Response to Intervention

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Response to Intervention

• Barbara Slaga
• Assistant Superintendent for
• Student Services and ESE
• Bill R. Tomlinson
• Director
• Exceptional Student Education
• Mary Krause
• Executive Director
• School Renewal, Title I, Title III, Migrant

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What is RtI?

• Response to Intervention (RtI) is the practice of
  providing high quality instruction and
  interventions
• Matched to student need,
• Monitoring progress frequently to make decisions
  about changes in instruction or goals, and
• Applying student response data to important
  educational decisions.
• RtI should be applied to decisions in general,
  remedial, and special education, creating a well
  integrated system of instruction/intervention
  guided by student outcome data.

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What is RtI?

• This is a multi-tiered approach to providing
  services and interventions to all students at
  increasing levels of intensity based on progress
  monitoring and data analysis.

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What is RtI?

• Tier I is the foundation and consists of
  scientific, research based core instructional and
  behavioral methodologies, practices, and supports
  designed for all students in the general
  curriculum.

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What is RtI?

• Tier II, supplemental instruction and
  interventions are provided to those students for
  whom data suggest additional instructional
  support is warranted.

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What is RtI?

• Tier III consists of intense instructional
  interventions provided with the goal of
  increasing an individual students rate of
  progress.

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Three Tiered Model of School Supports Example of
an Infrastructure Resource Inventory
Academic Systems
Behavioral Systems
Tier III Comprehensive and Intensive
Interventions ( Few Students) Students who need
Individualized Interventions
Tier III Intensive Interventions ( Few
Students) Students who need Individual
Intervention
Tier II Strategic Interventions (Some
Students) Students who need more support in
addition to the core curriculum
Tier II Targeted Group Interventions (Some
Students) Students who need more support in
addition to school-wide positive behavior program
Tier I Universal Interventions All students all
settings
Tier I Core Curriculum All students
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A New 3-Tiered PBS Model?
Intensive Supplemental Services Primary/Unive
rsal
Changing the triangle Think of the lava as
children moving across the continuum Another
way to look at the RTI process. As students get
hot they move up the lamp. As they cool down,
they go back down again into the universal level.

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What is RtI?

• RtI should be applied to
• decisions in general,
• remedial, and
• special education,
• creating a well integrated system of
  instruction/intervention guided by student
  outcome data.

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What are Interventions?

• Targeted assistance based on progress monitoring
• Administered by classroom teacher, specialized
  teacher, or external interventionist
• Provides additional instruction
• Individual
• Small group
• And/or technology assisted

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What are Interventions?

• Match curricular materials and instructional
  level
• Modify modes of task presentation
• Cue work habits/organizational skills
• Modify direct instruction time
• Modify guided and independent practice
• Modify instruction time
• Ensure optimal pacing

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What are Interventions?

• Teach additional learning strategies
• Organizational
• Metacognitive
• Work habits
• Change to curriculum
• Add intensive one to one or small group
  instruction
• Change scope and sequence of tasks
• Increase guided and independent practice
• Change types and method of corrective feedback

• Increase task structure (e.g., directions,
  rationale, checks for understanding, feedback
• Increase task relevant practice
• Increase opportunities to engage in active
  academic responding (e.g., writing, reading
  aloud, answering questions in class
• Decrease group size
• Increase the amount and type of cues and prompts

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Interventions are NOT

• Preferential seating
• Shortened assignments
• Parent contacts
• Classroom observations
• Suspension
• Doing MORE of the same/general classroom
  assignments
• Retention
• Peer-tutoring-unless scientifically based

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Tier I Core Instruction and
Universal Interventions

• Behavioral Systems
• School-wide positive behavior supports
• Articulated expectations
• Social Skills instruction
• Pro-social and pro-active discipline strategies

• Academic Systems
• Quality core curriculum
• Quality instructional strategies
• Differentiated instruction
• Embedded interventions

Universal Screening Continuous progress
monitoring

• Interventions
• Improve quality of instruction to all
  students
• Improve attendance

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Characteristics of Tier II Interventions

• Available in general education settings
• Opportunity to increase exposure (academic
  engaged time) to curriculum
• Opportunity to narrow focus of the curriculum
• Sufficient time for interventions to have an
  effect (10-30 weeks)

• Often are standardized supplemental curriculum
  protocols

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What is a good response to Tier II intervention?

• Good Response
• Gap is closing
• Can extrapolate point at which target student
  will come in range of peers-even if it is a
  long range
• Questionable response
• Rate at which gap is widening slows considerably,
  but gap is still widening
• Gap stops widening but closure does not occur

• Poor Response
• Gap continues to widen with no change in rate

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Characteristics of Tier III Interventions

• Intensive Interventions
• Developed from individualized student
  problem-solving
• Assumption is that more of the problem lies
  within the student
• Goals is to find successful interventions first
• Based on intensity of the interventions
  required for student success, determination could
  be made about eligibility for special education
• Should comprise about 4-5 of student population
• Criteria for Good Response is same as Tier II

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Activity

• Divide into groups of Six (6)
• Each table will have the components of a
  pyramid/triangle.
• Along with the components of the pyramid/triangle
  you will have scientific-research based
  interventions.
• Place the intervention on the triangle in the
  area of the pyramid where the intervention would
  be most appropriately utilized.

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Response to Intervention

• Student outcome data are crucial to
• Make accurate decisions about the effectiveness
  about general and remedial education
  instruction/interventions
• Undertake early identification/intervention with
  academic and behavioral problems
• Prevent unnecessary and excessive identification
  of students with disabilities

• Make decisions about eligibility about special
  program, including special education and
• Determine individual education programs and
  deliver and evaluate special education services.

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Impact of RtI Implementation

• Maximum effect of core instruction for all
  students and interventions for at-risk learners
• Significant improvements in pro-social behaviors
• Reduction in over-representation of diverse
  student groups in low academic performance,
  special education, suspension/expulsion, and
  alternative education.

• Reduction in referrals for special education
• Overall improvement in achievement rates

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Response to Intervention

• Learning rate and level of performance

• High Quality Instruction/Intervention

• Is defined as
• Instruction or intervention matched to student
  need that has been demonstrated through
  scientific research and practice to produce high
  learning rates for most students.

• This is the primary source of information used in
  ongoing decision making.
• Learning rate refers to a students individual
  growth in achievement or behavior competencies
  over time.
• Learning rates and levels of performance vary
  significantly across students.

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Response to Intervention

• Important Educational Decisions

• Important Educational Decisions about intensity
  and the likely duration of interventions are
  based on individual student response to
  instruction across multiple tiers of
  intervention.

• Decisions about the necessity of more intense
  intervention, including eligibility for special
  education and/or exit from special education or
  other services, are informed by data on learning
  rate and level.

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Why do we need RtI?

• Research supporting transition to RtI
• Scientifically-based instruction and
  interventions
• Evidence-based practices
• Multi-tier models of increasing intensity
• Systematic ongoing progress monitoring and
  formative evaluation
• Functional assessments leading to intervention

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Why do we need RtI?

• Problems with the traditional system
• Separation of special ed and general ed
• Undocumented benefits of special ed services
• Eligibility procedures unrelated to intervention
• Wait-to-Fail Model (reactive)
• Over representation of some minority groups
• Over identification of students with disabilities
• Failure to serve at-risk and low achieving
  students

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Paradigm Shift

• Eligibility focus
• Diagnose and Place
• Get Label
• Outcome focus
• Problem Solving and Response to Intervention
• Get Help

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Traditionalvs.Response to Intervention
Intervention
Traditional-
Get Label
Intervention
J
Response to Intervention-
Get Help
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Thinking Differently

• All Education Initiative, not just ESE anymore
• Focus on interventions not placement
• Aim of assessment is to identify effective
  interventions
• Effective interventions are identified prior to
  eligibility
• Student outcomes drive decisions
• PS RtI is continual and fluid

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Why is this urgent?

• Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities (EB/D) Rule
  Revisions, Effective July 1, 2007
• Floridas Differentiated Accountability System
• Specific Learning Disabilities Rule Revision,
  Could be as early as October 31, 2008

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Florida Differentiated Accountability
System/School Categories
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What does it Link to?

• BPIE Best Practices for Inclusive Education
• PBS Positive Behavioral Supports
• FLIP First Line Intervention Program
• FBA Functional Behavioral Assessment
• BIP Behavior Intervention Plan
• E/BD Rule Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities Rule

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Where are WE Now? Where are WE Going?

• Reading and Behavior strategies are in place
• The District K-12 Reading Plan
• Positive Behavior Support (PBS)
• Where we still need to go
• Mathematics
• Improve progress monitoring, data collection and
  documentation

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Objectives for District Level Consensus Building

• Develop a shared vision that Response to
  Intervention is an all education initiative led
  by general education and that RtI and
  problem-solving will result in more productive
  and equitable outcomes for students.
• Identify the administrative support structures
  necessary for systemic planning and
  implementation of RtI.
• Identify the stakeholders in the district, inform
  them about RtI and assure the stakeholders that
  their input will be considered in the development
  of the infrastructure

• Develop a common understanding regarding the
  scope of RtI implementation.

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Next Steps

• Staff Development
• Orientation of staff
• Data Analysis
• Problem-Solving
• Refocus Student Support Team to Problem Solving
  Team
• Progress Monitoring

• Pilot Schools
• Parkway Elementary
• Palm Pointe K-8

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Tools to Support Districts and Schools

• District/School Self-assessment Tool (Appendix B
  of the Statewide RtI implementation Plan)
• Critical Components for District Planning
  (Appendix C of the Statewide RtI implementation
  plan)
• On-Line Introductory Training Course (s)
• http//floridarti.usf.edu/introcourse
• Earn 5 in-service credits, free!

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Special Thanks to those already involved

• Donna Dorio
• Denise Snure
• Robert ONeill
• Robert Brugnoli
• Sheri Reichard
• Svetlana Montgomery
• Nick Zrallack
• Barbara Casteen
• Christine Kerstyn
• Alice Lee

• Anne Marie Hays-Nail
• Ucola Baxter
• Sandra Akre
• Sheri Balcer
• Bill Tomlinson
• Nancy Brown
• Bennett Buckles
• Karlheinz Haas
• Sharon Bittle
• Chris Taylor

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Show Me the Data!