Response to Intervention: Research, Best Practice and a National Perspective

1. Response to Intervention: Research, Best Practice and a National Perspective June 15, 2009 SW RPC Response to Intervention Institute Springfield, Missouri Daryl Mellard Funding for NDTACRTI is provided by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.

2. RTI Center Partners American Institutes for Research: - Maurice McInerney, Nancy Safers, Darren Woodruff, Amy Elledge and Jeff Poirier Vanderbilt University Researchers - Lynn and Doug Fuchs and Don Compton University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning - Don Deshler and Daryl Mellard

3. What is the National Center on RTI? The RTI Center is a 5-year Technical Assistance Center. The Center is funded through a cooperative agreement with US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Program Research to Practice Division and is part of its National Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network.

4. What are today’s topics? • What is RTI? • What does local implementation look like? • What is the district role? • What resources can help?

5. What is the National Center on RTI? The RTI Center is a 5-year Technical Assistance Center. The Center is funded through a cooperative agreement with US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Program Research to Practice Division and is part of the National Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network.

6. What is RTI? A Google listing on RTI includes: • RTI International Metals • RTI International (Research Triangle Park, NC) • Remote Technologies Inc. • Real Time Innovations, Inc. • Restaurant Technologies Incorporated • Record Technology, Inc

7. What is RTI? = Responsiveness to intervention Organizational framework for instructional and curricular decisions and practices based on students’ responses RTI Components • Screening • Tiers of instruction • Progress monitoring • Decision-making rules • Fidelity indicators

8. What do we mean by RTI? Response to intervention integrates assessment and intervention within a multi‑level prevention system to maximize student achievement and to reduce behavior problems. With RTI, schools identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes, monitor student progress, provide evidence‑based interventions and adjust the intensity and nature of those interventions depending on a student’s responsiveness, and identify students with learning disabilities or other disabilities.

9. Big Picture of RTI • Fundamentally, RTI is about making a clearer connection between our decisions and learners’ outcomes • Curricular decisions • Instructional decisions • Behavioral management decisions • Learners’ limited responsiveness reflects our choices and, or their implementation. • The most important decisions happen in the classroom!

10. How do we think about learners? • In our earlier views, we saw learners as • low achievers, • unmotivated, • underachievers, • not applying themselves, • lazy • But RTI invites a different paradigm All learners are or can be responsive • Academic learners • Behavioral learners • Cognitive learners • Dispositional learners

11. RTI Initiative Genesis • Public health prevention applied to education • Prediction • Inoculation, and • Tiered intervention • School-wide reform • E.g., Reading First, NCLB, PBS • Characterized by data driven decisions • Shifting staff roles • AYP: Accountability • Component of disability determination

12. Views on RTI applications Distinct Uses • Prevention (kdg & early 1st grade) (e.g., McMaster et al., O’Connor et al., Torgesen et al., Vaughn et al, Vellutino et al.) • Intervention for students with achievement or behavior problems • As a component of SLD determination (e.g., Fuchs et al.; Speece et al.)

13. Why a Prevention Approach?Answer: The burden of catch-up growth “Students who are behind do not learn more in the same amount of time as students who are ahead. Catch-up growth is driven by proportional increases in direct instructional time. Catch-up growth is so difficult to achieve that it can be the product only of quality instruction in great quantity.” [p. 62, Fielding, Kerr, & Rosier (2007)]

14. Initial status + Growth = Outcome • Correlation of initial achievement and ending achievement is .83-.90. • Students who start ahead, stay ahead; students who start behind, stay behind. • Schools don’t create the achievement gap; they inherit it.

15. Catch-up Growth Example Roughly each unit of 13 %ile pts from the 50th %ile equals a year of growth: State standard in percentiles: 50th%ile Student X’s G2 status in percentiles: 12th %ile The difference (in %ile) is: 38 pts Percentile pt. diff. divided by 13: 2.9 yrs.

16. Daily Instructional Minutes Daily min required for annual G3 growth: 80 Daily min required for annual G4 growth: 80 Additional daily min to make 3 yrs of additional growth: 240 Total G3 and G4 daily minutes: 400 So, 200 min of direct reading instruction in G3 and in G4 is needed to reach the 50th %ile by the end of G4.

17. Remediation is NOT the solution Kennewick, WA spends $5,143 per student per year for annual growth. Catch-up growth costs an additional $5,000 per student per year (p. 210).

18. Original logic: public health & disease prevention (Larson, 1994) • Tertiary (FEW) • Reduce complications, intensity, severity of current cases • Secondary (SOME) • Reduce current cases of problem behavior • Primary (ALL) • Reduce new cases of problem behavior • Sugai & Horner, August 2007

19. 1 2 3 Another Perspective Ehren, Ehren & Proly (in preparation)

20. Another Perspective We cannot expect increased student achievement if teachers have the freedom to use teaching strategies that lack empirical support for their effectiveness. Surgeons don’t just “choose” particular surgical procedures based on a menu of possible options they find most appealing or personally preferable. David Miller, NASP Communique, 2008, 37 (2), 6.

21. Advantages of Response-to-Intervention Approach • Provides assistance to needy children in timely fashion. • Helps ensure that the student’s poor academic performance is not due to poor instruction. • Assessment data are collected to inform the teacher and improve instruction. • Assessments and interventions are closely linked.

22. Linking RTI & Instruction RTI components and procedures lend themselves to better understanding of instructional quality and informed decision making. Instructional quality = planning interventions, assessing intervention outcomes, & focusing on variables likely to improve outcomes.

23. Five areas of RTI good news What do you know? • Screening of primary school age youngsters provides valuable curricular and instructional information • Instructional approaches can prevent a high percentage of students’ presenting academic and behavioral difficulties

24. Screening for Reading Risk Note: These figures may change pending additional RTI research.

25. What else do we know? • Progress monitoring is a demonstrated effective, research based practice • Teachers using students’ progress monitoring results can make efficient decisions regarding changes in curricular and instructional practices

26. At the end of 5-8 weeks, student risk status is confirmed or disconfirmed. Tier 1: Confirming Risk Status With PM Note: These figures may change pending additional RTI research.

27. Secondary Prevention:Response in Math Note: These figures may change pending additional RTI research.

28. What else? • The menu of research-based, effective interventions is growing • Multiple resources are available to guide selection: • What Works Clearinghouse • Florida Center on Reading Research • Best Evidence Encyclopedia (You don’t have to rely on a publisher’s report.)

29. FCRR Reports http://www.fcrr.org/fcrrreports/table.asp

30. Looking for SBR Interventions

31. More good news? • What’s the good news reported by Gresham, Gansle, Noell, Cohen & Rosenblum (1993)? • When curricular and instructional practices are implemented with fidelity, learner outcomes increase. (Our working hypothesis is that as teachers’ implement the instruction with greater fidelity, their sense of personal self-efficacy increases.)

32. Principal’s Reading Walk Through for Third Grade Reading First Classrooms (Florida Center on Reading Research) • Thirteen categories and subcategories- • Learning objective for the lesson • Learning objective is evident to the students • Lesson objective fits grade level standards • Identify grouping format • Determine level of class engagement • Classroom behavior management system • Classroom arrangement • Daily class schedule is posted • Classroom displays • Teacher interactions reflect warmth, enthusiasm, etc. • Program materials are accessible and organized • Reading Centers

33. Anything else? • How do you suppose parents felt about their children’s participation as their school implemented RTI? • In our national study of 60+ elementary schools, we spent considerable time hearing from parents in 21 of those schools. • The anecdotal comments were very affirming: • More aware • Better communication • Better progress • The ABCs of RTI for Parents (Handout)

34. Points for Clarification • Distinguishing assessments • Standard treatment protocols vs. Problem solving • Dosage and intensity • Responsiveness measures matter

35. Purposes of assessment SCREENING PROGRESS DIAGNOSTIC MONITORING School-wide Class/small group/ Individual student student Broad index Specific academic skill Specific or behavioral targets academic domains Yearly/ 3x/monthly < 3 wks/weekly/daily Yearly ID at-risk Regroup student ID specific student deficits School focus Student focus Student focus Class/school instr Intervention Selecting & curric decisions effectiveness curric & instr (curriculum / instr) methods 1st step for intervention Continue or Planning or planning revise placement specifying intervention

36. Standard Treatment Protocol Approach To Responsive-to-Intervention • The standard treatment is for all students to receive a validated, intense intervention • The good news is that the interventions are well-specified, sequenced with clear outcomes • The interventions are more likely to be delivered with fidelity; training is consistent • Increases the consistency of services; easier to check for implementation

37. Alternatives for Small Group Interventions Problem-solving Standard Treatment Protocol Validated, multi-component programs Well-defined, probably scripted; (good place to start) Structured and explicit Students grouped on assessed needs Fidelity assessment comparatively easy Commercial programs Third party evaluations • Individualized intervention • Isolated target skills/subskill deficits • Systematic problem identification, analysis, and solutions • Better match to Tier 3 • Challenges: professional development, fidelity measures, efficiency

38. Distinguishing among Prevention Levels: Dosage & Intensity 1. Size of the instructional group 2. Immediacy of corrective feedback • Mastery requirements of content • Number of response opportunities • Number of transitions among contents or classes • Specificity and focus of curricular goals • Duration of the intervention (weeks) • Daily or weekly frequency the intervention is delivered • Amount of time focusing on the intervention (minutes) • Instructor’s skill level

39. Testing a Critical Assumption: Implementation Fidelity Evaluating the quality of instructional practices and curricular materials requires implementation with high fidelity.

40. Question 1 True or False Fidelity in the context of RTI refers to delivering instruction, interventions, and assessments as faithfully as possible.

41. Question 2 True or False Fidelity data help schools identify what is working and what is not working in the RTI process.

42. Question 3 True or False Schools cannot assess the success of a curriculum or instructional practice unless it is delivered with fidelity.

43. What is Fidelity? Fidelity of implementation refers to how closely the prescribed procedures of a process are followed. Fidelity of implementation checks serve the purpose of identifying areas of strength which schools can build and areas of deficiency that need to be remedied. (Mellard & Johnson,2007 )

44. Benefits of Fidelity of Implementation Fidelity of Implementation Increased staff motivation Increased program credibility More consistent student outcomes

45. Practices to Ensure Fidelity of Implementation • Links interventions to improved outcomes (Accountability) • Definitively describe operations, techniques, and components (Specificity) • Clearly define responsibilities of specific persons (Consistency) • Create a data system for measuring operations, techniques, and components (Consistency) • Create accountability measures for non-compliance (Authority) (Johnson, Mellard, Fuchs, McKnight, 2006)

46. (Partial) Indicators of Fidelity • 80-85% of students pass tests • Improved results over time • High percentage of students on trajectory Why do you suppose that these indicators are insufficient? (Reschly & Gresham, 2006)

47. 5 Aspects of Fidelity • Adherence • Exposure • Quality of delivery • Participant responsiveness • Program differentiation (Dane & Schneider, 1998)

48. Adherence Adherence refers to the extent to which specific program objectives are met. Generally measured through checklists completed by observers or the interventionists themselves

49. Exposure Exposure (dosage) indicates the number, length, or frequency of implementation sessions of an intervention. How would you measure exposure?

50. Quality of Delivery Quality of delivery refers to the qualitative aspects of the intervention, including interventionist effectiveness, enthusiasm, and preparation. How would be good indices for quality of delivery?