Response to Intervention: What Does It Mean to Me in Florida

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Response to Intervention What Does It Mean to
Me in Florida?

• Mary E. Little, Ph. D.

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Critical Question

• How do we create a system of school improvement
  focused on improving student results that meets
  the current policies, mandates, and expectations
  for use of data, continuous progress monitoring,
  and research-based instructional practices in
  Floridas schools and classrooms?

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Participant Outcomes

• Briefly highlight the background of
  implementation of RtI, both nationally and in
  Florida
• Describe the framework and processes of
  Response-to-Intervention (RtI) within FDOE state
  plan
• Highlight current and projected actions for
  scaling up RtI in Florida and
• Share feedback for school and classroom
  implementation of the RtI Process.

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What is RtI?Why RtI?Why Now?
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IDEA 2004 - Congressional Findings 20 U.S.C.
1400(c)(5)

• Having high expectations ensuring access to
  general education curriculum in the regular
  classroom
• Providing special education services and supports
  in the regular classroom whenever appropriate
• Providing incentives for whole-school approaches,
  scientifically based early reading programs,
  positive behavioral interventions and supports,
  and early intervening services to reduce the need
  to label children as disabled in order to address
  the learning and behavioral needs of such children

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AlignmentChanging Educational Focus NCLB
IDEA

• Improved student outcomes
• Early intervention and prevention
• Use of evidence-based interventions
• Data-driven accountability
• Reduced need for disability label to get
  assistance
• Highly qualified teachers

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What is RtI?

• RTI is the practice of
• providing high quality instruction/intervention
  matched to student needs and,
• using level of performance and learning rate over
  a time to
• make important educational decisions to guide
  instruction.
• National Association of State Directors of
  Special Education, 2005

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Core Principles of RtI

• Frequent data collection on student performance
• Early identification of students at risk
• Early intervention (K-3)
• Multi-tiered model of service delivery
• Research-based, scientifically validated
  instruction/interventions
• Ongoing progress monitoring - interventions
  evaluated and modified
• Data-based decision making - all decisions made
  with data

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Thinking Differently

• Every Ed, 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
• Problem Solving RtI is continual and fluid

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Florida Research in Reading First
SchoolsIdentification of learning disabilities

• Research conducted by Torgesen in 318 RF
  elementary schools 2003-2004
• High proportion of students in poverty (72)
• High minority students (62)
• After implementation of research-based
  instructional methods, Torgesen reports the
  percent of students identified as learning
  disabled at the end of kindergarten was reduced
  by 81 from year 1 to year 3 (Torgesen, 2007,
  pg. 4).

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Floridas Administrative Rule 6A-6.0331

• Approved on June 17, 2008
• . . . districts responsibility to develop and
  implement coordinated general education
  intervention procedures for students who need
  additional academic and behavioral support to
  succeed in the general education environment and
  in implementing such procedures, a school
  district may carry out activities that include
  the provision of educational and behavioral
  evaluations, services, and supports . . .

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Funding General Education Interventions Early
Intervening Services

• LEA may use 15 percent of Part B funds . . . to
  develop and implement coordinated, early
  intervening services for students not identified
  as needing special education, but who need
  additional academic and behavioral support to
  succeed in a general education environment.
  34 CFR 300.226(a)
• Requires LEAs with significant disproportionality
  to use 15 percent of Part B funds to provide
  comprehensive coordinated early intervening
  services to children in over-identified groups.
  34 CFR 300.646(b)(2)

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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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Two Inter-related Issues

• INSTRUCTIONAL MODEL Used as a school and
  classroom model for providing instruction to
  young students that can help prevent the
  emergence of early reading or other learning
  difficulties.
• Torgesen, 2007

• DIAGNOSTIC MODEL
• May use a process that determines if the child
  responds to scientific, research-based
  intervention as a part of the evaluation
  procedures.
• Torgesen, 2007

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Three-Tiered Model of School Supports the
Problem-solving Process
ACADEMIC SYSTEMS Tier 3 Comprehensive
Intensive Students who need individualized
interventions. Tier 2 Strategic Interventions
Students who need more support in addition to the
core curriculum. Tier 1 Core Curriculum All
students, including students who require
curricular enhancements for acceleration.
BEHAVIOR SYSTEMS Tier 3 Intensive
Interventions Students who need individualized
intervention. Tier 2 Targeted Group
Interventions Students who need more support in
addition to school-wide positive behavior
program. Tier 1 Universal Interventions All
students in all settings.
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Problem Solving

• A systematic and structured process that uses
  the skills of professionals from different
  disciplines to develop, implement, and evaluate
  intervention plans that result in the significant
  improvement (closing the gap) of student
  performance.

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Intervention Framework

• Intensive Interventions
• A few
• Supplemental Interventions
• Some
• Core/Universal Interventions
• All

Academic
Behavior
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How do we KNOW when students are achieving?How
do we create a SYSTEM of instructional support?
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Florida Department of Education 2008
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Purpose

• Facilitate successful implementation of PS/RtI
• Formalize and coordinate state-wide efforts
• Build upon the successes of Reading First (RF)
  and Positive Behavior Support (PBS)
  implementations in Florida where special
  education referral rates have dropped
  approximately 40 in RF schools (Torgesen, 2007)
  and office discipline referrals have dropped 40
  in PBS schools (Kincaid, 2007).
• Provide districts with the critical components,
  definitions and applications of RtI to support
  the development of district plans
• p. 1 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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Alignment with Existing Initiatives

• The basic elements of RtI are required by NCLB
  and IDEA, therefore, they are included in all
  broad-based initiatives for schools striving to
  meet (AYP), such as
• K-12 Reading Plan and Reading First
• Floridas Continuous Improvement Model (FCIM)
• Floridas Positive Behavior Supports (PBS)
• PS/RtI Pilot Project
• Early Learning Success (ELS) Initiative
• p. 1 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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Parent Involvement

• Meaningful and effective involvement is critical
• Parents must understand that
• RtI is relevant and beneficial to all students,
  regardless of placement
• RtI seeks to find out what specific instruction
  and interventions work best for their child
• RtI is not a categorical system that students
  must progress through laterally to become
  eligible for special education
• RtI does not override other rights under IDEA
• p. 2 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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Foundation Beliefs

• Maximum benefits to students occur if
• Scientific, research-based instruction is
  delivered by highly qualified personnel
• Reliable, valid, and instructionally relevant
  assessments are used
• Problem-solving method is used to make decisions
  based on a continuum of student need
• p. 3 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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Foundation Beliefs

• Maximum benefits to students occur if
• Data are used to guide instructional decisions
• Professional development and follow-up modeling
  and coaching are provided to ensure effective
  instruction at all levels
• Leadership is vital
• All students and their families are part of one
  proactive and seamless system
• pp. 3-4 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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Impact of RtI Implementation

• Maximum effect of core instruction for all
  students
• Targeted instruction 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
• p. 7 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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State Responsibilities

• Establish and facilitate teams to obtain on-going
  stakeholder input and build capacity to sustain
  implementation over time
• Align terminology and requirements across related
  initiatives reading, math, behavior, school
  improvement, student progression)
• Provide On-line Training Courses
• Collaborate with PIRC and PTI to disseminate
  resources for families
• pp. 7-8 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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State Responsibilities

• Revise Statutes, Rules and Policies to support
  implementation
• Develop and disseminate TA regarding gifted, ELL,
  assessment accommodations, pre-service efforts
  and teacher qualifications, secondary
  implementation, special education eligibility
• Provide web-based self-assessment and planning
  tools for districts
• Evaluate and report the effects of RtI
• p. 8 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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District Responsibilities

• Based on self-assessment results, and in
  conjunction with the student progression plan and
  K-12 Comprehensive Reading Plan, develop an RtI
  implementation plan organized around building
  consensus, infrastructure, and implementation.
  Plans should also address
• How current resources will be used to implement
  RtI and identify additional resources needed
• How stakeholders will be educated
• How stakeholders will be involved
• p. 8 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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Current Activities

• Dissemination of State Plan
• Statewide projects funded through the DOE
• Collaborative Partnerships
• Technical Assistance and Tools
• Professional Development Activities
• pp. 8-10 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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Tools to Support Districts, Schools,
Pre-Service Institutions

• 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)
• p. 9 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan
• Florida RtI Introductory Training Course
  http//floridarti.usf.edu/intro_course
• Earn 5 in-service credits, free!
• More to come

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Accessing Floridas Plan, Resources Tools
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State Infrastructure

• State Management Team
• Role Provide leadership and facilitate
  policy-level changes to support implementation of
  effective educational practice
• State Transformation Team
• Role Analyze progress toward statewide efforts,
  recommend actions for improvement, and support
  District Based Leadership Teams DBLT to build the
  capacity of districts to implement evidence-based
  practices and to establish integrated RtI
  academic and behavior systems in each school
• District Implementation Teams
• Role Provide leadership, advisement, and
  training at the district level and assist schools
  in their implementation efforts
• School Based Leadership Team
• Role Develop a school implementation plan. The
  school based team will become trainers and
  coaches for the school staff and will be
  responsible for schoolwide implementation
• Advisory Group
• Role Provide on-going stakeholder input
• pp. 11-13 of the Statewide RtI Implementation
  Plan

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Funding Considerations

• Consideration of fiscal needs (ex. release time,
  substitutes, registration fees, etc.)
• District responsibilities and flexibility
• Potential funding sources
• Title I, Title II, Title III
• Reading First Grants
• IDEA
• Research-based Reading Instruction Allocation
• Annual School Improvement Allocations
• pp. 13-15 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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• Application of RtI to ELL
• Current research is promising that RtI will
  decrease the number of ELLs who are
  inappropriately referred to and placed in special
  education.
• p. 15 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan
• Application of RtI to Special Education
  Eligibility
• School teams use student progress data as part of
  the evaluation process to determine eligibility.
• p. 15 of the Statewide RtI Implementation Plan

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• How is Florida supporting
• the development and implementation of
• Response to Instruction/ Intervention?

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Three Core Support Projects funded through the
Florida Department of Education Collaborate to
promote school-wide practices

• Problem-solving/Response to Intervention State
  Pilot Project http//floridarti.usf.edu
• Floridas Positive Behavior Support Project
  http//flpbs.fmhi.usf.edu/
• Response to Interventions Teaching Learning
  Connections http//rtitlc.ucf.edu

• Common Elements
• Systems-Change
• Building Capacity
• Scaling-Up
• Program Evaluation
• Data-based Decision-making
• Fidelity of Implementation
• Research and Evaluation

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Florida Problem Solving/RtI Project

• Purpose
• Evaluate the impact of PS/RtI on educator,
  student, and systemic outcomes in pilot sites
  implementing the model
• Statewide professional development in PS/RtI

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FL PS/RtI Project Where Does It Fit?

• Districts must develop a plan to guide
  implementation of their use of PS/RtI
• State Project can be one component of the plan
• It cannot be THE plan for the district
• District must own their implementation process
  and integrate existing elements and initiate new
  elements

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• Contact Information
• George Batsche, Co-Director
• Michael Curtis, Co-Director
• Clark Dorman, Project Leader
• University of South FloridaPsychological
  Social Foundations4202 E. Fowler Ave., EDU
  162Tampa, Florida 33620-5650813.974.9472
• Website http//www.floridarti.usf.edu/index.ht
  ml

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Floridas PBS Project

• Mission
• Increasing the capacity of Floridas school
  districts to address problem behavior using
  positive behavior support
• What we do
• Provide training and technical assistance to
  districts across the state in the development and
  implementation of positive behavior supports at
  the school-wide, targeted group, classroom and
  individual student levels

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• Donald Kincaid, Director
• Heather George, Coordinator
• Karen Childs, Research Coordinator
• University of South Florida
• 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
• DARES/CFS/FMHI MHC2113A
• Tampa, FL 33612-3899
• 813.974.6440
• E-mail flpbs_at_fmhi.usf.edu
• Website http//flpbs.fmhi.usf.edu

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RtI-Teaching Learning Connections

• Focus Academic Performance
• Goal The purpose of this project is to
  collaboratively identify, disseminate, and
  facilitate high fidelity implementation of
  current and emerging research-based instructional
  practices in curriculum, instruction, and
  assessment within the framework of Response to
  Intervention (RtI) to educational personnel in
  the state of Florida.

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RtI-TLC Current Initiatives

• identify and disseminate information about
• resources,
• professional development, and
• research
• related to current and emerging evidence-based
  instructional practices, especially within
• early literacy,
• adolescent literacy, and
• mathematics. 

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Current Activities

• Activities Training, School Improvement,
  Evaluation
• Training Provide training and technical
  assistance support for implementation of
  evidence-based instructional practices in the
  specific content areas of in literacy and
  mathematics.
• School Improvement Collaborate with FDOE teams
  in Scaling-Up Evidence-based Practices
• Evaluation Conduct student, classroom school,
  district, and state-wide evaluation and research
  of high fidelity implementation of evidence-based
  instructional practices.

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• Mary Little, Principal Investigator
• Anna OConnor-Morin, Project Coordinator
• Shelby Robertson, Project Coordinator
• University of Central Florida
• 4000 Central Florida Parkway
• Bldg TA Room 403
• Orlando, Florida
• 386.274.0175
• Email rtitlc_at_mail.ucf.edu
• Website http//rtitlc.ucf.edu

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Project Partners

• Bureau of School Improvement
• http//www.bsi.fsu.edu/
• Just Read, Florida!
• www.justreadflorida.com
• Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student
  Services
• http//www.fldoe.org/ese/
• Office of Early Learning- VPK Program
• www.fldoe.org/earlylearning/sruss.asp

• Problem-Solving/RtI Pilot Project
• www.floridarti.usf.edu
• Statewide Positive Behavior Support
• www.flpbs.fmhi.usf.edu
• RtI-Teaching Learning Connections (TLC)
• Site forthcoming
• Florida Center for Reading Research
• www.fcrr.org

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Current and Projected Next Steps

• On-line Module-Awareness of RtI in Florida
• Alignment of Floridas Accountability and
  Programmatic Documents and Procedures
• Conduct Awareness Focus Group Sessions
• Co-construct RtI Adolescent Literacy Model
• Facilitate RtI Regional Workshops Series of
  three for Development of District RtI Plan
• Rule and Policy Adoptions/Revisions
• Plan for Statewide Professional Development
  activities across multiple stakeholders within
  RTI Framework
• Keep smiling!

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Havent I Heard ALL this Before?

• Take a few minutes to think about, talk about
  some critical components about Response to
  Intervention (RtI).
• How is what you have heard SIMILAR to current
  practices, initiatives, etc.?

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Expanded Roles in Reading

• RtI is not owned by one profession.
• Schools should establish high-quality reading
  instruction in all classrooms based on
  evidence-based research, develop multi-tiered
  interventions to match students needs, and
  develop comprehensive school-wide problem solving
  approaches.
• Taken from Reading teachers play key role in
  successful RtI Approaches at www.reading.org/downl
  oads/resources/RTI

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Roles of Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches
in RtI

• Service providers in the RtI process
• Sharing expertise with the other members of the
  RtI team
• Suggesting interventions that are integrally
  connected with the core reading program used in
  the classroom and school
• Members of data collection/data discussion teams
• Adopt a systems approach to serving students
• www.reading.org/downloads/resources/rti_role

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• District Response to Intervention (RtI)
  Implementation

5
0
10
Full implementation
Work not begun to create district RtI plan
District RtI Plan formulated and initial
implementation in place
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How will teachers learn about, implement, and
continuously monitor student progress?

• Given the identified student needs, selected
  research-based instructional materials to offer a
  continuum of reading, writing and math programs,
  and identified teacher needs, how is an efficient
  and effective system of continuous,
  standards-based professional development created
  and sustained?

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Please share!

• At this time, Florida is scaling up efforts to
  assure comprehensive and statewide implementation
  of RtI.
• Please share your thoughts with us today.
• Lets take some time to discuss the questions
  provided.

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Remember Our Common Goal

• We are dedicated
• to improve achievement for all students through
  continuous problem solving using assessment data
  related to instructional
• decision-making.

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• Isnt it wonderful that were all different?
  Each of us has strengths and skills to share.
  And when we link together, we are invincible.
• Fullan, 2006

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Contacts

• Melinda Webster
• Elementary Reading Specialist
• Florida Department of Education
• Just Read, Florida! Office
• Melinda.Webster_at_fldoe.org
• Mary Little/Anna OConnor-Morin
• Response to Intervention Teaching Learning
  Connections
• University of Central Florida
• RtITLC_at_mail.ucf.edu

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National Resources to Support District and School
Implementation

• www.nasdse.org
• Building and District Implementation Blueprints
• Current research (evidence-based practices) that
  supports use of RtI
• www.rtinetwork.org
• Blueprints to support implementation
• Monthly RtI Talks
• Virtual visits to schools implementing RtI
• Webinars