RTI%20Challenge:%20Clearly%20Defining%20Student%20Academic%20and%20Behavioral%20Problems%20Jim%20Wright%20www.interventioncentral.org

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RTI Challenge Clearly Defining Student Academic
and Behavioral ProblemsJim Wrightwww.interventi
oncentral.org
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Resources from this workshop series can be
downloaded from

• http//www.interventioncentral.org/dcboces.php

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RTI Academic Interventions Shakedown Cruise

• Definition a period of testing or a trial
  journey undergone by a ship, aircraft or other
  craft and its crew before being declared
  operational.

Source Shakedown cruise. Wikipedia. Retrieved
from http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakedown_cruise
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DC BOCES RTI Elementary Team Trainings

• Monday 2 November 2009
• Wednesday 16 December 2009
• Thursday 25 February 2010
• Thursday 8 April 2010

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What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide Study
Organizational Skills
Source Pashler, H., Bain, P., Bottge, B.,
Graesser, A., Koedinger, K., McDaniel, M., and
Metcalfe, J. (2007) Organizing instruction and
study to improve student learning (NCER
2007-2004). Washington, DC National Center for
Education Research, Institute of Education
Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved
from http//ncer.ed.gov.
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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 educations responsibility to find
  the instructional strategies that will unlock the
  students 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.

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RTI Pyramid of Interventions
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Complementary RTI Models Standard Treatment
Problem-Solving Protocols

• The two most commonly used RTI approaches are
  (1) standard treatment and (2) problem-solving
  protocol. While these two approaches to RTI are
  sometimes described as being very different from
  each other, they actually have several common
  elements, and both fit within a problem-solving
  framework. In practice, many schools and
  districts combine or blend aspects of the two
  approaches to fit their needs.

Source Duffy, H. (August 2007). Meeting the
needs of significantly struggling learners in
high school. Washington, DC National High School
Center. Retrieved from http//www.betterhighschool
s.org/pubs/ p. 5
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RTI Interventions Standard-Treatment vs.
Problem-Solving
There are two different vehicles that schools can
use to deliver RTI interventions Standard-Protoco
l (Standalone Intervention). Programs based on
scientifically valid instructional practices
(standard protocol) are created to address
frequent student referral concerns. These
services are provided outside of the classroom. A
middle school, for example, may set up a
structured math-tutoring program staffed by adult
volunteer tutors to provide assistance to
students with limited math skills. Students
referred for a Tier II math intervention would be
placed in this tutoring program. An advantage of
the standard-protocol approach is that it is
efficient and consistent large numbers of
students can be put into these group
interventions to receive a highly standardized
intervention. However, standard group
intervention protocols often cannot be
individualized easily to accommodate a specific
students unique needs. Problem-solving
(Classroom-Based Intervention). Individualized
research-based interventions match the profile of
a particular students strengths and limitations.
The classroom teacher often has a large role in
carrying out these interventions. A plus of the
problem-solving approach is that the intervention
can be customized to the students needs.
However, developing intervention plans for
individual students can be time-consuming.
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Tier I Instruction/Interventions

• Tier I instruction/interventions
• Are universalavailable to all students.
• Can be delivered within classrooms or throughout
  the school.
• Are likely to be put into place by the teacher at
  the first sign that a student is struggling.
• All children have access to Tier 1
  instruction/interventions. Teachers have the
  capability to use those strategies without
  requiring outside assistance.
• Tier 1 instruction/interventions encompass
• The schools core curriculum and all published or
  teacher-made materials used to deliver that
  curriculum.
• Teacher use of whole-group teaching
  management strategies.
• Teacher use of individualized strategies with
  specific students.
• Tier I instruction/interventions attempt to
  answer the question Are classroom instructional
  strategies supports sufficient to help the
  student to achieve academic success?

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Tier 1 Classroom-Level Interventions

• Decision Point Student is struggling and may
  face significant high-stakes negative outcome if
  situation does not improve.
• Collaboration Opportunity Teacher can refer the
  student to a grade-level, instruction team, or
  department meeting to brainstorm ideas OR
  teacher seeks out consultant in school to
  brainstorm intervention ideas.
• Documentation Teacher completes Classroom
  Intervention Form prior to carrying out
  intervention. Teacher collects classroom data.
• Decision Rule Example Teacher should refer
  student to the next level of RTI support if the
  intervention is not successful within 8
  instructional weeks.

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Tier 2 Supplemental (Standard-Protocol Model)
Interventions

• 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 4-6 students. Students placed in Tier 2
  interventions should have a shared profile of
  intervention need.
• The reading progress of students in Tier 2
  interventions are monitored at least 1-2 times
  per month.

Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools. Routledge New
York.
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Tier 2 Supplemental Interventions

• Decision Point Building-wide academic screenings
• Collaboration Opportunity After each
  building-wide academic screening, data teams
  meet (teachers at a grade level building
  principal reading teacher, etc.) At the meeting,
  the group considers how the assessment data
  should shape/inform core instruction.
  Additionally, the data team sets a cutpoint to
  determine which students should be recruited for
  Tier 2 group interventions. NOTE Team may
  continue to meet every 5 weeks to consider
  student progress in Tier 2 move students into
  and out of groups.
• Documentation Tier 2 instructor completes a Tier
  2 Group Assignment Sheet listing students and
  their corresponding interventions.
  Progress-monitoring occurs 1-2 times per month.
• Decision Rules Example Student is returned to
  Tier 1 support if they perform above the 25th
  percentile in the next school-wide screening.
  Student is referred to Tier 3 (RTI Team) if they
  fail to make expected progress despite two Tier 2
  (group-based) interventions.

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Scheduling Elementary Tier 2 Interventions
Option 3 Floating RTIGradewide Shared
Schedule. Each grade has a scheduled RTI time
across classrooms. No two grades share the same
RTI time. Advantages are that outside providers
can move from grade to grade providing push-in or
pull-out services and that students can be
grouped by need across different teachers within
the grade.
Anyplace Elementary School RTI Daily Schedule
Classroom 1
Classroom 2
Classroom 3
Grade K
900-930
Classroom 1
Classroom 2
Classroom 3
Grade 1
945-1015
Classroom 1
Classroom 2
Classroom 3
Grade 2
1030-1100
Classroom 1
Classroom 2
Classroom 3
Grade 3
1230-100
Classroom 1
Classroom 2
Classroom 3
Grade 4
115-145
Grade 5
Classroom 1
Classroom 2
Classroom 3
200-230
Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools Procedures to
assure scientific-based practices. New York
Routledge.
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Tier 3 Intensive Individualized Interventions
(Problem-Solving Model)

• Tier 3 interventions are the most intensive
  offered in a school setting. About 5 of a
  general-education student population may qualify
  for Tier 3 supports. Typically, the RTI
  Problem-Solving Team meets to develop
  intervention plans for Tier 3 students.
• 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. The student-teacher ratio
  is flexible but should allow the student to
  receive intensive, individualized instruction.
  The academic or behavioral 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.
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Tier 3 RTI Team

• Decision Point RTI Problem-Solving Team
• Collaboration Opportunity Weekly RTI
  Problem-Solving Team meetings are scheduled to
  handle referrals of students that failed to
  respond to interventions from Tiers 1 2.
• Documentation Teacher referral form RTI Team
  minutes form progress-monitoring data collected
  at least weekly.
• Decision Rules Example If student has failed
  to respond adequately to 3 intervention trials of
  6-8 weeks (from Tiers 2 and 3), the student may
  be referred to Special Education.

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Advancing Through RTI Flexibility in the Tiers

• For purposes of efficiency, students should be
  placed in small-group instruction at Tier 2.
• However, group interventions may not always be
  possible because due to scheduling or other
  issuesno group is available. (For example,
  students with RTI behavioral referrals may not
  have a group intervention available.)
• In such a case, the student will go directly to
  the problem-solving process (Tier 3)typically
  through a referral to the school RTI Team.
• Nonetheless, the school must still document the
  same minimum number of interventions attempted
  for every student in RTI, whether or not a
  student first received interventions in a group
  setting.

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Target Student
Dual-Discrepancy RTI Model of Learning
Disability (Fuchs 2003)
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Intervention Case Study What Tier?

• Angelina is delayed in her phonological awareness
  skills. A paraprofessional had previously been
  assigned for an hour per day to push into
  Angelinas classroom to provide additional help
  to the classroom teacher for literacy
  instruction. The teacher designs a special
  reading center for Angelina and 2 other students
  that is overseen by the paraprofessional. In that
  reading center, the students work on activities
  to strengthen their ability to distinguish the
  phonemes that make up words.What Tier is this
  intervention?

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Intervention Case Study What Tier?

• Answer Angelinas intervention falls at Tier 1.
  Even though her instruction is highly targeted to
  specific skill delays, her teacher has the
  resources to individualize for this student
  during core literacy instruction using available
  classroom supports.

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Intervention Case Study What Tier?

• Rick was referred to the RTI Problem-Solving Team
  because he failed to make adequate progress in
  his supplemental Wilson reading group. The RTI
  Team consulted with the classroom teacher and,
  with his input, developed an intervention plan
  that included
• Additional classroom strategies that the teacher
  could implement to promote student phonics
  skills.
• Reducing the size of the students Wilson
  supplemental reading group to 3 students.
• Enlisting the parent to implement additional
  research-based fluency building strategies at
  home.

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Intervention Case Study What Tier?

• Answer This is a Tier 3 intervention, because it
  was reviewed by the RTI Problem-Solving Team. The
  intervention for Rick contains elements that
  separately could be considered Tier 1 (classroom
  teacher) and Tier 2 (supplemental reading group)
  interventions. However, the entire collection of
  intervention ideas comprise a single Tier 3
  Intervention Package.

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Intervention Case Study What Tier?

• Donald is a 3rd-grade student. At a data
  meeting after the fall RTI schoolwide literacy
  screening, Donald was found to require a
  supplemental reading intervention because of
  delays in reading fluency when compared to his
  grade peers. The school had developed a program
  in which adult volunteer tutors were trained to
  use the paired reading strategy with students.
  The tutoring program was developed and overseen
  by the schools reading teacher. Donald met 3
  times per week for a half-hour to work with the
  tutor.What Tier is this intervention?

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Intervention Case Study What Tier?

• Answer Donalds intervention falls at Tier 2 for
  two reasons. First, he was assigned to that
  intervention in a data meeting, an efficient
  means of Tier 2 intervention assignment. Second,
  Donald was placed into an intervention tutoring
  program (paired reading) that follows a
  standard treatment protocol.

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NYSED RTI Guidance Memo April 2008
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The Regents policy framework for RtIDefines
RtI to minimally include Appropriate
instruction delivered to all students in the
general education class by qualified personnel.
Appropriate instruction in reading means
scientific research-based reading programs that
include explicit and systematic instruction in
phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary
development, reading fluency (including oral
reading skills) and reading comprehension
strategies.Screenings applied to all students
in the class to identify those students who are
not making academic progress at expected rates.
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Instruction matched to student need with
increasingly intensive levels of targeted
intervention and instruction for students who do
not make satisfactory progress in their levels of
performance and/or in their rate of learning to
meet age or grade level standards.Repeated
assessments of student achievement which should
include curriculum based measures to determine if
interventions are resulting in student progress
toward age or grade level standards.The
application of information about the students
response to intervention to make educational
decisions about changes in goals, instruction
and/or services and the decision to make a
referral for special education programs and/or
services.
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Written notification to the parents when the
student requires an intervention beyond that
provided to all students in the general education
classroom that provides information about the
-amount and nature of student performance data
that will be collected and the general education
services that will be provided-strategies for
increasing the students rate of learning
and-parents right to request an evaluation for
special education programs and/or services.
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The Regents policy framework for RtIDefines
RtI to minimally include Requires each school
district to establish a plan and policies for
implementing school-wide approaches and
prereferral interventions in order to remediate a
students performance prior to referral for
special education, which may include the RtI
process as part of a districts school-wide
approach. The school district must select and
define the specific structure and components of
its RtI program, including, but not limited to
the -criteria for determining the levels of
intervention to be provided to students, -types
of interventions, amount and nature of student
performance data to be collected, and -manner
and frequency for progress monitoring.
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RTI Intervention Key Concepts
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Essential Elements of Any Academic or Behavioral
Intervention (Treatment) Strategy

• Method of delivery (Who or what delivers the
  treatment?)Examples include teachers,
  paraprofessionals, parents, volunteers,
  computers.
• Treatment component (What makes the intervention
  effective?)Examples include activation of prior
  knowledge to help the student to make meaningful
  connections between known and new material
  guide practice (e.g., Paired Reading) to increase
  reading fluency periodic review of material to
  aid student retention.

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Core Instruction, Interventions, Accommodations
Modifications Sorting Them Out

• Core Instruction. Those instructional strategies
  that are used routinely with all students in a
  general-education setting are considered core
  instruction. High-quality instruction is
  essential and forms the foundation of RTI
  academic support. NOTE While it is important to
  verify that good core instructional practices are
  in place for a struggling student, those routine
  practices do not count as individual student
  interventions.

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Core Instruction, Interventions, Accommodations
Modifications Sorting Them Out

• Intervention. An academic intervention is a
  strategy used to teach a new skill, build fluency
  in a skill, or encourage a child to apply an
  existing skill to new situations or settings. An
  intervention can be thought of as a set of
  actions that, when taken, have demonstrated
  ability to change a fixed educational trajectory
  (Methe Riley-Tillman, 2008 p. 37).

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Core Instruction, Interventions, Accommodations
Modifications Sorting Them Out

• Accommodation. An accommodation is intended to
  help the student to fully access and participate
  in the general-education curriculum without
  changing the instructional content and without
  reducing the students rate of learning (Skinner,
  Pappas Davis, 2005). An accommodation is
  intended to remove barriers to learning while
  still expecting that students will master the
  same instructional content as their typical
  peers.
• Accommodation example 1 Students are allowed to
  supplement silent reading of a novel by listening
  to the book on tape.
• Accommodation example 2 For unmotivated
  students, the instructor breaks larger
  assignments into smaller chunks and providing
  students with performance feedback and praise for
  each completed chunk of assigned work (Skinner,
  Pappas Davis, 2005).

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Core Instruction, Interventions, Accommodations
Modifications Sorting Them Out

• Modification. A modification changes the
  expectations of what a student is expected to
  know or dotypically by lowering the academic
  standards against which the student is to be
  evaluated. Examples of modifications
• Giving a student five math computation problems
  for practice instead of the 20 problems assigned
  to the rest of the class
• Letting the student consult course notes during a
  test when peers are not permitted to do so
• Allowing a student to select a much easier book
  for a book report than would be allowed to his or
  her classmates.

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Engaging the Reluctant Teacher Seven Reasons Why
Middle High School Instructors May Be Reluctant
to Implement Classroom RTI Literacy Interventions
Jim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
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Teacher Tolerance as an Indicator of RTI
Intervention Capacity

• I call the range of students whom teachers
  come to view as adequately responsive i.e.,
  teachable as the tolerance those who are
  perceived to be outside the tolerance are those
  for whom teachers seek additional resources. The
  term tolerance is used to indicate that
  teachers form a permissible boundary on their
  measurement (judgments) in the same sense as a
  confidence interval. In this case, the teacher
  actively measures the distribution of
  responsiveness in her class by processing
  information from a series of teaching trials and
  perceives some range of students as within the
  tolerance. (Gerber, 2002)

Source Gerber, M. M. (2003). Teachers are still
the test Limitations of response to instruction
strategies for identifying children with learning
disabilities. Paper presented at the National
Research Center on Learning Disabilities
Responsiveness-to-Intervention Symposium, Kansas
City, MO.
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Engaging the Reluctant Teacher Seven Reasons Why
Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI
Literacy Interventions

1. Teachers believe that their job is to provide
   content-area instruction, not to teach vocabulary
   and reading-comprehension strategies (Kamil et
   al., 2008).
2. Teachers believe that they lack the skills to
   implement classroom vocabulary-building and
   reading-comprehension strategies. (Fisher, 2007
   Kamil et al., 2008).
3. Teachers feel that they dont have adequate time
   to implement vocabulary-building and
   reading-comprehension strategies in the
   classroom. (Kamil et al., 2008 Walker, 2004).

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Engaging the Reluctant Teacher Seven Reasons Why
Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI
Literacy Interventions (Cont.)

1. Teachers are not convinced that there will be an
   adequate instructional pay-off in their
   content-area if they implement literacy-building
   strategies in the classroom (Kamil et al., 2008).
2. Teachers are reluctant to put extra effort into
   implementing interventions for students who
   appear unmotivated (Walker, 2004) when there are
   other, more deserving students who would
   benefit from teacher attention.
3. Teachers are afraid that, if they use a range of
   classroom strategies to promote literacy (e.g.,
   extended discussion, etc.), they will have
   difficulty managing classroom behaviors (Kamil et
   al., 2008).

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Engaging the Reluctant Teacher Seven Reasons Why
Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI
Literacy Interventions (Cont.)

1. Teachers believe that special education is
   magic (Martens, 1993). This belief implies that
   general education interventions will be
   insufficient to meet the students needs and that
   the student will benefit only if he or she
   receives special education services.

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Ideas to Build Teacher Understanding and Support
for RTIJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
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Offer RTI information to teachers in a series of
short presentations or discussion forums

• A common mistake that schools make in rolling out
  RTI is to present their teachers with RTI
  information in a single, long presentationwith
  little opportunity for questions or discussion.
  Instead, schools should plan a series of RTI
  information-sharing sessions with teachers
  throughout the school year. Any large-group RTI
  training sessions (e.g., at faculty meetings)
  should be kept short, to ensure that the audience
  is not overwhelmed with large volumes of
  information. Consider using smaller instructional
  team or department meetings as a vehicle for
  follow-up presentations, discussion, and teacher
  questions about RTI.

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Offer RTI information to teachers in a series of
short presentations or discussion forums

• ACTION STEP Create a year-long RTI
  information-sharing plan. Determine what RTI
  information your school would like to present to
  staff, as well as the degree of faculty input and
  discussion needed. Then draft a year-long plan to
  communicate with staff about RTI. Each year,
  update the plan to keep faculty updated about
  implementation of the RTI model.

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Present RTI as a coordinated, schoolwide approach
to address long-standing teacher concerns about
struggling students

• Schools should consider framing RTI as a broad,
  schoolwide solution to help teachers to better
  instruct, motivate, and manage the behaviors of
  struggling learners. Teachers want fewer class
  disruptions, more uninterrupted instructional
  time, higher performing students, targeted
  supplemental academic help for students who need
  it, and better communication among educators
  about the needs of all students. As schools make
  the case for RTI, they should demonstrate how it
  will help teachers to manage the day-to-day
  challenges that they face in their classrooms.

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Present RTI as a coordinated, schoolwide approach
to address long-standing teacher concerns about
struggling students

• ACTION STEP Get feedback from teachers about
  their classroom concerns. Find opportunities to
  engage teachers in productive discussions about
  what they see as the greatest challenges facing
  them as instructors. Note the teacher concerns
  that surface most often. For each teacher
  concern, generate ideas for how an RTI model in
  your school might help teachers with that issue.
  Craft these ideas for instructor support into
  talking points and include them in your
  schools RTI presentations.

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Solicit teacher input when building your schools
RTI model

• Teachers are a valuable resource that schools
  should tap when implementing RTI. When schools
  solicit teacher questions about RTI, include
  teachers on planning teams to help to develop the
  RTI process, and treat teacher objections or
  concerns about RTI as helpful feedback rather
  than stubborn resistance, those schools send the
  message that teachers are full partners in the
  RTI planning process.

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Solicit teacher input when building your schools
RTI model

• ACTION STEP Include teachers on the RTI
  Leadership Team. One of the best ways to ensure
  that teachers have input into the RTI development
  process is to include teacher representatives on
  the RTI Leadership Team, the group that oversees
  the districts implementation of RTI.

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Link all significant school and district
initiatives to RTI

• RTI is a comprehensive, proactive model to
  identify and assist struggling students. Yet
  teachers may erroneously perceive RTI as just
  another program that is likely to last for only
  a short time and then disappear. Any RTI training
  for staff should make the point that RTI is not a
  single-self contained program but is actually an
  all-inclusive and flexible framework for student
  support that encompasses all existing student
  support programs and strategies.

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Link all significant school and district
initiatives to RTI

• ACTION STEP Organized all school programs under
  the RTI framework. Schools should present RTI as
  an elastic multi-tier problem-solving framework.
  First, the school lists all of its significant
  current programs or initiatives intended to
  assess or intervene with students with academic
  or behavioral needs. The school then assigns each
  of the programs or initiatives to Tier 1, 2, or 3
  in the RTI framework. The message for staff is
  that, while specific programs may come and go,
  the overarching RTI model is both adaptable and
  durable--and that much of the power of RTI rests
  on its potential to integrate a series of
  isolated programs into a larger unified and
  coordinated continuum of student support.

54
Defining Student Problem Behaviors A Key to
Identifying Effective Interventions Jim
Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
55
Defining Problem Student Behaviors

• Define the problem behavior in clear, observable,
  measurable terms (Batsche et al., 2008 Upah,
  2008). Write a clear description of the problem
  behavior. Avoid vague problem identification
  statements such as The student is disruptive.
• A well-written problem definition should include
  three parts
• Conditions. The condition(s) under which the
  problem is likely to occur
• Problem Description. A specific description of
  the problem behavior
• Contextual information. Information about the
  frequency, intensity, duration, or other
  dimension(s) of the behavior that provide a
  context for estimating the degree to which the
  behavior presents a problem in the setting(s) in
  which it occurs.

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Defining Problem Student Behaviors

1. Develop examples and non-examples of the problem
   behavior (Upah, 2008). Writing both examples and
   non-examples of the problem behavior helps to
   resolve uncertainty about when the students
   conduct should be classified as a problem
   behavior. Examples should include the most
   frequent or typical instances of the student
   problem behavior. Non-examples should include any
   behaviors that are acceptable conduct but might
   possibly be confused with the problem behavior.

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Defining Problem Student Behaviors

1. Write a behavior hypothesis statement (Batsche et
   al., 2008 Upah, 2008). The next step in
   problem-solving is to develop a hypothesis about
   why the student is engaging in an undesirable
   behavior or not engaging in a desired behavior.
   Teachers can gain information to develop a
   hypothesis through direct observation, student
   interview, review of student work products, and
   other sources. The behavior hypothesis statement
   is important because (a) it can be tested, and
   (b) it provides guidance on the type(s) of
   interventions that might benefit the student.

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Defining Problem Student Behaviors

1. Select a replacement behavior (Batsche et al.,
   2008). Behavioral interventions should be focused
   on increasing student skills and capacities, not
   simply on suppressing problem behaviors. By
   selecting a positive behavioral goal that is an
   appropriate replacement for the students
   original problem behavior, the teacher reframes
   the student concern in a manner that allows for
   more effective intervention planning.

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Defining Problem Student Behaviors

1. Write a prediction statement (Batsche et al.,
   2008 Upah, 2008). The prediction statement
   proposes a strategy (intervention) that is
   predicted to improve the problem behavior. The
   importance of the prediction statement is that it
   spells out specifically the expected outcome if
   the strategy is successful. The formula for
   writing a prediction statement is to state that
   if the proposed strategy (Specific Action) is
   adopted, then the rate of problem behavior is
   expected to decrease or increase in the desired
   direction.

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Defining Student Problem Behaviors Team Activity

• As a team
• Review the student behavioral concern that you
  developed in the previous activity.
• Consult the five step process and organizer form
  in your packet (pp. 5-9). Use the 5-step process
  to better define and understand the student
  behavior.

• Five Steps in Understanding Addressing Problem
  Behaviors
• Define the problem behavior in clear, observable,
  measurable terms.
• Develop examples and non-examples of the problem
  behavior.
• Write a behavior hypothesis statement.
• Select a replacement behavior.
• Write a prediction statement.

67
Defining Academic Problems Get It Right and
Interventions Are More Likely to Be
EffectiveJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
68
Defining Academic Problems Recommended Steps

1. Be knowledgeable of the school academic
   curriculum and key student academic skills that
   are taught. The teacher should have a good
   survey-level knowledge of the key academic skills
   outlined in the schools curriculumfor the grade
   level of their classroom as well as earlier grade
   levels. If the curriculum alone is not adequate
   for describing a students academic deficit, the
   instructor can make use of research-based
   definitions or complete a task analysis to
   further define the academic problem area. Here
   are guidelines for consulting curriculum and
   research-based definitions and for conducting a
   task analysis for more global skills.

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Defining Academic Problems Recommended Steps

• Curriculum. The teacher can review the schools
  curriculum and related documents (e.g.,
  score-and-sequence charts curriculum maps) to
  select specific academic skill or performance
  goals. First, determine the approximate grade or
  level in the curriculum that matches the
  students skills. Then, review the curriculum at
  that alternate grade level to find appropriate
  descriptions of the students relevant academic
  deficit. For example, a second-grade student
  had limited phonemic awareness. The student was
  not able accurately to deconstruct a spoken word
  into its component sound-units, or phonemes. In
  the schools curriculum, children were expected
  to attain proficiency in phonemic awareness by
  the close of grade 1. The teacher went off
  level to review the grade 1 curriculum and found
  a specific description of phonemic awareness that
  she could use as a starting point in defining the
  students skill deficit.

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Defining Academic Problems Recommended Steps

• Research-Based Skill Definitions. Even when a
  schools curriculum identifies key skills,
  schools may find it useful to corroborate or
  elaborate those skill definitions by reviewing
  alternative definitions published in research
  journals or other trusted sources. For example,
  a student had delays in solving quadratic
  equations. The math instructor found that the
  schools math curriculum did not provide a
  detailed description of the skills required to
  successfully complete quadratic equations. So the
  teacher reviewed the National Mathematics
  Advisory Panel report (Fennell et al., 2008) and
  found a detailed description of component skills
  for solving quadratic equations. By combining the
  skill definitions from the school curriculum with
  the more detailed descriptions taken from the
  research-based document, the teacher could better
  pinpoint the students academic deficit in
  specific terms.

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Defining Academic Problems Recommended Steps

• Task Analysis. Students may possess deficits in
  more global academic enabling skills that are
  essential for academic success. Teachers can
  complete an task analysis of the relevant skill
  by breaking it down into a checklist of
  constituent subskills. An instructor can use the
  resulting checklist to verify that the student
  can or cannot perform each of the subskills that
  make up the global academic enabling
  skill.For example, teachers at a middle school
  noted that many of their students seemed to have
  poor organization skills. Those instructors
  conducted a task analysis and determined that--in
  their classrooms--the essential subskills of
  student organization included (a) arriving to
  class on time (b) bringing work materials to
  class (c) following teacher directions in a
  timely manner (d) knowing how to request teacher
  assistance when needed and (e) having an
  uncluttered desk with only essential work
  materials.

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Defining Academic Problems Recommended Steps

• Describe the academic problem in specific,
  skill-based terms (Batsche et al., 2008 Upah,
  2008). Write a clear, brief description of the
  academic skill or performance deficit that
  focuses on a specific skill or performance area.
  Here are sample problem-identification
  statements
• John reads aloud from grade-appropriate text much
  more slowly than his classmates.
• Ann lacks proficiency with multiplication math
  problems (double-digit times double-digit with no
  regrouping).
• Tye does not turn in homework assignments.
• Angela produces limited text on in-class writing
  assignments.

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Defining Academic Problems Recommended Steps

• Develop a fuller description of the academic
  problem to provide a meaningful instructional
  context. When the teacher has described the
  students academic problem, the next step is to
  expand the problem definition to put it into a
  meaningful context. This expanded definition
  includes information about the conditions under
  which the academic problem is observed and
  typical or expected level of performance.
• Conditions. Describe the environmental conditions
  or task demands in place when the academic
  problem is observed.
• Problem Description. Describe the actual
  observable academic behavior in which the student
  is engaged. Include rate, accuracy, or other
  quantitative information of student performance.
• Typical or Expected Level of Performance. Provide
  a typical or expected performance criterion for
  this skill or behavior. Typical or expected
  academic performance can be calculated using a
  variety of sources,

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Defining Academic Problems Recommended Steps

1. Develop a hypothesis statement to explain the
   academic skill or performance problem. The
   hypothesis states the assumed reason(s) or
   cause(s) for the students academic problems.
   Once it has been developed, the hypothesis
   statement acts as a compass needle, pointing
   toward interventions that most logically address
   the student academic problems.

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