RTI: Strategies for Working With Behaviorally Challenging Students Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org

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RTI Strategies for Working With
BehaviorallyChallenging StudentsJim
Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
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Download PowerPoints and Handouts from this
workshop athttp//www.interventioncentral.org/
aspp.php
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The process by which public schools identify
students as learning disabled often appears to be
confusing, unfair, and logically inconsistent. In
fact, G. Reid Lyon of the National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development has suggested
that the field of learning disabilities is a
sociological sponge whose purpose has been and
is to clean up the spills of general
education.--Gresham (2001)
Discussion Read the quote below
Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Why?
Source Gresham, F. M.. (2001). Responsiveness to
intervention An alternative approach to the
identification of learning disabilities. Paper
presented at the Learning Disabilities Summit,
Washington DC.
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Essential Elements of RTI (Fairbanks, Sugai,
Guardino, Lathrop, 2007)

1. A continuum of evidence-based services available
   to all students" that range from universal to
   highly individualized intensive
2. Decision points to determine if students are
   performing significantly below the level of their
   peers in academic and social behavior domains"
3. Ongoing monitoring of student progress"
4. Employment of more intensive or different
   interventions when students do not improve in
   response" to lesser interventions
5. Evaluation for special education services if
   students do not respond to intervention
   instruction"

Source Fairbanks, S., Sugai, G., Guardino, S.,
Lathrop, M. (2007). Response to intervention
Examining classroom behavior support in second
grade. Exceptional Children, 73, p. 289.
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Behavioral Disabilities BD and RTI (Gresham,
1992)

• Resistance to intervention may be defined as
  the lack of change in target behaviors as a
  function of intervention. Given that the goal of
  all interventions is to produce a discrepancy
  between baseline and post-intervention levels of
  performance, the failure to produce such a
  discrepancy can be taken as partial evidence for
  a BD classification.

Source Gresham, F. M. (1992). Conceptualizing
behavior disorders in terms of resistance to
intervention. School Psychology Review, 20, p. 25.
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Factors Influencing the Decision to Classify as
BD (Gresham, 1992)

• Four factors strongly influence the likelihood
  that a student will be classified as Behaviorally
  Disordered
• Severity Frequency and intensity of the problem
  behavior(s).
• Chronicity Length of time that the problem
  behavior(s) have been displayed.
• Generalization Degree to which the student
  displays the problem behavior(s) across settings
  or situations.
• Tolerance Degree to which the students problem
  behavior(s) are accepted in that students
  current social setting.

Source Gresham, F. M. (1992). Conceptualizing
behavior disorders in terms of resistance to
intervention. School Psychology Review, 20, 23-37.
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Applying RTI Logic to Social Behavior Support
(Fairbanks, Sugai, Guardino, Lathrop, 2007)

• Tier I (Universal System) for behavioral
  support
• Is implemented schoolwide for all students
• Requires that the school "identify and explicitly
  teach schoolwide expectations
• Includes a system to "acknowledge
  expectation-compliant behavior"
• Defines inappropriate behaviors and applies
  consequences for those behaviors with consistency
• Reviews group progress toward schoolwide goals
  (data collection and feedback)

Source Fairbanks, S., Sugai, G., Guardino, S.,
Lathrop, M. (2007). Response to intervention
Examining classroom behavior support in second
grade. Exceptional Children, 73, p. 289.
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What does RTI look like when applied to an
individual student?

• A widely accepted method for determining whether
  a student has a Learning Disability under RTI is
  the dual discrepancy model (Fuchs, 2003).
• Discrepancy 1 The student is found to be
  performing academically at a level significantly
  below that of his or her typical peers
  (discrepancy in initial skills or performance).
• Discrepancy 2 Despite the implementation of one
  or more well-designed, well-implemented
  interventions tailored specifically for the
  student, he or she fails to close the gap with
  classmates (discrepancy in rate of learning
  relative to peers).

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Target Student
Dual-Discrepancy RTI Model of Learning
Disability (Fuchs 2003)
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How can a school restructure to support RTI?

• The school can organize its intervention efforts
  into 3 levels, or Tiers, that represent a
  continuum of increasing intensity of support.
  (Kovaleski, 2003 Vaughn, 2003). Tier I is the
  lowest level of intervention and Tier III is the
  most intensive intervention level.

Universal intervention Available to all
students Example Additional classroom literacy
instruction
Tier I
Targeted Intervention Students who need
additional support than peers are given
individual intervention plans. Example
Supplemental peer tutoring in reading to increase
reading fluency
Tier II
Intensive Intervention Students whose
intervention needs are greater than general
education can meet may be referred for more
intensive services. Example Special Education
Tier III
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Levels of Intervention Tier I, II, III
Tier I Universal100
Tier II Individualized10-15
Tier III Intensive5-10
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Positive Behavioral Interventions Supports
Three-Tiered Approach
Source www.pbis.org
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Big Ideas in Student Behavior Management
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Imagineering Exercise

• Imagine that you are walking through a South
  Asian jungle with a guide. You are alone in the
  great forest. Suddenly you come upon a
  clearing. In the clearing, you see a solitary
  elephant enaging in these behaviors.What
  thoughts go through your head as you watch the
  elephant?...

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Big Ideas Similar Behaviors May Stem from Very
Different Root Causes (Kratochwill, Elliott,
Carrington Rotto, 1990)

• Behavior is not random but follows purposeful
  patterns.Students who present with the same
  apparent surface behaviors may have very
  different drivers (underlying reasons) that
  explain why those behaviors occur.A students
  problem behaviors must be carefully identified
  and analyzed to determine the drivers that
  support them.

Source Kratochwill, T. R., Elliott, S. N.,
Carrington Rotto, P. (1990). Best practices in
behavioral consultation. In A. Thomas and J.
Grimes (Eds.). Best practices in school
psychology-II (pp. 147169). Silver Spring, MD
National Association of School Psychologists..
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Common Root Causes or Drivers for Behaviors
Include

• Social attention (adult or peer)
• Escape or avoidance
• Access to tangibles or rewards or privileges
  (pay-offs)
• Inattention or impulsivity

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Showed disrespect towards me when she yelled
inappropriately regarding an instruction sheet.
I then asked her to leave the room. She also
showed disrespect when I called her twice earlier
in the class to see her report card grade.
Teacher Referral Example
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I gave out a test. After a few minutes, he
crunched it and threw it on the floor. If he
were not prepared, he could have talked to me and
I would have allowed him to take it on a
different date, as I usually do.
Teacher Referral Example
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Big Ideas Be Proactive in Behavior Management
(Martens Meller, 1990)

• Teachers who intervene before a student
  misbehaves or when the misbehavior has not yet
  escalated have a greater likelihood of keeping
  the student on task and engaged in learning.

ABC Timeline
A
Source Martens, B.K., Meller, P.J. (1990). The
application of behavioral principles to
educational settings. In T.B. Gutkin
C.R.Reynolds (Eds.), The handbook of school
psychology (2nd ed.) (pp. 612-634). New York
John Wiley Sons.
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ABC Timeline
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C. and T. were horsing around in the classroom.
In the process, they knocked down an overhead
projector and crushed it.
Teacher Referral Example
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Big Ideas Behavior is a Continuous Stream
(Schoenfeld Farmer, 1970)

• Individuals are always performing SOME type of
  behavior watching the instructor, sleeping,
  talking to a neighbor, completing a worksheet
  (behavior stream).
• When students are fully engaged in academic
  behaviors, they are less likely to get off-task
  and display problem behaviors.
• Academic tasks that are clearly understood,
  elicit student interest, provide a high rate of
  student success, and include teacher
  encouragement and feedback are most likely to
  effectively capture the students behavior
  stream.

Source Schoenfeld, W. N., Farmer, J. (1970).
Reinforcement schedules and the behavior
stream. In W. N. Schoenfeld (Ed.), The theory
of reinforcement schedules (pp. 215245). New
York Appleton-Century-Crofts.