RTI: An Overview for Educators Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org

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RTI An Overview for EducatorsJim
Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
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In a completely rational society, the best of us
would be teachers and the rest of us would have
to settle for something else. Lee Iocacca


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RTI Key Concepts
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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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Use Time Resources Efficiently By Collecting
Information Only on Things That Are Alterable

• Time should be spent thinking about things
  that the intervention team can influence through
  instruction, consultation, related services, or
  adjustments to the students program. These are
  things that are alterable.Beware of statements
  about cognitive processes that shift the focus
  from the curriculum and may even encourage
  questionable educational practice. They can also
  promote writing off a student because of the
  rationale that the students insufficient
  performance is due to a limited and fixed
  potential. p.359

Source Howell, K. W., Hosp, J. L., Kurns, S.
(2008). Best practices in curriculum-based
evaluation. In A. Thomas J. Grimes (Eds.), Best
practices in school psychology V (pp.349-362).
Bethesda, MD National Association of School
Psychologists.
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RTI Focus on School Factors That We Can Control

• Some factors in students lives (such as family
  divorce, moving frequently, drug use, and poor
  teaching) lower the probability that these
  students will learn and/or get along with others.
  These are often referred to as risk factorsRisk
  factors do not assure student failure. Risk
  factors simply make the odds of failure greater.
  Aligning assessment and instruction allows
  teachersto introduce new factors into the
  students life that raise the probability of
  learning. These are often called protective
  factors since they protect against the risks
  associated with risk factorsThe use of
  protective factors to raise the probability of
  learning is often referred to as resilience.

Source Hosp, J. L. (2008). Best practices in
aligning academic assessment with instruction. In
A. Thomas J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in
school psychology V (pp.363-376). Bethesda, MD
National Association of School Psychologists.
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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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RTI Pyramid of Interventions
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The Purpose of RTI in Schools What Students
Should It Serve?
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Target Student
Dual-Discrepancy RTI Model of Learning
Disability (Fuchs 2003)
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NYSED RTI Guidance Memo April 2008
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(No Transcript)
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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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RTI Intervention Key Concepts
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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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Teaching is giving it isnt taking away.
(Howell, Hosp Kurns, 2008 p. 356).


Source Howell, K. W., Hosp, J. L., Kurns, S.
(2008). Best practices in curriculum-based
evaluation. In A. Thomas J. Grimes (Eds.), Best
practices in school psychology V (pp.349-362).
Bethesda, MD National Association of School
Psychologists..
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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

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Monitoring Student Academic BehaviorsDaily
Behavior Report Cards
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Daily Behavior Report Cards (DBRCs) Are

• brief forms containing student behavior-rating
  items. The teacher typically rates the student
  daily (or even more frequently) on the DBRC. The
  results can be graphed to document student
  response to an intervention.

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http//www.directbehaviorratings.com/
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Daily Behavior Report Cards Can Monitor

• Hyperactivity
• On-Task Behavior (Attention)
• Work Completion
• Organization Skills
• Compliance With Adult Requests
• Ability to Interact Appropriately With Peers

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Jim Blalock
May 5
Mrs. Williams
Rm 108
Daily Behavior Report Card Daily Version
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Jim Blalock
Mrs. Williams
Rm 108
Daily Behavior Report Card Weekly Version
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Daily Behavior Report Card Chart
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