RtI

Notes from 2 sources:  

• Quick Flip for Understanding RtI developed by Pat Johnson, MA Ed Admin (notes in black)
• "The Why Behind RtI" by Austin Buffum, Mike Mattos, and Chris Weber (notes in blue)

RtI should be considered an ongoing process to improve teaching and learning.  (C: CCI/PDSA)  RtI assumes that we are not teaching the student correctly.  As a result, we turn our attention to finding better ways to meet the student's specific learning needs.  

Targeted Instruction + Time = Learning 

(Targeted instruction means teaching practices designed to meet individual learning needs.  RtI is designed to systematically provide every student with the additional time and support needed to learn at high levels.)

Tier 1:

• Tier 1 is provided to all students. 80-90% of students should be successful.   All students have access to rigorous, grade-level curric and high effective initial teaching.
• Standards should be clearly defined and articulated.  Consider needs for the 21st century. (Consider Alvin Toffler's work.)  Students need to be able to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, compare/contrast, and manipulate and apply information. (C: Results Now)
• Curriculum, teacher strategies (differentiation), and student strategies should be defined. (C: CEL's Instructional Core)  
• All students should be assessed on core subjects 3 times a year.  (C: MAP and writing prompts.) Results should be evaluated by grade level teams.
• Along the way, progress is relatively easy to monitor and then graph, as long as the weekly-ish assessment measures exactly the skills taught.  The teachers should then review the data.  (C: PDSA!)  Teacher teams collaboratively define essential standards; deconstruct the standards into discrete learning targets; identify the prior skills needed to master the standard; consider how to assess students on each target; and create a scope and sequence for learning targets that would govern their pacing.  Common assessments would be used to compare results and determine which instructional practices were most and least effective in Tier 1 (C: PDSA).
• Differentiation for individual students needs cannot be optional.  Scaffolding the content, process, and products on the basis of student needs and setting aside time to meet with small groups of students to address gaps in learning or remediation and acceleration needs are required.  In class adjustments include reteaching and small group instruction.  
• Tier 1 interventions may last from 2-6 weeks and include 3-6 students working together 15-30 minutes 3 times a week.  A menu of interventions should be brainstormed by collaborative teams including teachers, specialists (IF, RtI, PEAK, etc), and ELL and SpEd teachers.  All interventions should follow the PDSA cycle.  Flexible scheduling and work with PLCs may be required.

Moving from Tier 1 to Tier 2:

• Approx. 5-15% of students should receive Tier 2 supports.
• Tier 2 supports should be put into place after 4-9 weeks of Tier 1 interventions.
• Tier 2/3 team:  teacher and parents AND school psych, counselors, specialists (PEAK, RtI, ELL, SpEd), IF, and principal.  Requests to this team occur before Tier 2 supports are put into place.
• Meetings must be timely and flexibility must be insured.  More than one meeting must happen per day/week.
• Referral Form should include:  current remedial objectives and process monitoring forms based on ongoing formative assessments.
• Meetings should be facilitated, allow teachers to share data, evaluate data and services, develop goal, frequency and duration of Tier 2 services, and establish progress monitoring format.
• RtI curriculum?  (Sari - still feels like core replacement not needs based intervention)

Tier 2:

• Interventions last 30-60 minutes, 3-5 times a week with 1-3 students for 9-14 weeks. Interventions should be timely, structured, and mandatory.  Interventions should be focused on the cause of the student's struggle, not the symptom (letter grade). 
• The best intervention is prevention! (Use Tier 2 to preteach skills and strategies!)
• Weekly parent involvement is essential.  They may even have a role in the intervention.
• PDSA all intervention!  Weekly graphs should be made and communicated to students/parents/teachers.  The graphs should be studied to be sure the right goals are being taught.
• At the end of 9-14 weeks, a meeting should be called to evaluate the progress.

Tier 3:

• Intensive interventions: 1-2 students, 60-90 minutes per day, 4-5 days/week for 9-12 weeks.
• 1-5% of students typically need this intervention in addition to Core instruction - not in place of it.
• Meeting includes verification that all interventions tried are research based and were monitored carefully and carried out with fidelity.  (More than following the program, used the PDSA cycle.)
• Additional diagnostic assessments will be carried out to specifically target the student's skill deficits.  "It is unlikely that a single program will meet the needs of a student in Tier 3, as many of these students are like knots, with multiple difficulties that tangle together to form a lump of failure."  The goal would be a problem-solving team with the purpose of determining social, emotional, and learning needs.

What's next?

• Options: 504, SpEd, other district options

Resources:

• Intervention Central
• National Center for RtI
• RtI Action Network
• US Dept of Gov