Response to Intervention (RTI) - Guilderland Central School District

Response to
Intervention
Guilderland Central
School District
BOE Program Report
March 9, 2010

Overview
• Definition and Need
• Basis in Federal and State Law
• Core Principles
• Essential Components
• Simplified Process
• Professional Development Issues
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What’s s All the Buzz About?
Response to Intervention (RtI)
Provides high-quality instruction/intervention
matched to student needs and uses frequent
and ongoing monitoring of student progress to
make important instructional decisions about an
individual student.
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RTI is…
the practice of providing
high-quality
instruction/intervention
matched to student needs
and
using learning rate over time
and level of performance
to
inform educational decisions
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Why do we need RTI?
The discrepancy model fails to address the following:
•new legal requirements for documented intervention
attempts within the confines of least restrictive
environment before special education supports can be
considered.
• “rule out” other factors
• Curriculum-gaps/lack of instruction
• ESL issues
• Environmental, Cultural, or Economic Factors
• Presence of another condition (e.g., emotional disturbance; visual,
hearing, or motor disability)
•Data-Informed Problem Solving: What works? (i.e., What
type of instruction does the student need to increase his/her
rate of progress?)
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Why do we need RTI?
Problems with the traditional system:
►Separation of special ed. and general ed.
►Eligibility Eligibility procedures disconnected from intervention
►Wait-to-fail model (reactive)
►Over-representation representation of some minority students
►Overidentification
of students with disabilities
►Failure Failure to serve at-risk risk and low achieving students
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Basis for RtI in Federal Law
• 1975: Initial purpose to provide Free
Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in a
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
• 1980s: Shift from access to schools to
access to curriculum and instruction, and
to results in learning (i.e., inclusion)
• Now: Accountability for learning language
in NCLB and IDEA ’04 are similar
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From NCLB:
A blurring of the lines……
“…holding schools, local education agencies, and States
accountable for improving the academic achievement of all
students…”
and “…promoting school wide reform and ensuring
the access of all children to effective, scientifically-based
instructional strategies…”
[PL 107-110
110 §1001(4) and (9)]
From IDEA:
“…to improve the academic achievement and functional
performance of children with disabilities including the use of
scientifically based instructional practices, to the maximum
extent possible.”
[20 U.S.C. 1400(c)(5)(E)]
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NYS Regulatory Amendments
►Part Part 117
►Part Part 100
►Part Part 200
AS PROFESSIONALS…WE MUST
CONSIDER THIS PROCESS FOR ANY
STUDENT DEMONSTRATING ACADEMIC
DEFICITS, NOT ONLY THOSE THAT ARE
SUSPECTED OF HAVING A LEGALLY
DEFINED “DISABILITY”
Effective on July 1, 2012 a school district must have an RtI process in place,
as it may no longer use the severe discrepancy between achievement and
intellectual ability to determine that a student in grades K-5 K 5 has a learning
disability in the area of reading.
*Similar legislation anticipated for identification of disabilities ies in mathematics and
behavior.
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RtI Core Principles
► Teach all children effectively
► Intervene early
► Use a multi-tier tier model of service delivery
► Using assessments for: (1) universal screening; (2)
progress monitoring; and (3) diagnostics
► Adopt a problem-solving methodology based on collected
data measuring student’s “response to attempted
interventions”
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Essential Components of RTI
Implementation
1. Multi-tier tier model
2. Problem-solving method
3. Integrated data collection/assessment
system
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Essential Component 1: Multi-tier Model
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Tier 1 Summary: Core
Instructional Interventions
80%
Focus
Setting
Curriculum and
instruction
General education core practices
General education classrooms
Research-based, comprehensive and aligned with state standards/student outcomes; culturally
responsive; positive and safe school climate; responsive to individual needs
Interventions
Differentiation of instruction within the general education classroom, e.g., through flexible small
groups and appropriate instructional materials matched to students’ needs and abilities
Interventionists
Assessments
General education teachers with consult from school specialists
Universal common assessments of all students (benchmark data) to identify students in need of
intervention early; common formative assessments to guide and differentiate instruction; data to
evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of planned intervention, additional assessments of certain
individual students (e.g., checklists, observations, diagnostic assessments) as warranted
Data analysis and
decision making
(Performance Plus)
Support team to inform intervention planning and identify individual students in need of Tier II
academic or behavioral intervention, School and grade/content area data teams; district data team
analyzes data across schools within a district; district data team analyzes benchmark data within a
school to establish the overall efficacy of curriculums, instruction, and monitors fidelity of
implementation; grade-level/content area data teams analyze common formative assessments to
improve and differentiate instruction within a grade or course, and identify individual students in need
of Tier II academic or behavioral intervention
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Tier 2 Summary: Targeted
Interventions
10-15%
Focus
Students failing to meet important academic benchmarks or social/behavioral expectations, who have not
responded to Tier I core practices
Setting
General education classrooms or other centers for specialized support as determined by support team
Interventions
Interventionists
Assessments
Data analysis and
decision making
(Performance Plus)
Appropriate short-term (e.g., eight to 20 weeks) interventions, well-matched to students’ specific
academic, social-emotional, and/or behavioral needs; delivered to homogeneous groups (i.e, students with
similar needs); with a teacher: student ratio up to 1:4 or 1:6; implemented with fidelity; supplemental to
core program
General education teachers, specialists or other interventionists trained for Tier II intervention
Frequent progress monitoring (e.g., weekly or biweekly) using assessment tools that accurately target
students’ focus area for improvement; progress monitoring tools must be feasible and technically adequate
to administer multiple times to assess student growth; additional assessments of certain individual students
(e.g., observations, diagnostic assessments)
Teacher support/intervention teams that may overlap with IST; may include core team members (e.g.,
school principal, general educators, reading/language arts consultant, school psychologist and a special
educator) as well as additional members depending on individual student’s needs (e.g. ESL teacher, math
specialist, school social worker); teams match appropriate Tier II interventions to students’ needs; select
appropriate progress monitoring tools; analyze progress monitoring data; modify or substitute new
interventions as needed; identify students not responding to Tier II efforts; conduct extensive analysis and
application of data from Tier II interventions to document effectiveness of interventions; and help monitor
fidelity of implementation of Tier II interventions
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Tier 3 Summary: Intensive
Interventions
5%
Focus
Students failing to meet important academic benchmarks or social/behavioral expectations who have not
responded to Tier I or Tier II efforts
Setting
General education classrooms and other centers for specialized and intensive support
Interventions
Appropriate short-term (eight to 20 weeks) interventions, well-matched to students’ specific academic,
social/behavioral needs; more intensive or individualized than Tier II interventions; delivered to
individual students or homogeneous groups (i.e., students with similar needs); with a teacher: student
ratio up to 1:3; implemented with fidelity; supplemental to core program and Tier I efforts
Interventionists
Assessments
Specialists or other interventionists trained for Tier III intervention (may include general educators with
appropriate training)
Very frequent progress monitoring (e.g., twice per week) using assessment tools that accurately target
students’ focus areas for improvement; progress monitoring tools must be feasible and technically
adequate to administer multiple times to assess student growth; additional assessments of certain
individual students (e.g., diagnostic assessments, comprehensive evaluation) as warranted
Data analysis and
decision making
(Performance Plus)
Teacher support/intervention teams (as in Tier II); teams decide how to choose, individualize and
intensify interventions for students receiving Tier III interventions; select appropriate progress
monitoring tools; analyze progress monitoring data; modify or substitute new interventions as needed;
identify students not responding to Tier III efforts; conduct extensive analysis and application of data
from Tier III interventions to document effectiveness of interventions; and help monitor fidelity of
implementation of Tier III interventions
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Essential Component 2: Problem-Solving
and Decision Making
Define the Problem
(Screening and Diagnostic Assessments)
What is the problem and why is it happening?
Did the
intervention work?
Analysis of all
collected data
What are we going
to do?
Define and Identify
Intervention and Progress
Monitoring
Implement Plan
(Treatment Integrity)
Carry out the intervention
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Essential Component 3: Integrated data
collection/assessment system
► RtI Advisory Council Subgroup: Researched and adopted
Performance Plus
• Assessment data management solution for tracking and
monitoring student achievement and “response to
interventions”
• Aligns district performance results to NYS Learning
Standards
• Provides complete longitudinal profiles and analyses of
student achievement
• Includes Assessment Builder for efficient development,
scoring and analysis of state and local benchmark
assessments
• Immediate review of student response to intervention
supports data-informed informed instruction and problem solving
efforts.
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Professional Development Needs
Critical Areas:
►Collaboration between general and special
educators
►Changing roles and responsibilities
►School leadership
►Data gathering and data analysis
►Identifying appropriate research-based
instruction/interventions
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Professional Development Needs
Critical Areas:
►Awareness training with teachers
administrators
• Must include all of the core components of RTI
• Deeper training with implementers
• Ideally job integrated
• Coaching and support
►Training is typically ongoing because
• RTI has many moving parts
• RTI is ever evolving - new information is continually
becoming available.
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RtI Advisory Council
First Name Last Name Building
Leslie Abel GES
Bill Aube FMS
Matt Ball FMS
Nancy Brumer DO
Mary Helen Collen DO
Nancy DeStefano FMS/GHS
Meghan DiMartino WES/PBES
Kirsten Eidle-Barkman GES
Mike Ellerbrock FMS
Tammi Furlong LES
Steve Hadden DW
Heather Hanrahan FMS
Tricia Hansbury-Zuendt GHS
Reva Kinnally WES
Mark Kotary GHS
Kim Letky GHS
Allan Lockwood GES
Lisa McClure FMS
First Name Last Name Building
Lisa Nissenbaum GHS
Shauna Otsu-Schechner LES
Lisa Patierne GHS
Merri Peer WES
Brian Quigg GHS
Michelle Rispole AES
Kathie Robertson FMS
Chris Sanita PBES
Liza Schofield LES/PBES
Britton Schnurr LES
Demian Singleton DO
Kathy Smigen WES
Meg Urbanski PBES
Keith VanWagenen PBES
Vanessa Volpe LES
Mary Ursillo PBES
Lynne Wells FMS
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Reflections!
Questions?
Discussion.
?
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