 | RTI - Response to Intervention |
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This forum is for use by the HISD District RTI Team. Use it to post insights and ideas gained from the readings and discussions we, as a district team, have about designing a RTI-Student Support Guide. The forum will be reviewed by other members of the RTI team and district administrators. You are not required to use your name or campus to post...but why not, we're all friends here. We will also post meeting agendas and decisions to this forum to work smarter for the benefit of Hereford children. District RTI team members: Angie Cave, Betty Coneway, Brenda Bice, Briar Head, Caroline Gilley, Claudia Ritchey, Cuca Salinas, D’Ann Blair, Debbie Smith, Heidi Brewer, Jana Davis, Jeanie Birkenfeld, Johnette Stribling, Kristi Jones (substituting for Melissa Martinez), Linda Romo, Lori Lomas, Mark Stokes, Mendy Warlick, Ortencia Mendez, Patricia Harshey, Ruth Ann Vessels, Trisha Giacomazzi, Yolanda Gavina |
 | Additional Terms - Educate ourselves Wiki |
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Please use this as an ongoing Forum - add your understanding of key terms and concepts. There are a few RTI terms that you will want to be familiar with as we go through the learning process: Screener- "a test or testing carried out routinely on supposedly healthy people in order to establish, as early as possible, whether or not they have an illness or disease" For our purposes, an assessment provided for all children; early and repeatedly to determine deficits in learning readiness. Three Tier (Multi-Tiered)-Incorporates prevention and intervention; based on a screening process with multiple progress monitoring opportunities; successive levels of support increasing in intensity and specificity. CBM - Curriculum Based Measurement - Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM) is often used to collect data on interventions and their effectiveness. CBM has over 30 years of scientific support (www.studentprogress.org). Response to intervention is based on discovering what works best for an individual student, not what might be the 'best' intervention for everyone. Additional methods are tried until students 'respond' to the intervention and improve their skills. Students that do not respond, or respond at significantly low rates, are deemed to have biologically-based learning disabilities, not simply learning difficulties. Problem Solving Decision Making - 1-Is there a problem and what is it? 2-Why is it happening? 3-What are we going to do about it? 4-Did our intervention work? (Edited by Sam Curtsinger - original submission Monday, 21 January 2008, 09:58 AM) (Edited by Sam Curtsinger - original submission Monday, 21 January 2008, 10:23 AM) |
| SEDL Letter |
| Add questions/comments: |
| Re: SEDL Letter |
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As a parent, I want the best school for my kids. As an educator, I can tell that HISD has strived to do just so. Our schools help our students to acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities to pursure whatever dream they are chasing. As I read the SEDL letter, I began to realize the importance of having an RTI program in our school system. I do believe the RTI Core Principles are all important, but I reflected more on the first one. In order for me to teach all children, I must always believe in all of them to succeed. Not to long ago I had been online doing some research on comprehension strategies. I happen to come across an article that talked about educators who were always on top of the latest research. I cannot remember everything I read, but I happened to jot down these words...."It's not just the method, it's the teacher's responsibility to help all children to make progress in their reading abilities." Reading through the SEDL letter, I can agree with core principle number one. I "am responsible for identifying and fostering conditions that promote learning for all children." |
| Re: SEDL Letter |
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Linda makes a great case for identifying our beliefs as a school district / campus / educator so that when the tough cases/students come our way we can make the best decisions on the grounded (and founded) belief that "All means All"...all the time. What are your educational beliefs? Are they in line with the district beliefs? Do you know the districts beliefs? If not, how can we do a better job of communicating these between each other and for our students/parents/community? |
| Re: SEDL Letter |
| After reading the SEDL letter several questions came to mind. I'm sure that these questions might be premature and will be discussed as we get further into the RTI/discussion process. However, my first questions is "How do we know if an intervention is scientifically research based??" I noted the NCLB definition on pg 29, but I must admit it was very hard for me to interpret. The McCook Introduction did provide examples of research based interventions but I'm sure it didn't list all accepted programs. The Earobics program listed on page 34 is a current program that I use and I would like to know if other programs I use qualify as research based. Does it have to be a program or can it be a strategy?? Do we have access to peer reviewed journals?? Question 2: When a child makes adequate progress in Tier II and is reintegrated into Tier I, are they monitored differently for a period of time to make sure they are successful without the Teir II interventions??? How does that transition play out? Also, I do feel that redefining the roles of educators will be a challenge. I would be interested in reading the document they pointed out on pg32 titled New Roles in Response to Intervention: Creating Success for Schools and Children. Thanks, Briar |
| Re: SEDL Letter |
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Briar Here are some thoughts (you might call them answers) to your questions? Finding scientifically research based (SRB) interventions is not that hard. The Florida Center for Reading Research provides me with lots of quality information: http://www.fcrr.org/ Another source is the University of Oregon. http://reading.uoregon.edu/ I struggle with only using research based programs because I want to support action research by professionals in our district. A balance is needed. When we begin the process of developing a resource guide for Hereford ISD we will include not only "programs", but strategies as well. Very often a slight adjustment will yield intended results, there is no need to turn on all the "bells and whistles." Progress Monitoring - your second question is where we have a big deficit. If we build progress monitoring (beginning with effective screening) into all of our tiers we build assurances from failure. So - YES - there is a plan to have progress monitoring at all tiers and with all interventions. |
| Re: SEDL Letter |
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I also struggle with the "scientifically based research" term. If my understanding is correct, only interventions that have been tested using experimental or quasi-experimental design would qualify. I agree that redefining roles will be a challenge. You can access peer-reviewed journals through Digital Knowledge Central databases, such as Ebsco. If you need detailed information on this, you can check with your school librarian. Betty Coneway |
| Re: SEDL Letter - What is SBR |
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Here is a link to what the Federal government thinks is Scientifically Based Research (SBR). This link also provides guidance for reviewing research. http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/html/science/stanovich.html |
| Re: SEDL Letter - What is SBR |
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This link Kelli gave us was very helpful in defining Scientifically Based Research (SBR). Toward the end of the brochure article, it gave another link to the "What Works Clearinghouse". http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/ This site has interventions listed with a key to show how well they have worked with actual students. You can create your own table of interventions to try with an individual. There are many effective interventions out there, we just need to have a plan about funding, sharing resources, and choosing the appropriate intervention for the child. |
| McCook Introduction |
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| Re: McCook Introduction |
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Reading the McCook Intro..and reading the different jobs of the Tiers, does this mean we will have a group of people at each campus to be the designated interventionist? I know at Tier 1 the interventionist is the teacher. Who is the interventionist team? Where are the district beliefs listed? |
| Re: McCook Introduction |
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Good question Linda...What does the district believe? Who is the district? Do our beliefs (or lack of) drive our practices? The McCook model is one...it will be up to us as a team to determine what the HISD plan looks like. Although each intervention is SRB, the plan that we build can be bits and pieces of what we read/learn/choose to meet the needs of HISD. |
| podcast - No Quick Fix |
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http://www.reading.org/downloads/podcasts/II-Allington.mp3(MP3 audio) |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
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What impacted me from listening to this podcast was the importance of coordination between all the tiers. Interventions must be linked and alligned to the core classroom instruction and support the student in general education - the extra help should not be a completely separate agenda. This will require communication and shared knowledge with all involved. Another topic that interested me was the idea of "accelerated learning". We cannot just assist the student in not falling further behind, but accelerate their learning to "catch up" to grade level expectation. Betty Coneway |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
| Hmm, does that mean Tiered instruction works for GT? |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
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When I look at the graphic of the 3 Tiered model that is divided down the middle for academics and behavior, it makes me think that maybe we can deal with behavior separately and replace it with Accelerated instruction instead. Not only for GT students, but acceleration for all other students. If not acceleration, then what about enrichment? I don't know that it is realistic, but that would be my perfect world. |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
| I was questioned the other day about only bringing the low students (reading, behavior, whatever) up to a threshold...but ignoring the need to accelerate every child. I agree that a really good model can be used to implement interventions of all levels for each child. How can we create such an environment so that educators will be comfortable in designing work and not feel that it's just MORE work? |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
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On the TEA website I found a site that looks at the 3 Tiered model in 4 different schools. I found it very interesting and thought I would share it. Here is the link http://www.texasldcenter.org/ |
| Lori has provided a great resource - check it out! |
| There are some really great links on this site regarding 3-Tier Reading. Also tools for introducing RTI to staff. |
| Re: Lori has provided a great resource - check it out! |
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This website provided thought-provoking information. I looked at the Action Plan, Implementation model and Needs Assessment Tool. Much of the information contained in these documents were campus based. Therefore, my question goes back to, "Where will the locus of control for RTI be?" "Is this an individual campus initiative, supported by the district or will our RTI plan be initiated at the district level and carried out by each campus?" I believe we must answer this foundational question before moving on with any detailed plans. I also think at some point we need a type of Needs Assessment and/or Action Plan to focus our planning for RTI. Lori, thanks for sharing this website with us! Betty |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
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It was no surprise to hear him say that class size/group size does matter, and that it is almost impossible to successfully intervene when there is a ration of more than 1-3, but that the most successful would be one to one tutoring. Of course this depends greatly on the quality of instruction being delivered. This leads me to the comment he made about who is the most successful at providing these interventions. He stated that more gains would be seen when instruction came from the reading specialist followed by the teacher, then the paraprofessional, and finally a volunteer. |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
| Given the statement about the who could be predicted to get the desired results...how can a campus administrator re-organize resources? If the district provides only a portion of the resources, can a campus make up the difference? Or is it the district's responsibility? |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
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Just like anything else that is new to our district, it does require that administrators and teachers keep up with the developments in the field and adjust our programs accordingly. "Professional cooperation among teachers must be fostered as a critical component of program continuity."...Wepner I do believe a campus can make up the difference. |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
| We will need to discuss the levels of support - implementation - evaluation that each level of our organization provide. A "program" determined by central office with no buy-in at the campus level will certainly fail. However, an initiative born at the campus without district support will be unable to sustain. A deliberate design is important to the success of RTI in Hereford. |
| Re: podcast - No Quick Fix |
| Very interesting discussion on why interventions work and why some do not. How true when he said that if the intervention speacialist and classroom teacher are not communicating then there will be very little impact on the student's learning. Also how many of our students who are struggling are truly taught on a 1 to 3 ratio. Proven results come from smaller groups when interventions are used, but how many times do we simply make the groups smaller by a 1 to 7 ratio. Really had some good points. |
| New Website - National Clearinghouse for RTI |
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Good article on screening and for general definitions of RTI as it relates to specific learning disorders. Also includes case study profiles. |
| When would you like to work? |
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Please use this thread to share the times that are best for us to share our learning and decisions. Do you prefer during the school day with substitutes? Do you prefer at the end of the day (3:30)? Do you prefer Saturdays or evenings with compensation? |
| Re: When would you like to work? |
| I prefer after school or Saturdays. I just don't like to be out of my class a lot with TAKS coming up. |
| Re: When would you like to work? |
| I prefer after school or Saturday. I don't like being out of my class . |
| Re: When would you like to work? |
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I would prefer to meet for RTI evenings, Saturdays or afterschool. I really do not like to plan for a substitute. I know my students make more progress when I am in class. Thanks, Caroline |
| Re: When would you like to work? |
| This time of the year, with track meets starting, I can't be here on Saturdays. I want to watch my son run. Sorry! |
| RTI Action Network |
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This link will take you to a position paper for the RTI Action network. They are funded by the Cisco Systems Foundation (which incidently supports the Schlechty Center). I signed up to receive information through the network...you may want to as well. http://www.ncld.org/images/RTI_Action_Network/rtiactionnetwork_program_summary.pdf |
| How to sign up for RTI Action network info |
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You can request info by joining: http://www.ncld.org/content/view/758/534/ |
| Internation Reading Assosciation - RTI: hot, getting hotter |
| http://www.reading.org/publications/reading_today/samples/RTY-0802-rti.html |
| What Principals Need to Know About RTI |
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This attachment was a presentation from Jim Walsh and highlights the implications of RTI as it relates to Special Education. For more information talk with Yolanda Gavina |
| Agenda and Minutes March 5 |
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In attendance: Jeanie Birkenfeld , Betty Coneway, Yolanda Gavina, Briar Head, Lori Lomas, Kelli Moulton, Claudia Ritchey, Cuca Salinas, RuthAnn Vessels, Mendy Warlick SEE ATTACHMENT Remember that although you may not be able to make every meeting, your input is important. Please use this forum to respond to the work accomplished by your team mates. Kelli |
| Agenda and Minutes March 26 |
| Here are the minutes from our March 26 meeting. There is a HOMEWORK assignment for April 2. |
| Minutes 4-2-08 and 4-16-08 HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT |
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Attached are the minutes from our last two meetings. Please note a homework assignment...due May 7, 2008. I encourage you to read and re-read information on RTI...each time I review this information, it takes on new meaning because I am a little bit smarter each day. Thanks for your time and energy. I know that there are times when you would just like me to say "Here it is. Do it!" But remember that collectively we are smarter than just the sum of each of us. |
| Re: Minutes 4-2-08 and 4-16-08 HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT |
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I like to think that I, too, get smarter everytime I read a new piece of any of the information I am reading. In the section entitled What can parents do to help with interventions? I like that it suggests to be able to develop some informal or preliminary interventions at Tier 1. The teacher and the parent may agree to try one or more strategies to help the student overcome the challenge...I think parent involvement needs to increase in our school settings. I have also read in two places (I'm sure it's stated in other parts of our readings) the features of RtI should be implemented with fidelity. I think that we should be using our resources with fidelity. |
| Re: RTI - TEAMS Follow-Up |
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RtI Teams Follow Up You may register online with Region 16. |
| RTI Training @ ESC16 - September 19, 2008 |
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Region 16 Education Service Center Subscription Service RTI and the Classroom Teacher This workshop will provide a comprehensive overview of Response to Intervention, an explanation of legal and practical reasons for movement toward RtI, as well as a dispersion of popular “myths” related to the process. The training is designed to help teachers better understand their role in a response to intervention model, elicit the support they need to implement interventions effectively, and anticipate positive outcomes for their students. Session ID: 75115 |
| Forms to consider |
| Attached is a Student Data Referral form and following in a thread is an Intervention Plan form. Please provide comment |
| Re: Forms to consider |
| Intervention form attached |
| Re: Forms to consider |
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I just finished studying our forms. At first I was overwhelemed with what I saw in front of me, but as I slowly (after going back a few more times) read the forms, it made sense to me why certain parts are included. I really liked the parts where the interventions must be listed. The form on page 13 has RtI generally requires 6-8 weeks, I don't remember if we decided on this or just taken from what was available. Are we going to look at each form individually? I would like to do that if time permits. Not that I have alot of question, but just a few. Linda |
| Re: Forms to consider |
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I liked the idea of seperating the packet into two or maybe three sections. I think all teachers would need a copy of the explanation pages (Pgs. 1-6) for reference. What about adding the flow chart (from the Ogonosky training) as a graphic representation to supplement the narrative explanation? Then, as a teacher identifies a student they would like to refer to the Student Assistance Team, they would get the Referral Forms (Pgs. 7 - 18). Then, the Intervention Plan forms (pgs. 19-20) would be filled out at the Student Assistance Team meeting. Copies could be made so everyone involved with the child would have the same information. Does this make sense? Before we train teachers and campus teams, I agree we need to go over each form to be knowledgeable and familiar enough with them to answer questions. |
| Re: Forms to consider |
| I think these forms are too lengthy and teachers will take one look at a 12 page document with all the writing and hesitate to even begin the intervention process. I would like to explore how we can shorten the paper trail by possibly combining some forms. |
| Re: Forms to consider |
| I know the forms seem lengthy and I agree with Betty that teachers may look at the 12 pages and be deterred. However, I really like the forms and the information given. It gives us a history of the student and road map of sorts to help us determine if we have intervened or not. I think this form could start out as a working document for students that teachers are concerned about. I also like the behavior section and the note that it should only be filled out if that area is a concern. It seems that the hardest parts of any form to fill in are the parts we feel are not necessary or an area of concern. Also - from a special education and diagnostic point of view - this information along with the intervention plan documentation should be adequate or very close for a special ed referral if progress has not been made. |