RTI from the classroom perspective

1. RTI from the classroom perspective August 3, 2009 Superintendent's Summer Institute Eugene Hilton

2. Targets • Understand RTI vs. MTI • Look at RTI at the classroom level • Explore the role of screening and progress monitoring assessment, core program, interventions and teaming in an RTI system

3. RTI is not • A reading curriculum • A stand-alone small group reading group • DIBELS • An instructional strategy • A instructional methodology

4. Academic Systems Behavioral Systems • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • High Intensity • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • Intense, durable procedures • 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 School-Wide Systems for Student Success 1-5% 1-5% 5-10% 5-10% 80-90% 80-90%

5. Defining Terms: Multi-Tiered Instruction (MTI) Response to Intervention (RTI) • Is a system of organizing gen. ed. curriculum and instruction to meet the needs of all students • Integrates all support programs to use resources more efficiently • Applies to all students • Can exist without using RTI • Is an evaluation procedure identified in IDEA for identifying learning disabilities • Is a special education procedure that is limited to assessment • Applies only to children suspected of having LD • Cannot be implemented without a system like MTI in place

6. Why RTI? • One size doesn’t fit all • We don’t have enough resources to intervene one by one • We miss kids • We wait too long to intervene

7. RTI is all about General Education! • Teachers don’t fail students, systems do. • RTI is a system for differentiation of instruction! • RTI is a system that is predicated on the general education teachers’ skill and knowledge of instruction, assessment, curriculum, and children.

8. A Tale of Two Teams Does the child find the system, or does the system find the child?

9. Jessie participates in the general curriculum Jessie’s teacher does his best to differentiate instruction and keeps anecdotal data Jessie isn’t doing well Teacher tries again Jessie doesn’t improve Jessie improves The pre referral/discrepancy approach Pre-referral team (CARES) reviews what teacher has tried Resumes regular program Teacher’s effort is deemed sufficient Teacher is told to try again Special Education referral is initiated by the teacher Jessie is tested, usually by special education personnel, using IQ, achievement, and other tests

10. Daisy participates in the general curriculum EBIS Team reviews screening data and places Daisy in group intervention Daisy isn’t doing well Second Group Intervention Daisy doesn’t improve Daisy improves How RTI Works from a Student’s Perspective EBIS Team designs individualized intervention Resumes general program Daisy improves Daisy doesn’t improve Improvement is good and other factors are suspected as cause Intervention is intense and LD is suspected Special Education referral is initiated Parents Notified

11. What does this mean for my class? • You need to believe all children can learn. • As a classroom teacher, the RTI system will provide a system for differentiation. • You may need to change how you currently do things.

12. Why is RTI so connected to Reading? • Reading is not an optional skill • Days and weeks matter • Working smart to achieve differentiation • Sharing responsibility

13. Differences Learning to ReadEstimates from NICHD research (NC Dept. of Public Education)

14. Reading is not an optional skill • Poor readers in 4th grade struggle in literacy in Kindergarten (Torgeson, 2004) • Children who struggle K-3 rarely achieve average reading skills (Torgeson, Rashotte, Alexander, 2001) • Children who cannot read drop out of school • In 1994, fewer than 50 percent of high school dropouts were employed (National Center for Education Statistics, as cited in Snow et al., 1998) • Academic success or failure is strongly related to adaptive functioning as an adult

15. Reading is not an optional skill Independent Reading %tile Minutes Per Day Words Read Per Year 98 65.0 4,358,000 90 21.1 1,823,000 70 9.6 622,000 50 4.6 282,000 30 1.3 106,000 10 0.1 8,000 2 0.0 0 Adapted from Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding (1988).

16. Really? How does that Work? “. . . students who get off to a fast start in reading are more likely to read more over the years, and, furthermore, this very act of reading can help children compensate for modest levels of cognitive ability by building their vocabulary and general knowledge. In other words, ability is not the only variable that counts in the development of intellectual functioning. Those who read a lot will enhance their verbal intelligence; that is, reading will make them smarter.” --Cunningham and Stanovich, 1998

17. The Matthew Effect For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. (Matthew 25:29) In other words, good readers get smarter while poor readers fall farther and farther behind.

18. Days and weeks matter • Is it a skill deficit or developmental lag ? Can’t we wait for them to “bloom?” • Without intervention, kids who are behind stay behind (Juel, 1988; Francis, et al., 1996, Shaywitz, 1999) • Skill deficits can be erased—especially if you catch them early! • Strong reading skills build reading AND cognitive skills!

19. Days and weeks matter • Differentiate from the start; • Continue with differentiated literacy development; • Multi-faceted assessment; • Predictive assessment; • Ongoing accountability. NO FAILURE!

20. Working smart to achieve differentiation • Overall, national longitudinal studies show that more than 17.5 percent of the nation's children--about 10 million children--will encounter reading problems in the crucial first three years of their schooling" (National Reading Panel Progress Report, 2000). • In a 500 student school: • 400 students will do fine with a good core curriculum • 75 students will need systematic, ongoing specialized instruction • 25 students will need intensive, individualized intervention

21. Sharing responsibility Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. Ryunosuke Satoro

22. What does this mean for my class? • Literacy becomes the main thing. • You need a sense of urgency. • Your students get additional instruction. • You don’t have to do it all on your own.

23. Daisy participates in the general curriculum How RTI Works from a Student’s Perspective

24. Provide instruction on the essential skills for the majority of students Tier 1

25. Tier I • All students receive Tier I • Research-based core reading curriculum • Strong fidelity and professional development • Universal screening of all students

26. Figure out what is important to your system • If you don’t know what is important, everything is. • If everything is important, you will try to do everything. • If you try to do everything you will diminish the outcomes of the high impact skills.

27. Big 5 + 5 What we teach… How we teach it… Classroom Organization Matching students to text Access to interesting text with choice and collaboration Writing and Reading Expert Tutoring • Phonemic Awareness • Phonics • Fluency • Vocabulary • Comprehension

28. Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction • Explicit – Overtly teaching each step through teacher modeling and many examples (Gradual Release Model). • Systematic – Breaking lessons and activities into sequential, manageable steps that progress from simple to more complex concepts and skills. • Practice and Feedback – Providing many opportunities for students to respond and demonstrate what they are learning, which may include teacher modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. • Mastery and Application – Generalizes what is learned in different contexts.

29. Instruction is more important than curriculum Lots of Active Participation Leveled Practice Vocabulary Instruction Comprehension Skills and Strategies Taught and Practiced in Connected Text Fluency Taught and Practiced Graphic Organizers Phonics Review and ELL support Writing/Drawing (K-1) in response to what is read No Round Robin Reading!!!

30. Small Group Instruction • Text is student appropriate • Conducted in small, flexible groupings • The text is focused on the needs of the students • Each student has their own copy of the text and they read independently while the adult observes their reading behaviors (this is not round robin reading) • The adult explicitly guides the students and addresses errors the students are making • After the students reads the adult leads a group discussion

31. How does it help a struggling reader to be in core? • They need the most instruction • Need to be exposed to grade level material • If they miss grade level material, they will never catch up • Just because there is a deficit in one area, does not mean there is a deficit in all areas of reading • Interventions are limited in scope

32. Tier I Reading Programs for ALL students in TTSD Elementary • Treasures • Screened with DIBELS Middle and High School • Priority standards • Holt –Elements of Literature & Elements of Language • Common novels • Screened with OAKS percentile and MAZE

33. What does this mean for my class? • Teach the core curriculum as it is designed. • Creativity comes from HOW you teach • Use assessments to group students into small flexible groups. • Give students the opportunity to practice and gain mastery.

34. Daisy isn’t doing well How RTI Works from a Student’s Perspective

35. What is CBM? Curriculum Based Measures are usually composed of a set of standard directions, a timing device, set of materials, scoring rules, standards for judging performance, and record form or charts.

36. Purposes of CBMs • Evaluate overall effectiveness of program • Select students who need additional support • Monitor progress of students A universal screener should over-identify students who might need something more!

37. Essential Features of CBM Tools • Robust indicator of academic health • Brief and easy to administer • Can be administered frequently • Must have multiple, equivalentforms • (If the metric isn’t the same, the data are meaningless) • Must be sensitive to growth

38. Universal Screening • Quick general outcome measures • Should occur for ALL students 3x per year • Used for data-based decision making about: • How to create instructional change for ALL • Changes for Tier 1 • Which students need a closer look and/or intervention • Changes for Tier 2

39. Why use a CBM to Track Progress? • Reading trajectories are established early. • Readers on a low trajectory tend to stay on that trajectory. • Students on a low trajectory tend to fall further and further behind. • Early identification leads to early intervention. The later children are identified as needing support, the more difficult it is to catch up!

40. Oral Reading Fluency • Same measure middle of first grade through eighth grade • ORF is not designed to provide an exhaustive assessment. • You can be fluent enough, unless you want to be an auctioneer! • Strong link to comprehension • Accuracy matters!

41. Oral Reading Fluency Oral Reading Errors per Page at Different Levels of Accuracy Richard Allington, 2009

42. Evaluate Overall Effectiveness of Program • Are 80% of students reaching benchmarks and “on track” for next goal? • Does the core curriculum need to be addressed: • Intensity • Fidelity • Targeted • Group size • Instructional skills

43. Evaluate Overall Effectiveness of Program • Literacy: • 90 minutes of reading daily? • Protected allocated reading time each day? • Skill grouping by class or grade? • Core and supplemental programs implemented with fidelity? • More professional development needed?

44. Make a School Plan • Who will conduct Universal Screening? • Who will train the screeners? • Who will prepare materials? • Who will organize at the school? • Where will the data go? • Who will organize the data and present it to teaching teams? • Who will keep track of which students are in interventions?

45. What does this mean for my class? • Understand the purpose of CBM • Deprivatize your practice • You may have to give the screener to your whole class • You will have to use the data to trust it

46. EBIS Team reviews screening data and places Daisy in group intervention How RTI Works from a Student’s Perspective

47. Team outcomes • Identify causes over which you have control • Prioritize and define problems using data • Set specific student goals • Intervene, not just accommodate • Monitor progress • Define success using data

48. What exactly do we expect all students to learn? • How will we know if they’ve learned it? • How will we respond when some students don’t learn it? • How will we respond when some students have already learned? PLC Critical Questions

49. Select Students who are in Need of Additional Support • CBMs are used as a way to begin a conversation. Other pieces of complementary assessments are used to help in decision making • As a team you will use all of the assessment data available to you to place students in interventions.

50. Variables Related to Student Achievement Within the student External to the student • Quality of instruction • Pedagogical knowledge • Content knowledge • Quality of curriculum • Quality of learning environment • Quality of evaluation • Quality and quantity of time/content • Desire to learn • Strategies for learning • Knowledge • Skills • Prior content knowledge • Self-efficacy/helplessness Alterable • Race • Genetic potential • Gender • Birth Order • Disposition • Health • Physical difference • IQ • Disability category • Personal history • Family income and resources • Family housing • Parent years of schooling • Mobility • Members of family • Family values • Socioeconomic status • Family history Unalterable (hard to change)