1. How to RTI: Creating the Systems and Structures of Response to Intervention
Prepared by Liz Angoff, PhD Response to Intervention Coordinator Oakland Unified School District

2. As a community we do and we can.
There is no way
a single teacher has
all the time,
all the knowledge,
and all the skills
to meet all the needs
of every child
in his or her class(es).
Buffman, Mattos, & Webber 2009
As a community we do and we can.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

3. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Step 1
Understanding RTI
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

4. The right response begins with the right questions
Who are my students? What do they need to learn?
What do they like? What are their talents? What skills are they coming in with?
What don’t they like? What is difficult for them? What skills are they lacking? What have they forgotten over the summer?
Why are some struggling? What other skills do they need to learn?
Even with the best curriculum and the best teacher, some students will struggle.
Often, students struggle predictably: we know some students will need repetition, different presentations, or certain skill reinforcement.
Some student present more complex puzzles – we will need to dig deeper to learn how to help them.
Did it work? Is there another way to teach them?
We keep track of student progress to determine if our extra help helped them.
If the student still struggles, we get more information and we try again.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

5. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Response to Intervention is a systematic, intentional way of asking these questions.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

6. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
The RTI Framework
RTI is thought of as a 3-tiered system of intervention:
Tier 1 (>80%): what we do for all students within the core classroom
Tier 2 (<15%): what we do for some students who need additional supports to be successful in school or the community
Tier 3 (<5%): what we do for individual students who need specific supports to be successful in school or the community
When students need additional support beyond Tier 3, Special Education may be considered
This framework may be applied to academic, behavioral or other community needs
<5%
<15%
>80%
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

7. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
The RTI Framework
Tiers of support, or intervention, build on each other
Students with higher needs still need the supports within the classroom
Tiers 2 and 3 are not “place” to “send” students but rather ways of increasing and specializing support based on student needs
Most of our current research on intervention focuses on reading and behavior; other areas are emerging
Our end goal is student success within the classroom, supporting as many students as possible through Tier 1 instruction and intervention
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

8. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
The RTI Framework
Tier 1 may look like:
Screening measures for all students
Professional Learning Communities analyzing student learning
Workshop time to target specific skill needs in small groups
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

9. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
The RTI Framework
Tier 2 may look like:
Diagnostic assessment to determine specific skill needs
Coordination of Services or Student Study Team to design appropriate supports for a student
Smaller groups and more time focused on a specific skill
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

10. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
The RTI Framework
Tier 3 may look like:
Additional diagnostic assessment and consultation with a specialist to determine individual student needs
Student Study Team meeting to ensure all student needs are being addressed
Even smaller group and even more time focused on specific skill needs
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

11. The RTI Pyramid Did it work? Now what do we do? TIER 3 Intensify!
Progress Monitoring
TIER 2
Why are some
still struggling? What other skills do they need?
Now what do we do?
Problem Solving
Different types of data are collected at each level to better understand the students.
Problem solving happens all along to ensure we know the best ways to work with this group of students or this individual students.
Progress monitoring is key to ensuring the child is responding to the instruction, and for us to respond quickly when s/he is not.
TIER 1
Who are our students? What do they need to learn?
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

12. What is RTI? A formal definition
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a data-driven, multi-tiered approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behavioral needs.  The RTI process begins with high-quality instruction, universal screening and discrete data analysis of all children in the general education classroom.  Struggling learners are provided with interventions at increasing levels of intensity, specific to their skill needs, in order to accelerate their rate of learning.  When students continue to struggle despite interventions, a team of educators come together in a problem solving process to identify the specific needs of the most at-risk students.  RTI is not a program but a process: a way to identify who is at-risk and, more importantly, why.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

13. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Step 2
Understanding RTI
Identifying what we already have
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

14. Use what you have To get what you want
You likely have many of the “RTI” elements in place already; connecting the dots and systematizing these elements is key to creating successful intervention systems.
To identify your site’s strengths and needs, choose one of the following:
Use this presentation to assess your site’s current capacity for:
Data: Screening, Diagnostic and Progress Monitoring systems
Problem solving: PLCs, COST and SST
Intervention: Core and More
Use the RTI Rubric at under Library of Links
Use a more formal inventory such as the Self Assessment of Problem solving Implementation (SAPSI) from
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

15. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Step 3
Understanding RTI
Identifying what we already have
Creating systems
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

16. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
The Big 3
Response to Intervention can be thought of as having three main components:
DATA is the driving force behind RTI. The tools we use to assess and monitor student learning must tell us not only who is struggling, but why.
PROBLEM SOLVING is a collaborative process to determine how to improve learning for the whole classroom, small groups with similar difficulties, and individual students.
INTERVENTION refers to the action taken when a students is not learning for any reason. The intervention should be research-verified and specifically address the skill need of the student, with the goal of helping them to successfully access the general classroom and curriculum.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

17. Data Systems Universal Screening Diagnostic Assessment
Progress Monitoring
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

18. Collecting Useful Data Why CST and Benchmark scores are not enough
We collect data on our students constantly through formal and informal measures – all of these forms of data are important for understanding who our students are and how they are changing throughout the year
State tests (CST) provide summative information once each year – they can tell us who is struggling, but not why
Benchmark scores provide summative information at regular intervals based on broad standards – success or failure on a given standard may be due to a number of factors; we still don’t know why a student struggles
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

19. Collecting Useful Data Painting a whole picture
To be truly responsive, we need to know more about what students can and cannot do. These measures help us identify their specific skill needs. Universal Screening: A general measure given to all students targeting basic skills in an academic area or behavior. These assessments are quick and easily administered. They are often described as “taking a temperature”. These are different that CST or Benchmark tests because they address specific underlying skills. Diagnostic Assessment: A targeted measure given to some students to identify a specific skill deficit. The results of these assessments may be linked directly to targeted interventions. Progress Monitoring: A quick measure given to students receiving intervention designed to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction and determine if students are learning the intended skill.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

20. Collecting Useful Data Examples of Measures
Academic (Reading)
Behavior
Universal Screening
DIBELS
AIMSweb
CORE Literacy Library
Diagnostic Assessment
CORE Phonics Survey or BPST
Qualitative Reading Inventory
Diagnostic Reading Assessment
Progress Monitoring
Easycbm.com
Universal Screening
Student Risk Screening Scale
Discipline referrals or other behavioral data kept on all students
Diagnostic Assessment
Please ask your School Psychologist or Mental Health professional for diagnostic measures in this area
Progress Monitoring
Goal-focused daily/weekly contracts
Check-in, check-out systems
Regular observations
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

21. Problem Solving Systems Professional Learning Communities
Coordination of Services Team
Student Study Team
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

22. Problem Solving As a community we can
Problem Solving teams exist at every tier: for all students, for small groups of students with similar difficulties, and for individual students needing specialized support.
These teams identify who is not learning and ask:
Why are they not learning?
What do they need to learn?
How can we best help them to learn it?
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

23. Problem Solving Tier 1: Professional Learning Communities
A PLC is a group of educators committed to working collaboratively in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research in order to achieve better results for the students they serve. (Richard and Rebecca DuFour).
PLCs emphasize student learning, closely examining student data and performance to determine who is responding to instruction and strategically intervene when students are not responding.
A PLC looks at learning for ALL students and examines how to maximize student learning in the classroom using Tier 1 intervention.
For more information and resources: under the Problem Solving tab
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

24. Problem Solving Tiers 2 & 3: Coordination of Services Team
COST is a team of school support staff, along with the principal, that meets regularly to review referrals for struggling students. Referrals are then handed over to the appropriate support staff member such as the intervention teacher, nurse or psychologist for intervention.
This team often focuses on many students at once and may organize a single intervention for common difficulties (Tier 2 intervention).
The COST keeps track of the effectiveness of the interventions which is then communicated to the teachers, parent, or other provider.
For more information on COST: - under the Problem Solving tab
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

25. Problem Solving Tiers 2 & 3: Student Success Team
An SST is a school site team that includes the parents, student, teachers and principal, as well as any other needed support staff
The SST focuses on one student and his or her development as a successful student and community member
The results of an SST may include referral to a Tier 2 intervention or a more individualized, Tier 3 intervention
SSTs serve as one way to document data on a student’s skill development over time; action items may include progress monitoring of one of the specific areas of concern
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

26. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Intervention
Systems
Core + More
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

27. Intervention What do we do about it?
Interventions must be:
Research-verified and implemented with fidelity
Implemented by a trained staff member
Aligned with specific skill needs of the student
Monitored over time
Flexible and responsive
Interventions should be:
Part of Core instruction and regular classroom practice
Focused on student need, not on assigning students to a specific “tier” – tiers may look different in different schools
We have stopped thinking rigidly in terms of defining “Tier 1” or Tier 2” or “Tier 3” intervention and have starting thinking more of “Core” and “More” – the more being dependent on student need. Some schools are able to give pull out intervention with a specialist while some schools use additional resources such as the after school program, or other schools add additional time to workshop and are more targeted with this time to create more intensive intervention. All of these “count” as increasing the intensity of the intervention for students. We need to look at the resources we have and needs of our students and design interventions around those factors – not around what other districts define as “Tier X”.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

28. Intervention Helpful systems and structures
Master schedules create a guaranteed time for intervention to ensure all students have access
Flexible groupings mean that students are able enter and exit interventions depending on their progress; for example, one school has an intervention class that changes every 6 weeks based on progress monitoring data
Staff professional development around identifying the need and providing intervention for commonly seen difficulties is critical to building capacity for supporting all students
Professional Learning Communities and other problem solving teams allow for data-based decision making that helps us separate the lack of will from the lack of skill: students struggle to keep up with classroom work for many reasons – a student who is struggling because they are not engaged is different from the student who is struggling because they lack a specific skill
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

29. Interventions Will vs Skill
The intervention must match the need: academic failure and behavioral difficulties are symptoms; we need to figure out the cause
Screening, diagnostic and progress monitoring measures help us identify specific skills students have or do not have
Problem solving teams help us determine the larger context of the learner and the learning environment
If there is a lack of skill, we must intervene in a way that helps the student learn that skill
If there is a lack of will, we must intervene in a way that helps the student become more motivated to learn
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

30. Intervention What doesn’t work
Common current interventions:
Up to each teacher
Summer school
Remedial classes
Special Education
Retention
Detention
Nothing
These are not effective when:
They are not matched to a specific skill
The student progress is not monitored
The student is isolated from regular instruction
There is no plan to change the way we teach
Why don’t these work? No benefit from common experience; can’t remediate 9 months in 2; more of the same doesn’t work; punishment doesn’t work; remedial is not enough.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

31. Intervention What does work
We know a lot about how learning breaks down, especially in the area of reading; therefore, we can predict and prepare for where we will have to intervene, even within the Core program
Research-verified interventions help us be specific about our goals; the more specific the goal, the more likely the progress
Guaranteed access for all students to interventions as needed, and guaranteed exit from interventions as students progress
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

32. Intervention What does work
Visit the OUSD RTI website for a continually expanding list of intervention resources:
Florida Center for Reading Research:
CORE Literacy Library:
Words Their Way:
SIPPS: Systematic Instruction in Phoneme Awareness, Phonics and Sightwords:
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

33. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Step 4
Understanding RTI
Identifying what we already have
Creating systems
Continue to evaluate practices and systems for fidelity and effectiveness
The way school sites accomplish this will be specific to what they are trying to implement. The important part is that we are constantly looking at student data and sharing practices to ensure consistency and effectiveness.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

34. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Ongoing Evaluation
Experience tells us that RTI takes about 3-5 years to implement completely
Set S.M.A.R.T. goals and examine them regularly during PLC, Leadership Team or other staff meeting time
Be patient – even the best “best practice” will need tweaking to truly meet the needs of your community
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

35. Just Do It You can start RTI’ing today
Use data meetings, PLCs and/or SST to determine the CAUSE of the difficulty
Connect specific difficulty with appropriate intervention – look at supplementary materials to core curriculum, community resources, support staff
Ensure the student will have access to that intervention
Monitor student’s response to that intervention
Be specific and patient: success in one area does not guarantee success in all areas
END NOTE: You are already “doing RTI” – now make it systematic
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

36. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Additional Resources
OUSD RTI Website:
National Center on Response to Intervention:
Curriculum Based Measurements for screening and progress monitoring:
Intervention Central to create your own progress monitoring:
DIBELS screening and progress monitoring tools:
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District

37. Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Contact Information
Liz Angoff, PhD School Psychologist, RTI Liaison Programs for Exceptional Children Marcus Foster Site 2850 West Street Oakland, CA (510)
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District