 Response to Intervention ◦ Most often associated with a new and effective special education model for identifying and servicing students ◦ In PA, and more importantly at Pocopson, it is a regular education initiative

A systematic and data-based method for identifying, defining, and resolving students’ academic or behavioral difficulties

 Practice of providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student needs  Practice of using progress monitoring (learning rate over time and level of performance) to make important educational decisions

 RtII is not a stagnant method, it is dynamic and always changing  RtII filters out children that respond to different intervention models  It provides systematic and progressively more intensive instruction  Students in k to 5 receive universal screenings usually administered in the fall

 Discrepancy model required two test  IQ and Achievement  IQ are often unfair or unreliable with some groups  Results provide little help in planning  The process does not determine what will work  Outcomes are not related to the classroom or state expectations  Children must fail before the can qualify for services and therefore earlier interventions is denied.

 People like the discrepancy model because it was cut and dried, yes he qualified for services or no he did not  Discrepancy model was easy to apply  Teachers and parents referred, diagnosticians tested, it was clean and somewhat detached and perceived as objective.

Tier I: Classroom/All Students - Core Class Instruction Tier II: Students not responding to Tier I efforts – group and individual interventions, Specialized Research- based Interventions Tier III: Students not responding to Tier I or II interventions – Sustained Intensive Individual Interventions Possible Special Education Identification for non-responders of Tier III interventions ~80% of Students ~15% ~5% Three Tiered Module

 RtII is :  General education led effort  System to provide instructional intervention immediately upon student need  Process that determines if the child responds to scientific, research-based intervention as a part of the evaluation procedures.  Alternative approach to the diagnosis of a Specific Learning Disabilities. Instead of using the discrepancy model, we can use RtII data

 Not Pre-referral system  Not an Individual teacher  Not an RtII classroom  Not a Special education program  Not an added period of reading instruction  Not a separate, stand alone initiative

Tier One Functions Universal Screenings and Benchmark Assessments for all 3 times per year Data Analysis Team Begins Student Identification Smaller Groups, Targeted Instruction High Quality Instruction Differentiated Instruction Felexibile Grouping

Tier Two Smaller Groups Targeted Instruction Increased Assessment

Tier 3 Could B special Education, does not have to be Intensive Small Group Instruction Increased Progress Monitoring

 System permits students to move between tiers of intervention based on progress toward benchmarks and IST review  Special education re-evaluations available to permit students to move between general and special education

Student Encounters a Problem

Interventions decided by regular education teachers are administered immediately

Student encounters Problems Interventions decided by regular education teachers are administered immediately Intervention Works

Student encounters Problems Interventions Decided by regular education teachers are administered immediately Intervention Works Continue intervention or return to regular instruction

Student encounters Problems Interventions Decided by regular education teachers are administered immediately Intervention WorksIntervention Does not work Try a different Intervention or move to special education Continue intervention or return to regular instruction

 Students that demonstrate skills that put them at risk for reading failure had to wait sometimes years before the discrepancy was large enough  With RtII, validated procedures are implemented and student progress is monitored throughout intervention  Students that do not progress after receiving three increasingly intensive levels of instruction are either identified as being LD or referred for further treatment

 No Delay in receiving interventions  Reduces inappropriate referrals, no Gifted kids on grade level  Poor teaching not a reason for referral into special education  Assessments leads to interventions  No stigma. All students enter the process- Roulette- all kids moving between groups  Separates low achievers from students with needs

 Can be used for RtII identification and can be used in the traditional process  Oral reading rate  Math performance on facts tests  Writing samples

 The teachers begins to becomes the specialist, the diagnostician all part of a team  We examine reading, look at the symptoms and make suggestions for correction similar to the medical model  Imagine you are a team of doctors throwing different ideas at each other trying to cure a problem.  In your case, the problem is reading and not medical

 One large team made up of two groups was trained ◦ The core team was made up of Two classroom teachers ( gradechairs) from First and second grade, A special education teacher, IST and the principal ◦ The consultative team was a group of people that had specific skills that served as resources to the core team

Core Team Consul t Team

Core Team First Grade Team Second Grade Team Consult Team

Core Team First Grade Team Second Grade Team Consult Team Special Area Teache rs

Core Team First Grade Team Second Grade Team Consult Team Special Area Teache rs ??? Grades Three, four Five

 We already Have much of this in place ◦ We have a tier system somewhat set-up ◦ We have some universal assessments in place and a process for delivering the assessments ◦ We have staff to support the process ◦ We have many of the materials we need ◦ A forum for sharing information- Extended Mondays

Tier One - 85 % of the students should be here ◦ Requires a team teaching the same thing ◦ Fidelity of materials ◦ Fidelity of instructional practices ◦ Will Involve students moving between classes ◦ Smaller groupings ◦ Mixed groupings

 Tier Two ◦ Similar format with small flexible changing groups ◦ Students will not necessarily know who is in what group ◦ Progress monitoring by teachers ◦ Administer a different intervention that the standard curriculum

 Tier Three ◦ Similar format with small flexible changing groups ◦ Students will not necessarily know who is in what group ◦ Progress monitoring by teachers ◦ Administer a different intervention that Tier Two ◦ Could be special education. May not be