RTI for Middle and High Schools: The Teacher as Intervention ‘First Responder’ Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org

RTI for Middle and High Schools: The Teacher as Intervention ‘First Responder’Jim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org

Investigating Classroom-Friendly Methods of Data Collection Reviewing Key Concepts: RTI & Middle Schools Building Teacher Support for Classroom Interventions Mapping Out Your Schools’ Expectations for What Tier 1 (Classroom) Interventions Require Reviewing Selected Tier 1 Interventions Workshop Goals…

“The quality of a school as a learning community can be measured by how effectively it addresses the needs of struggling students.”--Wright (2005) Source: Wright, J. (2005, Summer). Five interventions that work. NAESP Leadership Compass, 2(4) pp.1,6.

School Instructional Time: The Irreplaceable Resource “In the average school system, there are 330 minutes in the instructional day, 1,650 minutes in the instructional week, and 56,700 minutes in the instructional year. Except in unusual circumstances, these are the only minutes we have to provide effective services for students. The number of years we have to apply these minutes is fixed. Therefore, each minute counts and schools cannot afford to support inefficient models of service delivery.” p. 177 Source: Batsche, G. M., Castillo, J. M., Dixon, D. N., & Forde, S. (2008). Best practices in problem analysis. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp. 177-193).

RTI Assumption: Struggling Students Are ‘Typical’ Until Proven Otherwise… RTI logic assumes that: • A student who begins to struggle in general education is typical, and that • It is general education’s responsibility to find the instructional strategies that will unlock the student’s learning potential Only when the student shows through well-documented interventions that he or she has ‘failed to respond to intervention’ does RTI begin to investigate the possibility that the student may have a learning disability or other special education condition.

Essential Elements of RTI (Fairbanks, Sugai, Guardino, & Lathrop, 2007) • A “continuum of evidence-based services available to all students" that range from universal to highly individualized & intensive • “Decision points to determine if students are performing significantly below the level of their peers in academic and social behavior domains" • “Ongoing monitoring of student progress" • “Employment of more intensive or different interventions when students do not improve in response" to lesser interventions • “Evaluation for special education services if students do not respond to intervention instruction" Source: Fairbanks, S., Sugai, G., Guardino, S., & Lathrop, M. (2007). Response to intervention: Examining classroom behavior support in second grade. Exceptional Children, 73, p. 289.

NYSED RTI Guidance Memo: April 2008 Source: DeLorenzo, J. P., & Stevens, J. C. (April 2008). Implementation of response to intervention programs. [Memorandum issued by New York State Education Department]. Retrieved November 25, 2008, from http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/RTI.htm

The Regents policy framework for RtI: • Authorizes the use of RtI in the State's criteria to determine learning disabilities (LD) and requires, effective July 1, 2012, that all school districts have an RtI program in place as part of the process to determine if a student in grades K-4 is a student with a learning disability in the area of reading. “Effective on or after July 1, 2012, a school district shall not use the severe discrepancy criteria to determine that a student in kindergarten through grade four has a learning disability in the area of reading.” [8 NYCRR section 200.4(j)] Source: DeLorenzo, J. P., & Stevens, J. C. (April 2008). Implementation of response to intervention programs. [Memorandum issued by New York State Education Department]. Retrieved November 25, 2008, from http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/RTI.htm

What previous approach to diagnosing Learning Disabilities does RTI replace? Prior to RTI, many states used a ‘Test-Score Discrepancy Model’ to identify Learning Disabilities. • A student with significant academic delays would be administered an battery of tests, including an intelligence test and academic achievement test(s). • If the student was found to have a substantial gap between a higher IQ score and lower achievement scores, a formula was used to determine if that gap was statistically significant and ‘severe’. • If the student had a ‘severe discrepancy’ [gap] between IQ and achievement, he or she would be diagnosed with a Learning Disability.

Avg Classroom Academic Performance Level Discrepancy 1: Skill Gap (Current Performance Level) Discrepancy 2: Gap in Rate of Learning (‘Slope of Improvement’) Target Student ‘Dual-Discrepancy’: RTI Model of Learning Disability(Fuchs 2003)

Tier 3: Intensive interventions. Students who are ‘non-responders’ to Tiers 1 & 2 are referred to the RTI Team for more intensive interventions. Tier 3 Tier 2 Individualized interventions. Subset of students receive interventions targeting specific needs. Tier 2 Tier 1: Universal interventions. Available to all students in a classroom or school. Can consist of whole-group or individual strategies or supports. Tier 1 RTI ‘Pyramid of Interventions’

Source: New York State Education Department. (October 2010). Response to Intervention: Guidance for New York State School Districts. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/RTI/guidance-oct10.pdf; p. 12

Tier 1 Core Instruction Tier I core instruction: • Is universal—available to all students. • Can be delivered within classrooms or throughout the school. • Is an ongoing process of developing strong classroom instructional practices to reach the largest number of struggling learners. All children have access to Tier 1 instruction/interventions. Teachers have the capability to use those strategies without requiring outside assistance. Tier 1 instruction encompasses: • The school’s core curriculum. • All published or teacher-made materials used to deliver that curriculum. • Teacher use of ‘whole-group’ teaching & management strategies. Tier I instruction addresses this question: Are strong classroom instructional strategies sufficient to help the student to achieve academic success?

Tier I (Classroom) Intervention Tier 1 intervention: • Targets ‘red flag’ students who are not successful with core instruction alone. • Uses ‘evidence-based’ strategies to address student academic or behavioral concerns. • Must be feasible to implement given the resources available in the classroom. Tier I intervention addresses the question: Does the student make adequate progress when the instructor uses specific academic or behavioral strategies matched to the presenting concern?

Tier 2: Supplemental (Group-Based) Interventions(Standard Treatment Protocol) Tier 2 interventions are typically delivered in small-group format. About 15% of students in the typical school will require Tier 2/supplemental intervention support. Group size for Tier 2 interventions is limited to 3-5 students. Students placed in Tier 2 interventions should have a shared profile of intervention need. Programs or practices used in Tier 2 interventions should be ‘evidence-based’. The progress of students in Tier 2 interventions are monitored at least 2 times per month. Source: Burns, M. K., & Gibbons, K. A. (2008). Implementing response-to-intervention in elementary and secondary schools. Routledge: New York.

Tier 3: Intensive Individualized Interventions(Problem-Solving Protocol) Tier 3 interventions are the most intensive offered in a school setting. Students qualify for Tier 3 interventions because: • they are found to have a large skill gap when compared to their class or grade peers; and/or • They did not respond to interventions provided previously at Tiers 1 & 2. Tier 3 interventions are provided daily for sessions of 30 minutes or more. The student-teacher ratio is flexible but should allow the student to receive intensive, individualized instruction. The reading progress of students in Tier 3 interventions is monitored at least weekly. Source: Burns, M. K., & Gibbons, K. A. (2008). Implementing response-to-intervention in elementary and secondary schools. Routledge: New York.

Secondary Students: Unique Challenges… Struggling learners in middle and high school may: • Have significant deficits in basic academic skills • Lack higher-level problem-solving strategies and concepts • Present with issues of school motivation • Show social/emotional concerns that interfere with academics • Have difficulty with attendance • Are often in a process of disengaging from learning even as adults in school expect that those students will move toward being ‘self-managing’ learners…

School Dropout as a Process, Not an Event “It is increasingly accepted that dropout is best conceptualized as a long-term process, not an instantaneous event; however, most interventions are administered at a middle or high school level after problems are severe.” Source: Jimerson, S., Reschly, A.L., & Hess, R. (2008). Best practices in increasing the likelihood of school completion. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds). Best Practices in School Psychology - 5th Ed (pp. 1085-1097). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.. p.1090

Student Motivation & The Need for Intervention “A common response to students who struggle in sixth grade is to wait and hope they grow out of it or adapt, to attribute early struggles to the natural commotion of early adolescence and to temporary difficulties in adapting to new organizational structures of schooling, more challenging curricula and assessment, and less personalized attention. Our evidence clearly indicates that, at least in high-poverty urban schools, sixth graders who are missing 20% or more of the days, exhibiting poor behavior, or failing math or English do not recover. On the contrary, they drop out. This says that early intervention is not only productive but absolutely essential.” Source: Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., MacIver, D. J. (2007). Preventing student disengagement and keeping students on the graduation path in urban middle grades schools: Early identification and effective interventions. Educational Psychologist,42, 223–235. .

What Are the ‘Early Warning Flags’ of Student Drop-Out? A sample of 13,000 students in Philadelphia were tracked for 8 years. These early warning indicators were found to predict student drop-out in the sixth-grade year: • Failure in English • Failure in math • Missing at least 20% of school days • Receiving an ‘unsatisfactory’ behavior rating from at least one teacher Source: Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., MacIver, D. J. (2007). Preventing student disengagement and keeping students on the graduation path in urban middle grades schools: Early identification and effective interventions. Educational Psychologist,42, 223–235. .

What is the Predictive Power of These Early Warning Flags? Source: Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., MacIver, D. J. (2007). Preventing student disengagement and keeping students on the graduation path in urban middle grades schools: Early identification and effective interventions. Educational Psychologist,42, 223–235. .

Challenge: Promoting Staff Understanding & Support for RTIJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org

Tipping point: “any process in which, beyond a certain point, the rate at which the process increases dramatically.” (Tipping Point, 2010). “ ” “The tipping point is the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” (Gladwell, 2000; p. 12) “ ” Sources: Gladwell, M. (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Little, Brown and Company: NY. Tipping point (sociology). (2010, February 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:52, March 1, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tipping_point_(sociology)&oldid=344548179

Q: What Conditions Support the Successful Implementation of RTI?: • Continuing professional development to give teachers the skills to implement RTI and educate new staff because of personnel turnover. • Administrators who assert leadership under RTI, including setting staff expectations for RTI implementation, finding the needed resources, and monitor ingthe fidelity of implementation. • Proactive hiring of teachers who support the principles of RTI and have the skills to put RTI into practice in the classroom. • The changing of job roles of teachers and support staff (school psychologists, reading specialists, special educators, etc.) to support the RTI model. • Input from teachers and support staff (‘bottom-up’) about how to make RTI work in the school or district, as well as guidance from administration (‘top-down’). Source: Fuchs, D., & Deshler, D. D. (2007). What we need to know about responsiveness to intervention (and shouldn’t be afraid to ask).. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 22(2),129–136.

Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: 7 Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Interventions

Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: 7 Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Interventions • Lack of Skills. Teachers lack the skills necessary to successfully implement academic or behavioral interventions in their content-area classrooms (Fisher, 2007; Kamil et al., 2008). • Not My Job. Teachers define their job as providing content-area instruction. They do not believe that providing classwide or individual academic and behavioral interventions falls within their job description (Kamil et al., 2008).

Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: 7 Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Interventions(Cont.) • No Time. Teachers do not believe that they have sufficient time available in classroom instruction to implement academic or behavioral interventions (Kamil et al., 2008; Walker, 2004). • No Payoff. Teachers lack confidence that there will be an adequate instructional pay-off if they put classwide or individual academic or behavioral interventions into place in their content-area classroom (Kamil et al., 2008).

Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: 7 Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Interventions (Cont.) • Loss of Classroom Control. Teachers worry that if they depart from their standard instructional practices to adopt new classwide or individual academic or behavior intervention strategies, they may lose behavioral control of the classroom (Kamil et al., 2008). • ‘Undeserving Students’. Teachers are unwilling to invest the required effort to provide academic or behavioral interventions for unmotivated students (Walker, 2004) because they would rather put that time into providing additional attention to well-behaved, motivated students who are ‘more deserving’.

Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: 7 Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Interventions (Cont.) • The Magic of Special Education. Content-area teachers regard special education services as ‘magic’ (Martens, 1993). According to this view, interventions provided to struggling students in the general-education classroom alone will be inadequate, and only special education services have the power to truly benefit those students.

Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: Seven Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Literacy Interventions • Lack of Skills. Teachers lack the skills necessary to successfully implement academic or behavioral interventions in their content-area classrooms. • Not My Job. Teachers define their job as providing content-area instruction. They do not believe that providing classwide or individual academic and behavioral interventions falls within their job description. • No Time. Teachers do not believe that they have sufficient time available in classroom instruction to implement academic or behavioral interventions. • Insufficient Payoff. Teachers lack confidence that there will be an adequate instructional pay-off if they put classwide or individual academic or behavioral interventions into place in their content-area classroom. • Loss of Classroom Control. Teachers worry that if they depart from their standard instructional practices to adopt new classwide or individual academic or behavior intervention strategies, they may lose behavioral control of the classroom. • ‘Undeserving Students’. Teachers are unwilling to invest the required effort to provide academic or behavioral interventions for unmotivated students because they would rather put that time into providing additional attention to well-behaved, motivated students who are ‘more deserving’. • The Magic of Special Education. Content-area teachers regard special education services as ‘magic’. According to this view, interventions provided to struggling students in the general-education classroom alone will be inadequate, and only special education services have the power to truly benefit those students.

RTI Challenge: Promoting Staff Understanding & Support for RTI • Discuss the degree to which your staff currently understand the RTI model and support it. • What are some positive steps that your school has taken to improve staff understanding and support? • What are significant challenges that must still be addressed in the area of staff understanding and support to reach a positive RTI ‘tipping point’?

Challenge : Verifying that Strong ‘Core Instruction’ and Interventions Are Being Delivered in ClassroomsJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org

The Key Role of Classroom Teachers in RTI: 6 Steps • The teacher defines the student academic or behavioral problem clearly. • The teacher decides on the best explanation for why the problem is occurring. • The teacher selects ‘evidence-based’ interventions. • The teacher documents the student’s Tier 1 intervention plan. • The teacher monitors the student’s response (progress) to the intervention plan. • The teacher knows what the next steps are when a student fails to make adequate progress with Tier 1 interventions alone.

Building Teacher Capacity to Deliver Tier 1 Interventions: An 8-Step Checklist

RTI Challenge: Verifying that Strong ‘Core Instruction’ and Interventions Are Being Delivered in Classrooms • Discuss the capacity of general-education teachers in your school to provide ‘appropriate instruction and research-based instructional interventions’ in their classrooms. • What are some positive steps that your school has taken? • What are significant challenges that must still be addressed in helping teachers to understand and support their role as classroom interventionists?

RTI for Middle and High Schools: The Teacher as Intervention ‘First Responder’ Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org