RTI in Middle Schools: Going from Concept to Reality Matthew Burns, Ph.D.

Prevalence of Disabilities Disability % Change LD2,247,004 2,887, MR 553, , EBD 400, , Deaf-Blind 1,427 1, OHI 58, , Autism 5,415 78,749 1,354.3

Multi-Tiered Academic Interventions (Burns, Jimerson, & Deno, 2007) Tier I: Universal screening and progress monitoring with quality core curriculum: All students, Tier II: Standardized interventions with small groups in general education: 15% to 20% of students at any time Tier III: Individualized interventions with in-depth problem analysis in general education : 5% of students at any time

RTI and Problem-Solving Measurement Precision Measurement Frequency Problem-Analysis TIER I TIER I I TIER III

Problem Solving Tier I – Identify discrepancy between expectation and performance for class or individual Tier II – Identify discrepancy for individual. Identify category of problem. Assign small group solution. Tier III – Identify discrepancy for individual. Identify causal variable. Implement individual intervention.

TIER I Classwide problem?

Grade Levels Number of Empirical Journal Articles Including Grade Level in Their Sample

Other grades Second through sixth grade –Reading fluency at grade level Seventh grade + –Maze –NWEA

You’ve Got the Data – Now What? Data Management Team –Usually school psychologist and one other –Know data! PLC or Discipline Teams Get data to teachers within 2 to 3 days Lead data meeting

student names 15-Sep A 11 B 16 C 12 D 29 E 23 F 34 G 14 H 13 I J 30 K 31 L 13 M 10 N 37 O 31 P 9 Q 33 R 20 S 40 T 19 Median 19.5

student names 15-Sep A 11 B 16 C 12 D 29 E 23 F 34 G 14 H 13 I J 30 K 31 L 13 M 10 N 37 O 31 P 9 Q 33 R 20 S 40 T 19 Median 19.5

Literacy in MS/HS

Adolescent Literacy Create a literacy plan Adopt coherent and rigorous standards Assess student needs Deliver interventions to struggling readers Help teachers learn literacy instruction Make a long term commitment Biancarosa, G. & Snow, C.E. (2004). Reading Next—A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy: A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Classwide Intervention

student names 15-Sep 29-Sep A 1112 B 1633 C 1228 D 2945 E 2346 F 3452 G 1427 H 13 I 26 J 3059 K 3159 L 1329 M 1012 N 3750 O 3156 P 913 Q 3354 R 2046 S 4062 T 1947 Median

TIER II INTERVENTIONS Category of the Deficit

Assess 4 NRP Areas Phonemic Awareness –NA at secondary setting Phonics –Word attack - WJ Fluency –Oral reading fluency or Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency Vocabulary/Comprehension –MAP

Category of Problem MN HS 9-12 with approximately 1600 students 69.2% pass reading 9 th -10 th grade 28% low on MAP (~225) 45% Low on TOSCRF (~100) –64% low on phonics (~65) –36% acceptable phonics (~36)

Florida Center for Reading Research Click – For Teachers Click – Interventions for Struggling Readers Click – Supplemental and Intervention Programs

Interventions Phonics – Rewards Fluency – Read Naturally Vocabulary/Comprehension –Read On! –Reading Advantage –Thinking Readers

RAND Reading Research Group (2002) Described a critical state of reading comprehension skills among middle- and high-school students. Described six effective strategies –Monitoring comprehension was #1 –Others were using graphic organizers, generating and answering questions, examining story structure and summarizing

Tier II Effective – at least moderate ES Costs – Low as possible, cost/ES, cost effective (comes with a lot), dedicated teacher time Delivery –Group/individual (two to six considering efficiency) –Total students (20%) –Who - teacher supervision with some peer and or adult tutoring –Pull out – in addition to, some pull out component, 3 to 5 X/week, approximately 30 minutes (kinder – 20min tops). No less than 8 weeks. Grades of kids – earlier better, certainly K-2. Measure – fluency measure of reading at least monthly Materials –Ease – much easier if compiled, but not prerequisite –Availability – standardized (manual)

Secondary Setting 50 minute courses –Smaller courses (up to 12 or so) –Content area (e.g., Social Studies) 90 minute blocks –Within course –30 minutes of strategies

Tier II in HS Social Studies RTI Class Social Studies Class Social Studies Curriculum Social Studies Teacher Interventionist

Tier II in HS – 1 st 30 Minutes Social Studies RTI Class Social Studies Teacher Interventionist

Tier II in HS – 2 nd 30 minutes Social Studies RTI Class Social Studies Teacher Interventionist

Outcomes RIT POINTS

Outcomes 9 th Graders – Windram et al., 2007

Service Delivery Courses –Content course –Remedial course –30 minute homeroom –Study hall Comprehension strategies and fluency Co-taught –Content specialist and interventionist AM and AR

Evaluate the Intervention

Growth Standards for Maze Modest =.15 Realistic =.25 Ambitious =.35

Tier III

Reading Comprehension Occurs when the reader develops mental representations of the text and uses them to interpret the text (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). Critically low among middle- and high- school students (RAND Reading Research Group, 2002).

Comprehension is affected by 1 & 2) Background knowledge and vocabulary 3) Correct inferences about reading 4) Word reading skill 5) Strategy use (Cromley & Azevedo, 2007)

Previewing (Graves et al., 1983) 1.Provide each student the text 2.Provide a synopsis 3.Ask questions about the topic 4.Describe major story elements: setting, characters, point of view (narration), and description of the plot. 5.Present the names and descriptions of main characters About 15 minutes

Preteach Keyword (Burns et al., 2004) Keywords - “central to understanding the meaning of the reading passage” (Rousseau & Yung Tam, 1991, p. 201) Preteach with Incremental Rehearsal (Tucker, 1989) About 7 minutes

Incremental Rehearsal Developed by Dr. James Tucker (1989) Folding in technique Rehearses one new item at a time Uses instructional level and high repetition

Mean Number of Word Retained

Correlation between retention and receptive vocabulary 1 day 2 days 3 days 7 days 30 days TA DS IR These results are “astounding” (Daly & McCurdy, 2002; p. 457).

Results MeanSDMeanSDMeanSDStatistic Number of Comprehension Questions Correct F = 8.52* Questions correct for each Minute of Instructional TimeNA t = 5.02* BaselinePreviewKeyword p <.025

SC MS 87% of kids below the 10th %ile made MAP reading gains –77% made gains of more than 5 RIT points –The average gain was 12.1 RIT points! 80% of the students in the 11-25th %ile made MAP reading gains. –53% made gains of 5 RIT points or more –Average gain was 8.32 RIT points! 6th grade +4.5, 7th grade +5.9, 8th grade +6.5