1. Systems of Support Result in Higher Student Achievement- RTI
Diane Katakowski, Speech & Language Consultant
Susan Koceski, School Psychology Consultant
PLCi Network 11/30/2011

2. Activity: What do you know about RTI?
At tables, participants make posters about:
What they know about RTI
Questions they have about RTI
Share out whole group
Chart participant responses in PPT

3. Activity: What do you know about RTI?
What we know…
Data driven
Universal screening
Tier model
Targeted teaching- data helps identify student needs
Team approach
What we wonder…
What people are using as universal screener?
What it looks like at each level?
What resources are available to create your systems?
How to merge competing initiatives?
How do we prioritize?
Schedule, schedule, schedule!!!!
What is the difference between an intervention and accommodations?
Empower educators to take on RtI and interventions while working within a traditional timeframe.

4. Current State:
Unaligned, nonsensical delivery systems (title-one, general education, special education)
Low achievement, especially in lower poverty areas
Over-representation of minorities in special education
Poor growth when students with special education are compared with their non-disabled peers (AYP)
Disproportionate numbers of high incident disabilities (LD, SLI) and inconsistencies from states to states, county to county, district to district
Philosophy that is overly dependent on student processing problems
Desired
State
Current
State

5. Three major ways that schools move towards an RTI Framework
Data trends indicate a compelling need-
Data indicates unacceptable percentages of students failing reading or math
Administrative mandate to change service delivery system
Legal mandates –
Desire to Use RTI option for Special Education Eligibility for students with learning disabilities (IDEA 2004)
Out of compliance with special education and cited for corrective action
Corrective action from AYP status

6. Principles of Response to Instruction
Shared responsibility for student achievement in which general and special educators collaborate and support one another across all tiers.
RTI is a framework, not a program. The ingredients can be combined in many ways so that implementation may look different in different buildings, even within the same district.
Early Intervention as soon as the student’s performance indicates that they are “off track”.
Problem-Solving focused on curriculum, instruction, environment, and learner variables that can be controlled (in contrast to student deficits).
Using school-wide and grade-level data to evaluate instructional effectiveness.

7. Strategic Intervention
RTI Model:
TIER I - 80%
TIER II - 15%
TIER III - 5%
Universal Screening at regular intervals for all students using curriculum-based measurement
TIER 3
(5% of Students)
Intensive Intervention
TIER 2
(15% of Students)
Strategic Intervention
Scientifically research-based instruction that is matched to student need to promote attainment of grade-level benchmarks
Problem Solving occurs at all Tiers of Instruction and involves collaborative , data-based decision making
TIER 1
(80% of Students)
Core Instruction
students with IEPs
Services for
Oakland Schools

8. Activity: What does RtI really look like in schools?
Given what we know so far, examine the images on the next slides.
What connection can you make between the image and the RtI framework?
Turn and talk to your partner for about 30 seconds and respond.

9. The 3-tier chocolate cake
Equal numbers of students at all tiers of support.
Lack of focus at increasing effectiveness of core instruction.
Difficulty examining core because it is working, just for not a high percentage of students.
Difficulty getting targeted, intensive instruction to the at-risk and some risk students because the number of students are so great.

10. The RtI hourglass The “haves” and the have- nots” in a district.
Large number of students meeting core instruction and an equally large number of students requiring intensive support.
Lack of shared responsibility for students –usually a division between general education, special education and title one service providers.
Difficult to establish consensus about the needs of students.
Difficult to get targeted, intensive instruction to the at-risk students because the number of students are so great.

11. The RtI traffic sign
Large numbers of students requiring intensive interventions.
Emphasis on Tier three and special education eligibility.
Teams less focused on examining the core instruction.
Tier Three
Tier Two
Tier One

12. The RtI Fishing Expedition
Focused on casting and catching students that are not making progress, but not making instructional adjustments.
Screen, test, and admire the problem.

13. Moving toward a Funnel
All students receive core instruction high quality core instruction and emphasis is on the core.
Predictable interventions, well articulated processes and supports with increasing level of intensity and progress monitoring for students at tier two and tier three.
Tier One
Tier Two
Tier Three

14. Essential Infrastructure of RTI:
Multi-Tiered Continuum of Support (Models have 3-5 tiers)
Universal Screening/Progress Monitoring for Slow Responders
Problem-Solving Process: Implemented at grade level, small groups, individual students
Scientifically-Based Core Curriculum: Evaluation of the effectiveness of core curricula
Research-based Interventions: Instructional strategies and supplemental interventions based on empirical research studies on effectiveness
Professional Development: Ongoing and embedded to the school improvement plan and goals
The Three Tiers is a FRAMEWORK envisioning one unified system of support with implementation different at every building depending on resources, student population and PD needs. The Three Tiers is a FRAMEWORK envisioning one unified system of support with implementation different at every building depending on resources, student population and PD needs.
Why RTI is not spelled D-I-B-E-L-S … Screening/progress monitoring is only one of many essential ingredients

15. Principles of PLCs
Continuous professional learning focused on improving student achievement is essential for school-wide success.

16. PLC Big Idea #1: Ensuring that All Students Learn
DuFour Quote: “…exploration of three crucial questions … drive the work of … professional learning communities:
What do we want each student to learn?
How will we know when each student has learned it?
How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?
(How will we respond when a student has clearly achieved the intended outcomes?”)
DuFour, May 2004, Educational Leadership, What is a Professional Learning Community?

17. PLC Big Idea #2: A Culture of Collaboration
DuFour Quote: “The powerful collaboration that characterizes professional learning communities is a systematic process in which teachers work together to analyze and improve their classroom practice. Teachers work in teams, engaging in an ongoing cycle of questions that promote deep team learning. This process, in turn, leads to higher levels of student achievement…
Collaborative conversations call on team members to make public what has traditionally been private-- goals, strategies, materials, pacing, questions, concerns, and results.”

18. PLC Big Idea #3: A Focus on Results
DuFour Quote: “The teachers share their results from all of these assessments with their colleagues, and they quickly learn when a teammate has been particularly effective in teaching a certain skill. Team members consciously look for successful practice and attempt to replicate it in their own practice; they also identify areas of the curriculum that need more attention…
Educators must begin to embrace data as a useful indicator of progress. They must stop disregarding or excusing unfavorable data and honestly confront the sometimes-brutal facts. They must stop using averages to analyze student performance and begin to focus on the success of each student.”

19. Activity: Match or No Match?
Complete the handout activity on your table as a pair or table team

20. Current State –
What is the problem?
Must be Data driven & answer:
What do kids need to learn?
How will we know?
How do we respond when students have
difficulty in learning?
How will we respond if a student
already knows?
Desired State-
What is our
vision?
Ensure that all kids can learn
Culture of collaboration
Focus on results
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a framework with specific elements that can assist schools in achieving their vision
Making the connection between Professional Learning Communities (PLC) and the fundamental principles of Response to Intervention (RTI)

21. Why is the PLC- RTI connection important?
DuFour Quote: “The professional learning community model has now reached a critical juncture …. in this all-too-familiar cycle, initial enthusiasm gives way to confusion about the fundamental concepts driving the initiative, followed by inevitable implementation problems, the conclusion that the reform has failed to bring about the desired results, abandonment of the reform, and the launch of a new search for the next promising initiative. Another reform movement has come and gone, reinforcing the conventional education wisdom that promises, "This too shall pass.”

22. The importance of being clear about what is important

23. OS Model for RTI Early Literacy

24. RtI Implementation-Exploration
Exploring and adopting is a very important stage in the implementation process.
Exploring includes attended workshops, overviews, book studies, etc. Raising the awareness of administration and staff in order to make decisions about moving forward.

25. RtI Implementation-Consensus
Establishing consensus among stakeholders of a need to improve reading achievement for all students by adopting/implementing RTI
Until stakeholders are clear about what is being implemented and why it is being implemented, many may be reluctant to support implementation efforts.
Some sites fail to plan or move too quickly through the consensus process.
They fail to take stock of competing initiatives for staff time, resources and attention.

26. RtI Implementation-Consensus
Examples of activities at the consensus phase:
Establish a compelling need for school-wide RtI framework in reading. This includes site and district needs.
Establish building leadership team and rationale for adoption of RTI framework.
Create alignment between the building culture and the culture required to successfully implement RTI.
Establish district leadership commitment.
Make an action plan which involves a clear vision, mission and measureable goals of RtI implementation.

27. RtI Implementation-Infrastructure
Develop clear plans, processes, and procedures that lead to successful implementation and to construct the infrastructure and structural supports necessary to support RTI implementation.
Teams general jump into screening, progress monitoring and intervention without developing the plans, processes and procedures.
Poor planning can lead to frustrated administrators and teachers, wasted resources, and ineffective implementation.
By establishing infrastructure prior to implementation, sites are more likely to experience increased practitioner support, more timely student benefit, and more efficient use of resources.

28. RtI Implementation-Infrastructure
Examples of activities at the Infrastructure phase:
Reengineer resources (e.g., staff, time, funds) to provide sufficient support for the long term implementation of this framework.
Train and implement reliable and valid screening and progress monitoring tools.
Institute a problem solving process at grade level meetings for grade level, small groups, individual student data.
Evaluate effectiveness of core curriculum and make adjustments based on ongoing data.
Review current interventions and incorporate Instructional strategies and supplemental interventions based on empirical research studies on effectiveness.
Make a professional development plan for the building and for individuals to fill essential knowledge.

29. RtI Implementation-Sustainability
Implementing a plan for scaling- up RtI and adjusting programs and resources to institutionalize practices.
RtI is not something that is “done” but is something that is a part of the fabric of the school.

30. RtI Implementation Examples of activities at the Implementation phase:
Add additional grade levels, classrooms, and or content areas over time
Delivering evidence based assessments, core curriculum and interventions.
Evaluating the fidelity of RtI implementation.
Refining procedures and guidelines based on “lesson learned.”
Plan for new staff orientation and training
Report progress to stakeholders
Attend to school culture and sustained consensus. Action planning- review, modify, and recommit annually based on data and SIP

31. Activity: Check for Understanding
Inside your table envelope you will find color-coded descriptions of RTI implementation. The colors correspond to various components of RTI infrastructure (grade-level data meetings, core instruction, intervention continuum, professional development). As a table group:
Read the various descriptions
Group them by color/ component
Order them according to the following continuum:
Gold standard implementation/ Component fully in place
Adequate implementation/ Component in process
Poor implementation/ Component not in place at all

32. Resources
OS RTI website and links
MDE Guidance Document 2011
National Center on RTI- RTI Placemat
OS Leadership Readiness Survey
OS Non-Negotiables of Sustained RTI Implementation

33. 90% student scores are captured on one graph.
Purpose: Box plot is a quick, overall view of grade level student performance in relation to the benchmark goal.
90% student scores are captured on one graph.
Box Plot Key
What can be learned from this multiyear box plot?
Roland Good and Ruth Kaminski (2005)

34. Grade Level Histogram: Quick view of the distribution of student performance on PSF according to risk
Roland Good and Ruth Kaminski (2005)

35. Classroom Level Data Are we making a difference and where?
Fall class mean= 27.1
Winter Class mean = 52.4
Roland Good and Ruth Kaminski (2005)

36. A graphic organizer with help your team efficiently process multiple sources of data and quickly determine who has the greatest needs and in what areas.
Discussion Questions
Look at the performance of the lowest students. What do they have in common? Do they have needs in multiple instructional areas?
Begin to form flexible groups of students with like instructional needs.
How can the building resources support the general education teacher in meeting the needs of these students?

37. Activity #1: Making Adjustments based on patterns of student need
Grade Level Data Scenario:
Baker Elementary school has 1.5 years of grade level data that suggests weaknesses in phoneme segmentation fluency in kindergarten and in first grade.
At your table, please list five questions that you have about the WHAT or HOW of teaching?

38. Activity #1: Grade Level Questions and Adjustments
What are we teaching
What components of literacy instruction are we teaching daily across the grade level?
Are the components aligned with Benchmarks?
Is there adequate coverage of big ideas? Is there something missing?
Is there a purpose and connection for students?
Is there a Scope and Sequence or my instruction responsive in nature?
How we are Teaching
How much time is allocated to the big ideas concepts?
Is there enough Modeling/Demonstration?
Is there enough feedback to the students?
How much time is allocated to student practice?

39. Example & Non-Example Envelope Descriptions
Grade-level data meetings - PINK
Common grade-level planning time is built into the master calendar and schedule; meetings occur on a regular basis and are focused on data-based problem-solving to achieve goals articulated in the grade-level action plan.
Grade-level meetings do not focus on student data and instructional adjustments; instead, they focus on the student’s background and family variables.
General educators are part of grade-level teams, while special educators are not involved regularly; special educators are invited when the team suspects a student has a handicapping disability.
Core instruction - BLUE
Students engage in whole-class, small group, and individual instruction with feedback daily, and instruction is differentiated to meet the individual needs of students.
Staff collects a variety of data, but is unsure how to organize it and adjust instruction.
Core instruction lacks a scope and sequence; teachers pull lessons from a variety of materials to the best of their knowledge and attempt to cover as many content expectations as possible.
Intervention continuum - GREEN
Intervention is supplemental to what students learn in the core instructional program. Students who are not meeting benchmark in the core receive intervention based on their individual needs. Progress monitoring measures and schedules are written as part of intervention plans for students in Tier 2 or 3 intervention.
Students at Tiers 2 and 3 receive the same intervention, regardless of instructional need.
Intervention is not aligned with core reading instruction; interventions are available based on what staff members have been trained in, not what students need.
Professional development - YELLOW
Grade-level teams set 1-2 priorities for their instruction, write a specific goal for student benchmarks, and seek out professional learning opportunities that will help them meet their goals.
Competing initiatives vie for teacher time, energy, and resources. Priorities for PD are set in grade-level action plans, however it is difficult to accomplish the priorities because time and attention is shared among many different topics.
Teachers attend PD based on what seems interesting to them or convenient, not necessarily what is aligned with their school’s improvement plan or identified needs in their grade-level action plan.