Response to Intervention Implementing Response to Intervention Key

Response to Intervention Implementing Response to Intervention: Key Administrative Challenges to Changing a System Jim Wright www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention Workshop Agenda RTI: Reaching a Shared Understanding of the Model Establishing ‘Command Control’: Creating an RTI Leadership Team Identifying and Addressing Teacher ‘Reluctance’ Toward RTI Accessing Free RTI Resources on the Internet Discussion: 2010 -2011 RTI Training Needs www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention Power. Point and Resources from Workshop Available at: • www. jimwrightonline. com/dcboces. php www. interventioncentral. org 3

Response to Intervention “ Tipping point: “any process in which, beyond a certain point, the rate at which the process increases dramatically. ” (Tipping Point, 2010). ” Source: Tipping point (sociology). (2010, February 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02: 52, March 1, 2010, from http: //en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Tipping_point_(sociology)&oldid=344548179 www. interventioncentral. org 4

Response to Intervention “ “The tipping point is the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point. ” (Gladwell, 2000; p. 12) ” Source: Gladwell, M. (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Little, Brown and Company: NY. www. interventioncentral. org 5

Response to Intervention RTI: Research Questions Q: What Conditions Support the Successful Implementation of RTI? RTI requires: • Continuing professional development to give teachers the skills to implement RTI and educate new staff because of personnel turnover. • Administrators who assert leadership under RTI, including setting staff expectations for RTI implementation, finding the needed resources, and monitor ingthe fidelity of implementation. • Proactive hiring of teachers who support the principles of RTI and have the skills to put RTI into practice in the classroom. • The changing of job roles of teachers and support staff (school psychologists, reading specialists, special educators, etc. ) to support the RTI model. • Input from teachers and support staff (‘bottom-up’) about how to make RTI work in the school or district, as well as guidance from Source: Fuchs, D. , & Deshler, D. D. (2007). What we need to know about responsiveness to intervention administration (‘top-down’). (and shouldn’t be afraid to ask). . Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 22(2), 129– 136. www. interventioncentral. org 6

Response to Intervention Preventing Your School from Developing ‘RTI Antibodies’ • Schools can anticipate and take steps to address challenges to RTI implementation in schools • This proactive stance toward RTI adoption will reduce the probability that the ‘host’ school or district will reject RTI as a model www. interventioncentral. org 7

Response to Intervention 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 welldocumented 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. www. interventioncentral. org 8

Response to Intervention Use Time & Resources Efficiently By Collecting Information Only on ‘Things That Are Alterable’ “…Time should be spent thinking about things that the intervention team can influence through instruction, consultation, related services, or adjustments to the student’s program. These are things that are alterable. …Beware of statements about cognitive processes that shift the focus from the curriculum and may even encourage questionable educational practice. They can also promote writing off a student because of Source: the Howell, rationale K. W. , Hosp, J. L. , that & Kurns, S. (2008). Best practices insufficient in curriculum-based evaluation. In the student’s A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds. ), Best practices in school psychology V (pp. 349 -362). Bethesda, MD: Nationalperformance Association of School Psychologists. is due to a limited and fixed www. interventioncentral. org 9

Response to Intervention RTI ‘Pyramid of Interventions’ Tier 3 Tier 2 Tier 1 Tier 3: Intensive interventions. Students who are ‘non-responders’ to Tiers 1 & 2 are referred to the RTI Team for more intensive interventions. Tier 2 Individualized interventions. Subset of students receive interventions targeting specific needs. Tier 1: Universal interventions. Available to all students in a classroom or school. Can consist of whole-group or individual www. interventioncentral. org 10

Response to Intervention RTI Interventions: Standard-Treatment vs. Problem. Solving There are two different vehicles that schools can use to deliver RTI interventions: Standard-Protocol (Standalone Intervention). Programs based on scientifically valid instructional practices (‘standard protocol’) are created to address frequent student referral concerns. These services are provided outside of the classroom. A middle school, for example, may set up a structured math-tutoring program staffed by adult volunteer tutors to provide assistance to students with limited math skills. Students referred for a Tier II math intervention would be placed in this tutoring program. An advantage of the standard-protocol approach is that it is efficient and consistent: large numbers of students can be put into these group interventions to receive a highly standardized intervention. However, standard group intervention protocols often cannot be individualized easily to accommodate a specific student’s unique needs. Problem-solving (Classroom-Based Intervention). Individualized research-based interventions match the profile of a particular student’s strengths and limitations. The classroom teacher often has a large role in www. interventioncentral. org 11

Response to Intervention RTI Leadership Team: Setting a Course for Response to Intervention Jim Wright www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention What is the Purpose of the RTI Leadership team? The RTI Leadership Team guides the overall RTI process. The group meets periodically (e. g. , monthly) on an ongoing basis to evaluate the RTI project, shape its future direction, determine what resources the project requires, and allocate those resources. The RTI Leadership Team also ensures that a standard RTI process is followed across individual schools. www. interventioncentral. org 13

What is the Purpose of the RTI Leadership Team? • The RTI Leadership Team has several functions: (1) to draft Response to Intervention and update a district RTI implementation plan, (2) to keep all schools throughout the district in compliance with good RTI practices, and (3) to identify and make available to schools the resources required to implement RTI successfully. The RTI Leadership Team’s duties include: • Drafting a multi-year plan that will guide the district in the implementation of RTI while using existing resources. The team’s RTI Plan should encompass a three-year rollout schedule. • Supervising RTI implementation. The RTI Leadership Team oversees that RTI is implemented in a uniform manner throughout the school district. • One caution: Be sure not to overlook ‘dissident’ voices when select RTI Leadership Team members. Members who may www. interventioncentral. org 14

Who Should Serve on the RTI Leadership Team? • Your district should assemble a multi-disciplinary team to Response to Intervention serve as your RTI Leadership Team. The team should include influential district administrators such as those who control resources (e. g. , staff development funds; instructional budgets) or supervise staff (e. g. , school psychologists, reading teachers) across the district that will participate in RTI. Additionally, the team should have representatives from school buildings to help the team to keep lines of communication open with its campuses. Finally, the membership on the team should be balanced to include representatives from important stakeholder groups (e. g. , building administrators, general education teachers, etc. ). www. interventioncentral. org 15

Response to Intervention Who Should RTI Leadership Team Meetings Be Organized? • Team meetings should follow a fixed schedule, with a standard set of meeting agenda items regularly brought up for team discussion: • Regularly scheduled meetings. The RTI Leadership Team should meet at least monthly. • Standing meeting agenda. In addition to those topics brought up for discussion by team members, the RTI Leadership Team should establish a small set of ‘standing agenda’ items— e. g. , ‘school-wide literacy screenings’, ‘resources for classroom interventions’, and ‘update in state RTI guidelines and regulations’. • Subcommittees. If the RTI Leadership Team is so large that frequent meetings are difficult to schedule and unwieldy to run, consider dividing the team’s work among www. interventioncentral. org 16

What Are Structured Forms of Planning That Can Benefit The RTI Leadership Team? • There are structured planning formats that teams can follow Response to Intervention to increase the probability that they have considered the most important issues when preparing a district RTI Plan: – SWOT analysis. In the complex RTI planning process, it can be helpful to perform a SWOT (‘strengths-weaknesses-opportunitiesthreats’) analysis to determine those enabling and hindering forces within and outside of the school district that could affect RTI implementation. – Stages of RTI implementation. When introducing any significant changes to a school system, the RTI Leadership Team should think about planning for that systems change by using a four-stage process: (1) Preparation; (2) Initial Implementation; (3) Institutionalization; (4) Ongoing Development/Updating. www. interventioncentral. org 17

Response to Intervention How Can The RTI Leadership Team Find Resources to Support RTI? • The great majority of school districts that implement RTI will do so largely by using their existing resources. The RTI Leadership Team can help the school district to adopt an RTI model by systematically inventorying district and building resources (personnel, instructional and assessment materials, staff development funds, etc. ) that can be made available to support RTI. www. interventioncentral. org 18

Response to Intervention RTI Leadership Team ‘Action Steps’ • Determine the team’s scope and responsibilities. At the district level, decide on what the scope, authority, and responsibilities of the RTI Leadership Team are to be. Be sure to confront potentially difficult questions such as ‘Will the RTI Leadership Team’s RTI recommendations be binding on individual schools or merely advisory? ’ • Review state guidelines that may impact your RTI Leadership Team. Review any relevant guidelines or regulations from your state department of education to determine whether the state offers guidance on the makeup and functioning of the RTI Leadership Team or content of an RTI district plan. www. interventioncentral. org 19

Response to Intervention RTI Leadership Team ‘Action Steps’ • Generate a recruitment list. Create a list of positions and/or personnel from school buildings and at the district level to be recruited for the RTI Leadership Team. Review the list to ensure that no important district department, school/ program, or stakeholder group has been overlooked. • Schedule meetings. Create a schedule of RTI Leadership Team meetings for the full school year—and ensure that those meeting dates are shared with all team members. • Draft a standing meeting agenda. Select topics to be put onto a standing meeting agenda for the RTI Leadership Team. Set time aside occasionally at team meetings to discuss items should be removed from or added to the agenda. • [Optional] Develop a list of subcommittees. Divide the duties of the full RTI Leadership Team into subcommittees. For www. interventioncentral. org 20

Response to Intervention Activity: Put Together an RTI Leadership Team At your table: • Review the guidelines for setting up an RTI Leadership Team in your district. • Generate a list of the people or positions that should be represented on this team. • Talk about how the team will function: e. g. , how often will it meet? How will the team communicate with www. interventioncentral. org 21

Response to Intervention Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: Seven Reasons Why Instructors May Hesitate to Support Implementing Classroom RTI Literacy Interventions Jim Wright www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: Seven Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Literacy Interventions 1. Teachers believe that their ‘job’ is to provide content-area instruction, not to teach vocabulary and reading-comprehension strategies (Kamil et al. , 2008). 2. Teachers believe that they lack the skills to implement classroom vocabulary-building and reading-comprehension strategies. (Fisher, 2007; Kamil et al. , 2008). 3. Teachers feel that they don’t have adequate time to implement vocabulary-building and reading-comprehension strategies in the classroom. (Kamil et al. , 2008; Walker, www. interventioncentral. org 23

Response to Intervention Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: Seven Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Literacy Interventions (Cont. ) 4. Teachers are not convinced that there will be an adequate instructional ‘pay-off’ in their content-area if they implement literacybuilding strategies in the classroom (Kamil et al. , 2008). 5. Teachers are reluctant to put extra effort into implementing interventions for students who appear unmotivated (Walker, 2004) when there are other, ‘more deserving’ students who would benefit from teacher attention. 6. Teachers are afraid that, if they use a range of classroom strategies to promote literacy (e. g. , extended discussion, etc. ), they will have difficultywww. interventioncentral. org managing classroom 24

Response to Intervention Engaging the Reluctant Teacher: Seven Reasons Why Instructors May Resist Implementing Classroom RTI Literacy Interventions (Cont. ) 7. Teachers believe that ‘special education is magic’ (Martens, 1993). This belief implies that general education interventions will be insufficient to meet the student’s needs and that the student will benefit only if he or she receives special education services. www. interventioncentral. org 25

Response to Intervention RTI: The Art of Negotiation www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention Comparison of ‘Harsh’ and ‘Soft’ Social Power ‘Harsh’ Social Power Bases Examples • Expert Power. The consultee • Legitimate Position Power. The complies because the consultant consultee complies because the is recognized as being an expert consultant holds line authority over in the field. him or her. • Direct Informational Power. The • Impersonal Coercion Power. The consultee complies because the consultee complies to avoid information presented by the potential negative consequences consultant is logical or ‘makes (‘punishment’) (e. g. , withholding of sense’. intervention resources) from the consultant. • Referent Power. The consultee complies because he or she • Personal Coercion Power. The wishes to be associated with or consultee complies to avoid being seen as similar to the consultant. disliked by the consultant. • Personal Reward. The consultee complies because he or she Source: Wilson, K. E. , Erchul, W. P. , & Raven, B. H. (2008). The likelihood of use of social power seeks approval ofwhen the consulting with teachers. Journal of Educational and strategies by the school psychologists Psychological Consultation, 18, 101 -123. www. interventioncentral. org consultant. 27

Response to Intervention Recommendations on Use of ‘Social Power’ Strategies When working to enlist teachers’ support for and participation in RTI, schools should use ‘soft’ power strategies whenever possible. However, schools should reserve ‘strong’ social power strategies as backup when needed for a reluctant teacher. For example, if a classroom teacher is unwilling to comply with RTI advice for Tier 1 interventions from a consultant reading teacher (Expert Power), the principal may meet with that instructor to emphasize that all teachers are required to implement consistent Tier 1 strategies (Legitimate Position Source: Wilson, K. E. , Erchul, W. P. , & Raven, B. H. (2008). The likelihood of use of social power strategies by school psychologists when consulting with teachers. Journal of Educational and Power). Psychological Consultation, 18, 101 -123. www. interventioncentral. org 28

Response to Intervention RTI Teams Engage in Negotiation With Referring Teachers • Definition of Negotiation: “a dialogue intended to resolve disputes, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, or to craft outcomes to satisfy various interests. ” • RTI Teams negotiate with classroom teachers about the types of interventions to be used, degree of teacher involvement, Source: Negotiation. (2009, December 16). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12: 23, December time period during which intervention will 17, 2009, from http: //en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Negotiation&oldid=331934640 www. interventioncentral. org 29

Response to Intervention Elements of Negotiation • Goal: “Goals are statements that state specific, measurable outcomes, with time requirements as appropriate. ” • Target: “The target is what the negotiator would like to get or the outcome that will satisfy him [or her]. ” • Resistance point: “The resistance point is a minimum acceptable outcome the negotiator will accept. ” Source: Page, D. , & Mukherjee, A. (2009). Effective technique for consistent evaluation of negotiation skills. Education, 129, 521 -533. p. 525. www. interventioncentral. org 30

Response to Intervention Comparison of Possible Goals, Targets, & Resistance Points for Classroom Teacher and RTI Consultant or. RTI Team or RTI Classroom Teacher • Goal. The student will pass the course • Target (Desired Outcome) – The student will pass all tests, quizzes. . – The student will be motivated to complete and turn in homework and to work on in-class assignments. – The school will find intervention support for the student outside of the classroom. – Any classroom interventions will require minimal teacher efforts. • Resistance Point (Minimally Acceptable Outcome) Team • Goal. The student will pass the course • Target (Desired Outcome) – The student will get a passing course grade. . – The student will be motivated to complete and turn in homework and to work on inclass assignments. – The teacher will implement appropriate, feasible evidence-based interventions in the classroom. – Interventions will be implemented with integrity. – The teacher will collect data on the intervention. • Resistance Point (Minimally The. D. , student will get passing course Source: –Page, & Mukherjee, A. a (2009). Effective grade. . Acceptable Outcome) technique for consistent evaluation of negotiation skills. Education, – 129, Any 521 -533. classroom interventionswww. interventioncentral. org will – The student will get a passing course 31

Response to Intervention Possible Future RTI Training Topics… www. interventioncentral. org

Response to Intervention RTI Workshop Possibilities • RTI & Data-Based Decision Making: Training in how to set student goals, use building or research-based norms as estimates of ‘typical’ student performance, create decision rules for RTI (e. g. , how many intervention trials required and for how long), etc. • Changing Roles of Educators in RTI: Define 3 ‘positions’ required under RTI: interventionist, consultant, data analyst. Discuss how to ‘cross-train’ various disciplines in the shared skills of these positions. www. interventioncentral. org 33

Response to Intervention RTI Workshop Possibilities (Cont. ) • RTI Academic Intervention Lab (Elementary & Secondary Levels). Share a starter set of intervention ideas for attending participants to use as a foundation for their own intervention ideas. Participants are given a structure formatting new intervention ideas and recommended websites for research-based strategies. • RTI Behavioral Intervention Lab (Elementary & Secondary Levels). Share a starter set of intervention ideas for attending participants to use as a foundation for their own intervention www. interventioncentral. org 34

Response to Intervention RTI Workshop Possibilities (Cont. ) • RTI Classroom Assessment & Progress. Monitoring Lab (Elementary & Secondary Levels). Share a starter set of feasible methods for collecting baseline classroom information on student behavioral and academic performance. Also share classroom ideas for student progress-monitoring. • RTI Consultation: How to use Persuasive Communication Tools. Review of effective methods of communication that can reduce teacher ‘reluctance’, increase RTI buy-in. www. interventioncentral. org 35