agency may us a process that determines if the child responds to scientific, research-based intervention as a part of the evaluation procedures . . .

40. What does the law say? Illinois Administrative Code 226 “…each district shall, no later than the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year, implement the use of a process that determines how a child responds to scientific, research-based interventions as part of the evaluation procedure…When a district implements the use of a process of this type, the district shall now use any child’s participation in the process as the basis for denying a parent’s request for an evaluation.”

41. State Legislation • More importantly, Rule 226.130 requires Illinois districts to complete a plan for transition (RtI Plan) to the use of a process that determines how a child responds to scientific, research-based intervention as part of the evaluation procedure by January 1, 2009

42. Illinois State Board of Education Beliefs The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) believes that increased student learning requires the consistent practice of providing high quality instruction matched to student needs. Response to Intervention (RtI) is a general education initiative which requires collaborative efforts from all district staff, general educators, special educators and bilingual/ELL staff. In a quality educational environment student academic and behavioral needs must be identified and monitored continuously with documented student performance data used to make instructional decisions. The Illinois State Response to Intervention Plan, January 1, 2008

43. ResourcesRead the Real Words Handouts IDEA 2004 IL Administrative Code 226 IL RTI Plan Guidance Document and NDSEC explanation

44. Law vs. Best Practice What does the law focus on? What does RTI focus on? What do you think educators’ responses are to the law? Compare what the law requires and what is actually required to have an RTI system in place.

45. Why does RTI have such a bad rap?Let’s discuss! • Implementation Mistakes • Trying to fit your old system into an RTI system • Use of tests that do not have the characteristics of a screener, as a screener (ISAT, MAP) • Spending so much time on tests for analysis for everyone, instead of for few identified by screener • Adding on tests instead of replacing • Adding meetings instead of streamlining • Not educating staff about why we are doing what we are doing • Doing it to get kids qualified for special education

46. Why does RTI have such a bad rap?Let’s discuss! Professional Opinion From black and white, to gray all over (law) Working as a team Considering multiple data points

47. Questions/Suggestions