Response to Intervention RTI: An Overview for Schools Jim Wright

Response to Intervention

www.interventioncentral.org

RTI: An Overview for SchoolsJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org



Keynote PowerPoints and Related Resources Available at:

• http://www.jimwrightonline.com/jecsd.php

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“The quality of a school as a learning community can be measured by how effectively it addresses the needs of struggling students.”--Wright (2005)

Source: Wright, J. (2005, Summer). Five interventions that work. NAESP Leadership Compass, 2(4) pp.1,6.



School Instructional Time: The Irreplaceable Resource

“In the average school system, there are 330 minutes in the instructional day, 1,650 minutes in the instructional week, and 56,700 minutes in the instructional year. Except in unusual circumstances, these are the only minutes we have to provide effective services for students. The number of years we have to apply these minutes is fixed. Therefore, each minute counts and schools cannot afford to support inefficient models of service delivery.” p. 177

Source: Batsche, G. M., Castillo, J. M., Dixon, D. N., & Forde, S. (2008). Best practices in problem analysis. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp. 177-193).



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 education’s responsibility to find the instructional

strategies that will unlock the student’s 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.



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.



NYSED RTI Guidance Memo: April 2008

Source: DeLorenzo, J. P., & Stevens, J. C. (April 2008). Implementation of response to intervention programs. [Memorandum issued by New York State Education Department]. Retrieved November 25, 2008, from http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/RTI.htm





The Regents policy framework for RtI:

4. Authorizes the use of RtI in the State's criteria to determine learning disabilities (LD) and requires, effective July 1, 2012, that all school districts have an RtI program in place as part of the process to determine if a student in grades K-4 is a student with a learning disability in the area of reading. “Effective on or after July 1, 2012, a school district shall not use the severe discrepancy criteria to determine that a student in kindergarten through grade four has a learning disability in the area of reading.” [8 NYCRR section 200.4(j)]

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Source: DeLorenzo, J. P., & Stevens, J. C. (April 2008). Implementation of response to intervention programs. [Memorandum issued by New York State Education Department]. Retrieved November 25, 2008, from http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/RTI.htm



RTI ‘Pyramid of Interventions’

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 1: Universal interventions. Available to all students in a classroom or school. Can consist of whole-group or individual strategies or supports.

Tier 2 Individualized interventions. Subset of students receive interventions targeting specific needs.

Tier 3: Intensive interventions. Students who are ‘non-responders’ to Tiers 1 & 2 are referred to the RTI Team for more intensive interventions.



Source: New York State Education Department. (October 2010). Response to Intervention: Guidance for New York State School Districts. Retrieved November 10, 2010, from http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/RTI/guidance-oct10.pdf; p. 12



Tier 1 Core InstructionTier I core instruction:• Is universal—available to all students.• Can be delivered within classrooms or throughout the school. • Is an ongoing process of developing strong classroom instructional

practices to reach the largest number of struggling learners.

All children have access to Tier 1 instruction/interventions. Teachers have the capability to use those strategies without requiring outside assistance.

Tier 1 instruction encompasses:

• The school’s core curriculum.• All published or teacher-made materials used to deliver that curriculum.• Teacher use of ‘whole-group’ teaching & management strategies.

Tier I instruction addresses this question: Are strong classroom instructional strategies sufficient to help the student to achieve academic success?



Tier I (Classroom) InterventionTier 1 intervention:

• Targets ‘red flag’ students who are not successful with core instruction alone.

• Uses ‘evidence-based’ strategies to address student academic or behavioral concerns.

• Must be feasible to implement given the resources available in the classroom.

Tier I intervention addresses the question: Does the student make adequate progress when the instructor uses specific academic or behavioral strategies matched to the presenting concern?



Tier 1: Grade-Level Team or Consultant

Who consults on the student case?:• Choice A: The teacher brings the student to a

grade-level meeting to develop an intervention plan, check up on the plan in 4-8 weeks.

• Choice B: The teacher sits down with a consultant (selected from a roster or assigned to the classroom or grade level). Together, consultant and teacher develop an intervention, check up on the plan in 4-8 weeks.

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Tier 1: Grade-Level Team or ConsultantWhat is the next step if the student is a non-

responder?:• Choice A: The student case is referred to a single

‘clearinghouse’ person in the school (e.g., reading teacher, school psychologist, assistant principal) who can review the case and match the student to any appropriate Tier 2 services if available. If the student case is unique, it may be referred directly to the Tier 3 Problem-Solving Team.

• Choice B [Preferred]: The student case is referred to the school or grade-level Tier 2 Data Team. The Team places the student into appropriate Tier 2 services if available—or may decide to refer directly to the Tier 3 Problem-Solving Team.

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Tier 2: Supplemental (Group-Based) Interventions(Standard Treatment Protocol)

Tier 2 interventions are typically delivered in small-group format. About 15% of students in the typical school will require Tier 2/supplemental intervention support. Group size for Tier 2 interventions is limited to 3-5 students.

Students placed in Tier 2 interventions should have a shared profile of intervention need.

Programs or practices used in Tier 2 interventions should be ‘evidence-based’.

The progress of students in Tier 2 interventions are monitored at least 2 times per month.

Source: Burns, M. K., & Gibbons, K. A. (2008). Implementing response-to-intervention in elementary and secondary schools. Routledge: New York.



Tier 2: Data TeamWho makes up the Data Team and what is its purpose?:• The Data Team is a school-wide or grade-specific team that

typically includes classroom teachers, a school administrator, and perhaps other participants.

• The Data Team reviews school-wide screening data (e.g., DIBELS NEXT, AimsWeb) three times per year to determine which students are at risk and require supplemental (Tier 2) intervention.

• The Team continues to meet (e.g., monthly) to review student progress and to move students out of, into or across Tier 2 groups depending on progress and classroom performance.

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Tier 2: Data TeamWho makes up the Data Team and what is its

purpose? (Cont):• The Data Team can also take Tier 1 (classroom) referrals for

struggling students who were not picked up in the academic screening(s) but are showing serious academic difficulties.

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Scheduling Elementary Tier 2 Interventions

Source: Burns, M. K., & Gibbons, K. A. (2008). Implementing response-to-intervention in elementary and secondary schools: Procedures to assure scientific-based practices. New York: Routledge.

Classroom 1 Classroom 2 Classroom 3Grade K

Classroom 1 Classroom 2 Classroom 3Grade 1





Anyplace Elementary School: RTI Daily Schedule

Option 3: ‘Floating RTI’:Gradewide Shared Schedule. Each grade has a scheduled RTI time across classrooms. No two grades share the same RTI time. Advantages are that outside providers can move from grade to grade providing push-in or pull-out services and that students can be grouped by need across different teachers within the grade.

9:00-9:30

9:45-10:15

10:30-11:00

12:30-1:00

1:15-1:45

2:00-2:30



Tier 2: Data TeamWhat is the next step if the student is a non-

responder?:• The Data Team refers the student to the Tier 3 RTI Problem-

Solving Team if the student fails to make acceptable progress during at least one intervention trial.

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Tier 3: Intensive Individualized Interventions(Problem-Solving Protocol)

Tier 3 interventions are the most intensive offered in a school setting.

Students qualify for Tier 3 interventions because:– they are found to have a large skill gap when compared to their class or grade

peers; and/or– They did not respond to interventions provided previously at Tiers 1 & 2.

Tier 3 interventions are provided daily for sessions of 30 minutes or more. The student-teacher ratio is flexible but should allow the student to receive intensive, individualized instruction.

The reading progress of students in Tier 3 interventions is monitored at least weekly.

Source: Burns, M. K., & Gibbons, K. A. (2008). Implementing response-to-intervention in elementary and secondary schools. Routledge: New York.



Tier 3: RTI Problem-Solving Team

How does a referral come in to the Problem-Solving Team?:

• Referral route A: The Tier 2 Data Team meets periodically to review student progress. If a student is found not to be making expected progress, he or she can then be referred on to the RTI Team.

• Referral route B: If the school lacks a ‘standard treatment’ Tier 2 intervention for a student concern (e.g., behavior, math), the student may be referred directly from Tier 1 to Tier 3 via a teacher referral.

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Tier 3: RTI Problem-Solving Team

Who consults on the student case?:• The RTI Problem-Solving Team is a multi-

disciplinary team that consults with the teacher at the RTI Team Meeting.

• The school may also want to have other staff (e.g., school nurse, math title teacher) available to attend RTI Team meetings on an as-needed basis for specific student cases.

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Tier 3: RTI Problem-Solving TeamWhat is the next step if the student is a non-

responder?:• The school district should adopt uniform ‘decision rules’ that

indicate when a student should be referred on to the Special Education Eligibility Team. Example: A district decided that –across Tiers 2 and 3—a student should go through at least 3 separate interventions of 6-8 instructional weeks each before that student could be designated a ‘non-responder’ and referred to Special Education.

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Activity: Select Your Major RTI Challenges…

In your teams:

• Discuss the major challenges facing your school in implementing RTI.

• What are up to three key topics that your team would want to have discussed in the remainder of today’s workshop?



Tier 1: Developing the Capacity for Classroom Teachers to Become Intervention ‘First Responders’

Jim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org



RTI ‘Pyramid of Interventions’

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 1: Universal interventions. Available to all students in a classroom or school. Can consist of whole-group or individual strategies or supports.

Tier 2 Individualized interventions. Subset of students receive interventions targeting specific needs.

Tier 3: Intensive interventions. Students who are ‘non-responders’ to Tiers 1 & 2 are referred to the RTI Team for more intensive interventions.



The Key Role of Classroom Teachers in RTI: 6 Steps

1. The teacher defines the student academic or behavioral problem clearly.

2. The teacher decides on the best explanation for why the problem is occurring.

3. The teacher selects ‘evidence-based’ interventions.4. The teacher documents the student’s Tier 1 intervention plan.5. The teacher monitors the student’s response (progress) to the

intervention plan.6. The teacher knows what the next steps are when a student fails

to make adequate progress with Tier 1 interventions alone.

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Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: 7 Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Interventions




‘Teacher Tolerance’ as an Indicator of RTI Intervention Capacity

“I call the range of students whom [teachers] come to view as adequately responsive – i.e., teachable – as the tolerance; those who are perceived to be outside the tolerance are those for whom teachers seek additional resources. The term “tolerance” is used to indicate that teachers form a permissible boundary on their measurement (judgments) in the same sense as a confidence interval. In this case, the teacher actively measures the distribution of responsiveness in her class by processing information from a series of teaching trials and perceives some range of students as within the tolerance.” (Gerber, 2002)

Source: Gerber, M. M. (2003). Teachers are still the test: Limitations of response to instruction strategies for identifying children with learning disabilities. Paper presented at the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities Responsiveness-to-Intervention Symposium, Kansas City, MO.



RTI & ‘Teacher Reluctance’The willingness of teachers to implement interventions is essential in any school to the success of the RTI model. Yet general-education teachers may not always see themselves as ‘interventionists’ and indeed may even resist the expectation that they will provide individualized interventions as a routine part of their classroom practice (Walker, 2004).

It should be remembered, however, that teachers’ reluctance to accept elements of RTI may be based on very good reasons. Here are some common reasons that teachers might be reluctant to accept their role as RTI intervention ‘first responders’…

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Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: 7 Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI

Interventions• Lack of Skills. Teachers lack the skills necessary to

successfully implement academic or behavioral interventions in their content-area classrooms (Fisher, 2007; Kamil et al., 2008).

• Not My Job. Teachers define their job as providing content-area instruction. They do not believe that providing classwide or individual academic and behavioral interventions falls within their job description (Kamil et al., 2008).




Interventions(Cont.)

• No Time. Teachers do not believe that they have sufficient time available in classroom instruction to implement academic or behavioral interventions (Kamil et al., 2008; Walker, 2004).

• No Payoff. Teachers lack confidence that there will be an adequate instructional pay-off if they put classwide or individual academic or behavioral interventions into place in their content-area classroom (Kamil et al., 2008).




Interventions (Cont.)

• Loss of Classroom Control. Teachers worry that if they depart from their standard instructional practices to adopt new classwide or individual academic or behavior intervention strategies, they may lose behavioral control of the classroom (Kamil et al., 2008).

• ‘Undeserving Students’. Teachers are unwilling to invest the required effort to provide academic or behavioral interventions for unmotivated students (Walker, 2004) because they would rather put that time into providing additional attention to well-behaved, motivated students who are ‘more deserving’.




Interventions (Cont.)

• The Magic of Special Education. Content-area teachers regard special education services as ‘magic’ (Martens, 1993). According to this view, interventions provided to struggling students in the general-education classroom alone will be inadequate, and only special education services have the power to truly benefit those students.



Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: Seven Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Literacy Interventions

1. Lack of Skills. Teachers lack the skills necessary to successfully implement academic or behavioral interventions in their content-area classrooms.

2. Not My Job. Teachers define their job as providing content-area instruction. They do not believe that providing classwide or individual academic and behavioral interventions falls within their job description.

3. No Time. Teachers do not believe that they have sufficient time available in classroom instruction to implement academic or behavioral interventions.

4. Insufficient Payoff. Teachers lack confidence that there will be an adequate instructional pay-off if they put classwide or individual academic or behavioral interventions into place in their content-area classroom.

5. Loss of Classroom Control. Teachers worry that if they depart from their standard instructional practices to adopt new classwide or individual academic or behavior intervention strategies, they may lose behavioral control of the classroom.

6. ‘Undeserving Students’. Teachers are unwilling to invest the required effort to provide academic or behavioral interventions for unmotivated students because they would rather put that time into providing additional attention to well-behaved, motivated students who are ‘more deserving’.

7. The Magic of Special Education. Content-area teachers regard special education services as ‘magic’. According to this view, interventions provided to struggling students in the general-education classroom alone will be inadequate, and only special education services have the power to truly benefit those students.



Building Teacher Capacity to Deliver Tier 1 Interventions: An 8-Step Checklist Jim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org

























RTI & Intervention: Key Concepts



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.




• 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).




• 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 student’s 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).



“ ”“Teaching is giving; it isn’t 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..




• Modification. A modification changes the expectations of what a student is expected to know or do—typically 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



Setting Individual Student RTI Academic Goals Using Research Norms





To set a goal for student academic performance, four elements are needed:

• The student’s baseline academic performance. Prior to starting the intervention, the teacher calculates baseline performance by assessing the target student several times with the academic measure that will be used to measure that student’s progress once the intervention begins.

• Estimate of ‘typical’ peer performance. The teacher has a reliable estimate of expected or typical peer performance on the academic measure that will be used to measure the target student’s progress.

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To set a goal for student academic performance, four elements are needed (cont.):

• Estimate of expected weekly progress. The teacher selects a rate of weekly academic progress that the target student is expected to attain if the intervention is successful.

• Number of weeks for the intervention trial. The teacher decides on how many weeks the RTI intervention will last, as the cumulative, final academic goal can be calculated only when the entire timespan of the intervention is known.

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How to Set a Student Goal

1. The teacher collects at least 3 baseline observations from the target student using alternate forms of the progress-monitoring measure (e.g., CBM oral reading fluency passages). The median baseline observation is selected to serve as the student’s starting (baseline) performance.

2. The teacher subtracts the student’s baseline from the estimate of typical peer performance for that grade level supplied by the research norms to calculate the academic performance gap that is to be closed during the intervention.

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3. The teacher decides how many instructional weeks the intervention will be in place (e.g., 8 weeks).

4. The teacher selects grade-appropriate norms for academic growth per week supplied by the research norms.

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How to Set a Student GoalRecommendations for using this approach: Research norms for student performance and academic growth are the ‘gold standard’ in goal-setting, as they provide fixed, external standards for proficiency that are not influenced by variable levels of student skill in local classrooms. When setting academic goals for struggling students, schools should use research norms whenever they are available. In particular, research norms should be used for high-stakes RTI cases that may be referred at some point to the Special Education Eligibility Team.

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5. The teacher multiplies the grade norm for weekly growth (selected in step 4) by a figure between 1.5 and 2.0 (Shapiro, 2008).( Because the original weekly growth rate represents a typical rate student improvement, the target student’s weekly growth estimate should be adjusted upward to accelerate learning and close the gap separating that student from peers. Multiplying the original weekly growth rate by an amount ranging between1.5 and 2.0 accomplishes this adjustment.)

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6. The teacher next multiplies the weekly growth figure by the total number of weeks that the intervention will be in place. This figure represents the minimum academic growth expected during the intervention.

7. The teacher adds the expected academic growth calculated in the previous step to the student baseline calculated in step 1. This figure represents the final student goal if the intervention is successful.

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How to Set a Student Goal: Example

In December, Mrs. Chandler, a 4th-grade teacher, collected three baseline assessments of a student, Randy, in oral reading fluency using 4th-grade passages. She found that Randy’s median reading rate in these materials was 70 words per minute. Mrs. Chandler consulted research norms in oral reading fluency (Tindal, Hasbrouck & Jones, 2005) and decided that a reasonable minimum reading rate for students by winter of grade 4 (25th percentile) is 87 words per minute. Randy would need to increase his reading rate by 17 words per minute to close this academic achievement gap with peers.

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Sample Reading Fluency Norms

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Source: Tindal, G., Hasbrouck, J., & Jones, C. (2005).Oral reading fluency: 90 years of measurement [Technical report #33]. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon.



How to Set a Student Goal: Example (Cont.)The reading intervention planned for Randy would last 8 instructional weeks. Mrs. Chandler consulted the research norms and noted that a typical rate of growth in reading fluency for a 4th-grade student is 0.9 additional words per week.

Mrs. Chandlers adjusted the 0.9 word growth rate for Randy upward by multiplying it by 1.5 because she realized that he needed to accelerate his learning to catch up with peers. When adjusted upward, the weekly growth rate for Randy increased from 0.9 to 1.35 additional words per minute.

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How to Set a Student Goal: Example (Cont.)Multiplying the expected weekly progress of 1.35 additional words times the 8 weeks of the intervention, Mrs. Chandler found that Randy should acquire at least 11 additional words of reading fluency by the conclusion of the intervention.

She added the 11 words per minute to Randy’s baseline of 70 words per minute and was able to predict that—if the 8-week intervention was successful—Randy would be able to read approximately 81 words per minute.

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How to Set a Student Goal: Example (Cont.) Because Randy would not be expected to fully close the gap with peers in 8 weeks, Mrs. Chandler regarded her intervention goal of 81 words per minute as an intermediate rather than a final goal.

However, if the intervention was successful and the student continued to add 1.35 words per week to his reading fluency, he could be expected to reach an acceptable level of fluency soon.

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Documents

Response to Intervention RTI: An Overview for Schools Jim Wright