Identifying Learning Disabilities in the Context of Response to Intervention
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jun 28, 2010
Anyone just starting implementation of a Response to Intervention process may be unclear on how RTI can be used for identification of students with Learning Disabilities. The RTI Action Network reviews the historical definitions of LD and summarizes the scientific basis for the changes in identification and intervention introduced by IDEA 2004.
The author of the article, Dr. Jack Fletcher, explains that the historical definition of Learning Disabilties was not very clear, and because the definition states that a learning disability could occur when "a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in one or more areas, " the IQ discrepancy model became the way to identify learning disabilities dispite contrary evidence and research that the discrepancy model lacked vaildity and reliabilty. When IDEA 2004 was passed it allowed districts to choose an identfication model that represented alternative inclusionary criteria, including a model basd on RTI. This allowed for models that did not use IQ as an inclusion criteria.
Researchers have suggested three primary criteria to be used when identifying Learning Disabilities:
Student demonstrates low achievement.
There is insufficient response to effective, research-based interventions. A systematic plan for assessing change in performance must be established prior to intervention.
Exclusion factors such as mental retardation, sensory deficits, serious emotional disturbance, language minority children (where lack of proficiency in English accounts for measured achievement deficits
Thus, identifying children with LD, whether as part of the process stipulated in IDEA (2004), a clinic outside of school, or in research, requires the presence of low achievement and inadequate response to instruction as inclusionary criteria. This is true whether the overarching identification model stems from an RTI process or from some type of psychometric model.
Fletcher reminds districts that implementing a RTI process can take several years, so they should prepare for a gradual change. He also emphasizes the need for a collaboration between general and special education when implementing RTI. At the time of his report, Fletcher states that many educators feel like RTI is a special education initiaive. Through our annual RTI Survey, we have seen this perspective change over the years and now 55% of responders across the nation indicate that implementing RTI is a unified effort in their distrct.
Spectrum K12 Student Achievement and RTI Software Chosen as “Best Education Solution” and “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution”
Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc., the leading provider of Response to Intervention (RTI) and student achievement managementsolutions for K-12 school districts announced today announced it’s EXCEED® software has been selected as the “Best Education Solution and “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). Nominated products underwent an intensive review by subject matter experts, analysts, journalists, and others with deep experience in the field. Only 34 winners were chosen from more than 785 nominations submitted by 374 companies. Spectrum K12’s EXCEED® was one of only 4 products that were named a winner in two separate education categories. The announcement was made at the 25th Annual CODiE Awards Reception and Dinner in San Francisco.
Spectrum K12 earned the award for its EXCEED software, a student achievement management product that gives teachers an easy way to drive day-to-day activities, research based interventions and outcomes to help all students achieve success while giving administrators the ability to see what’s working and what’s not by student, class, school, teacher or intervention.
The award for “Best Education Solution” recognizes EXCEED as the best overall education technology solution out of the 785 nominated products. Judges selected EXCEED as the “Best Education Solution” using criteria including ease of use, richness of functionality, impact on education processes, and overall visual/program aesthetics.
EXCEED’s selection as “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” recognizes it as the best business management tool that supports education enterprises at preK-12 levels and that best enables data exchange, processing and reporting. EXCEED was judged the “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” based on it’s ability to integrate data and information from various sources, ability to meet different user needs and education missions, easy access to student and/or course data, and a short learning curve.
A list of winners is now available on the CODiE Awards Website at www.siia.net/CODiEs.
Response to Intervention and Gifted Education
Posted by Beth DuBose on May 24, 2010
Prufrock Press, Inc. is providing a complimentary download of the Summer 2009 Special Issue of Gifted Child Today on the Topic of RtI and Gifted Education.
To help education professionals take a proactive look at the ways gifted education and the needs of gifted students fit within the RtI initiative, Gifted Child Today’s editor, Susan Johnsen, Ph.D., and the journal’s editorial board invited two prominent professors (Mary Ruth Coleman, Ph.D. and Claire E. Hughes, Ph.D.) to guest edit a special issue of GCT on the important topic of RtI and gifted child education.
Spectrum K12 School Solutions, Inc., and leading education organizations including the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) announced the results of their 2010 survey of K-12 district administrators which gauges the extent to which Response to Intervention (RTI) has been adopted and implemented.
Spectrum K12 teamed with NASDSE, CASE and AASA to provide a roadmap for districts nationwide by determining (1) how widely RTI has been adopted in U.S. school districts and implementation obstacles, (2) the effectiveness of RTI, and (3) how school districts are funding RTI.
RTI Adoption and Implementation Obstacles
The 2010 survey results indicate strong and rapid adoption rates of Response to Intervention with 61% of respondent districts indicating they are currently either in full implementation or in the process of district wide implementation – up from 54% in 2009, 32% in 2008 and 24% in 2007 with 48% of respondents indicating their district has a formal RTI district implementation plan like the NASDSE Blueprint.
Survey results also show RTI is being increasingly implemented across all grade levels with a significant increase in middle and secondary schools as compared to previous years.
Survey respondents report the primary obstacles to implementing RTI remain the same as in 2009 – (1) insufficient teacher training, (2) lack of intervention resources, (3) lack of resources for instruction and/or progress monitoring and (4) lack of data, knowledge, skills to implement tracking and charting.
RTI Effectiveness
In respondent districts that had sufficient data to determine the impact of RTI, 76% indicated RTI has led to an improvement in (AYP) vs. 24% that indicated it has not and 87% indicated RTI has reduced the number of special education referrals.
RTI Funding
RTI funding is coming from a variety of sources including General Funds, Title 1 and IDEA Early Intervening Services. ARRA Stimulus Funds have had an impact with 43% of respondents citing these funds as a source of RTI funding.
Response to Intervention District Adoption Survey 2010
Posted by Beth DuBose on Mar 19, 2010
A number of leading education organizations are once again jointly conducting a survey to capture the extent to which Response to Intervention (RTI) has been adopted and implemented in school districts. Sponsoring organizations include NASDSE (National Association of State Directors of Special Education), AASA (American Association of School Administrators), CASE (Council of Administrators of Special Education) and Spectrum K12 School Solutions.
This survey can be completed in approximately 15 minutes. Survey responses are strictly confidential and will only be reported in the aggregate.
Results of the survey will be available in a report jointly published by the sponsoring organizations. The survey report will provide you with critical information regarding RTI adoption trends, implementation issues and success metrics. Data from this survey will also be mapped to results from previous year surveys to identify trends and progress between 2007 through 2010.
Are There Differences in Achievement Gaps Between Boys and Girls
Posted by Beth DuBose on Mar 18, 2010
This month the Center on Education Policy released a report that looked at data from 2007-2008 to determine if there is a difference in achievement gaps between boys and girls. The Center on Education Policy looked at the achievement of boys and girls on the state reading and mathematics tests used for NCLB accountability. The data for these analyses were drawn from an extensive set of test data that has been collected from all 50 states by CEP with technical support from the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO). State education officials have verified the accuracy of the data.
The report addresses four main questions:
What is the current status of performance differences between boys and girls in reading
and math at various grades and achievement levels?
What trends have emerged in the achievement of boys and girls at the elementary, middle,
and high school levels since 2002, the year NCLB took effect?
What trends have occurred since 2002 in the performance of male and female 4th graders
at the basic, proficient, and advanced levels of achievement?
Have achievement gaps between boys and girls narrowed since 2002?
Below are the main findings from the report:
In math, there was no consistent gender gap in 2008. Rather, there was rough parity
in the percentages of boys and girls reaching proficiency at all three grade levels. The
percentages of boys and girls scoring proficient inmath tended to be similar, with boys edging
out girls slightly in some states and girls doing slightly better in other states. No state
had a difference in math between boys and girls of more than 10 percentage points.
In grade 4 math, states tended to have greater shares of girls reaching the basic level
and greater shares of boys reaching the advanced level. Themedian percentages for girls
and boys were quite similar inmath at the basic, proficient, and advanced achievement levels.
However, the number of states in which one gender outperformed the other varied by
achievement level. In grade 4 math, more states had higher percentages of 4th grade girls
reaching the basic level, while more states had higher percentages of boys reaching the
advanced level. At the proficient level, the number of states in which one gender out performed
the other were roughly equal.
In reading, girls outperformed boys in 2008 at the elementary, middle, and high
school levels. Higher percentages of girls than boys scored at or above the proficient level
on state reading tests at grade 4, grade 8, and high school; in some states, these gaps
exceeded 10 percentage points.
In grade 4 reading, higher percentages of girls than boys reached the basic, proficient,
and advanced achievement levels in 2008. The median percentages of 4th grade
girls reaching all three achievement levels—basic, proficient, and advanced—were higher
than the median percentages for boys. (The median is the midpoint; half of the states
with sufficient data had percentages above this point and half had percentages below.) In
no state did boys outperform girls in reading at any achievement level.
Although reading achievement gaps between boys and girls have narrowed in many
cases according to the percentage proficient indicator used for NCLB, boys have made
less progress in catching up to girls according average test scores, which are a better
indicator for this purpose. Since 2002, percentages proficient gaps in reading between boys
and girls have narrowed in the majority (52%) of instances analyzed across the states with
sufficient data and have widened in 40%of instances. But mean (average) test scores, which
are a more useful indicator of gaps because they capture improvements across the achievement
spectrum, present a less positive picture.Gaps inmean test scores have widened almost
as often as they have narrowed—45% of instances compared with 46%.
For both boys and girls, states with gains in reading and math proficiency between
2002 and 2008 far outnumbered states with declines at the elementary, middle, and
high school levels. At least 70% of the states with sufficient data posted gains in percentages
proficient for both genders in all subject/grade level combinations except high
school reading, where 63% of the states with data showed gains. In reading, upward
trends were slightly more prevalent for boys than for girls, but in math, the numbers of
rising trend lines were similar for boys and girls.
In a majority of the states with sufficient data, both boys and girls in grade 4 have
made progress in reading and math since 2002 at the basic, proficient, and
advanced achievement levels. In general, the numbers of states with gains in the percentage
of males at the three achievement levels were similar to the numbers for females.
Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) Renewal Guidelines Released
Posted by Beth DuBose on Mar 17, 2010
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has released broad principles for renewing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
The guidelines will focus on some of the same areas NCLB orginally did, such as disaggregating data and improving the performance of particular student groups, such as students in special education. But the new act would allow states more flexibility on how they would handle districts that are struggling to meet requirements, and would allow states the decision to test beyond reading and math. The 2014 date from NCLB where all students would need to be proficient in reading and math would disappear, allowing states time to develop college/career ready programs in their schools with no new deadline determined yet.
With the new ESEA act, the bottom 5% of schools would be required to use on eof the four tournaround models presented by the US DOE. The next 5% would be put on a warning list, and would be required to use research-based interventions within their curriculum. Also, states would be required to identify the schools with the largest achievement gaps, if if those students do not show improvement in three years, the state will take over the school’s Title I money.
From the interviews listed in EdWeek, it seems Administrative organizations like what they see in the blueprint but teacher organizations do not because it places so much emphasis on the teacher being responsible for the success of the school.
If you would like to read the entire article, please visit Education Week
What Works Clearinghouse
Posted by Beth DuBose on Mar 16, 2010
Posted by Machele Stefhon
Are you looking for a list of successful interventions to address your RTI needs? Try the “What Works Clearinghouse” a one-stop shop for checking to see what the best research-validated intervention are in any area.
What Works Clearinghouse is the top visited RTI sites for accessing one comprehensive list is of interventions.
EXCEED™ RTI Software Selected By K-12 School Districts in 8 States and the District of Columbia
Towson, MD - Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc., the leading provider of Response to Intervention (RTI) software and student achievement management solutions for K-12 school districts, today announced that it recently passed the 400,000 students served mark in school districts employing its EXCEED™ RTI software. EXCEED RTI is a web-based software application that automates and delivers the Response to Intervention process, simplifying an otherwise cumbersome and paper driven process. Tracking, monitoring and managing intervention and student performance data, EXCEED RTI ensures fully-informed decision making and high quality instruction.
To manage the growth of its business and customer base, Spectrum K12 has grown the employee base 15% and is actively recruiting to fill additional positions.
The increase in the number of districts using EXCEED RTI to manage and streamline their Response to Intervention processes and data management reflects the accelerated rate of RTI adoption as noted in a recent survey. The survey, jointly conducted in April 2009 by Spectrum K12, the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), and the National Association of State Title 1 Directors, showed the number of districts in some stage of implementing RTI rising from 60% in 2008 to 71% in 2009. Survey results can be downloaded from www.spectrumk12.com/campaign/rti_survey_results
In addition to rapid adoption by customers, Spectrum K12 has also received extensive industry recognition for their innovative solution including:
• 2010 CODiE Finalist for “Best Classroom Management Solution”, “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution", and “Best Education Solution” with winners announced at the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) Ed Tech Industry Summit May 24th, 2010
• 2009 CODiE Award Winner for “Best K-12 Enterprise Solution” presented by SIIA
• 2008 “Readers Choice Top 100 Products” presented by District Administration Magazine
• 2008 “Best of NECC” presented by Techlearning.com
• 2008 CODiE Award Winner for “Best Education Solution” presented by SIIA
Race to the Top Finalists Announced
Posted by Beth DuBose on Mar 05, 2010
The finalists for the highly sought after $4 billion in Race to the Top grants were announced Thursday, March 4. The list was longer than anticipated with 15 states and the District of Columbia now in the running.
The 16 finalists are: Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Each of these states scored above 400 points out of a 500 point scale on their application. Of the 16 finalists, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan estimates there would only be seven or fewer winners sharing in the $2 billion dollars up for grabs in part one of the competition. The remaining $2 billion will be handed out in September for part two of the competition.
The next step for the finalists is to have an in-person presentation with the individuals that reviewed their application. These presentations will be made the week of March 15 in Washington, D.C. and the winners will be announced in April. At that time the videos of the presentations will be posted and made public, as will the state scores and reviewers’ notes.
Spectrum K12’s EXCEED™ Selected Finalist in 3 Categories for 2010 SIIA CODiE Awards
Posted by Beth DuBose on Feb 25, 2010
Spectrum K12 School Solutions announced today that their EXCEED™ Student Achievement Manager software has been selected as a finalist for a 2010 CODiE Award in three separate categories; “Best Classroom Management Solution”, “Best Education Solution”, and Best K-12 Enterprise Solution”. Spectrum K12 is one of only 5 companies named as a finalist in three or more categories from a total of 124 companies who submitted nominations.
EXCEED is a universal Student Achievement Management solution that manages, administers and prescribes the personalized learning process and data required for all students: in general, compensatory, gifted or special education. EXCEED gives teachers an easy to use, automated way to drive day-to-day activities, interventions and progress monitoring to help all students achieve success while giving administrators the ability to see what’s working and surface achievement gaps at the individual student, class, grade, group, and district level.
“To have our software judged and selected as a finalist in three separate categories by such a cross-section of the education industry is recognition of the scope, power and ease of use of our Student Achievement Management solution,” stated Jim Marshall, president and CEO of Spectrum K12 School Solutions.
Established in 1986 by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the CODiE Awards recognize and honor excellence in the education, software and digital information industries. Nominated products underwent an intensive review by subject matter experts, analysts, journalists, and others with deep experience in the field. The products that qualified will now be reviewed by members of SIIA, who will vote on winners for all 24 categories. The winners will be announced at a special CODiE Awards Dinner on May 24th, which will be held in conjunction with the 2010 Ed Tech Industry Summit in San Francisco, CA.
He states that they are currently looking at middle and high schools that have implemented a RTI process and have been successful. They will look at what they are doing for universal screening, progress monitoring, and tiered instruction. Because Elementary schools typically have the same students all day, it is easier to administer tiered instruction to their students. What Deshler wants to find out is how are the middle and high schools that have been successful with RTI implementing tiered instruction. You can see the interview here.
Scaling Beyond the RTI Pilot
Posted by Beth DuBose on Feb 23, 2010
Machele Stefhon had a great session last week with over 30 educators that attended the Scaling the RTI Pilot: Steps to Implementing a District RTI Initiative webinar.
Attendees to webinar heard about the latest research from leading national organizations and RTI experts, and saw a demonstration of tools for RTI implementation success. You can view the recorded webinar here. You can also sign up for future webinars in the series.
Obama is pushing for additional funding for education
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jan 29, 2010
In the State of the Union address on Thursday, January 27, 2010, President Obama discussed a $4 billion increase in the education budget. A large part of the billion dollar increase, $1.35 billion, will go to increasing the amount of funding in the Race to the Top funds. As well as increasing funding, he will also have these grants, originally limited to states, opened up to school districts.
The 2011 budget is expected to be realesed on Monday, along with plans to consolidate 38 Educational Departments into 11 and elimate 6 programs. No news, yet, on which departments or programs will be affected.
Tiered Instruction is an Essential Component in a Response to Intervention Model
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jan 28, 2010
It seems that when we think of RTI we focus the discussion on universal screening and progress monitoring. Though these are very important, the core of RTI is the instruction that is provided to the student. Universal screening is important because it helps us determine where our students are struggling so we know what instruction to provide. Progress monitoring is important because it shows us if the instruction that is provided is helping the student meet their goals. Without appropriate and effective instruction, students will not progress.
In his article, Tiered Instruction and Intervention in a Response-to-Intervention Model, Edward Shapiro discusses the most common Three Tier RTI model and how to determine where a student falls within those tiers. Tier 1 is the typically core instruction that all students receive. Tier 2 contains students that are struggling being pulled into small groups, usually ranging from 5-8 students per group. Tier 3 are those students that are significantly struggling, and are worked with in even smaller groups of 3-5 students, or even one-on-one. Determining if a student should fall into Tier 2 or 3 can be difficult. This is one of the core discussions in Shapiro’s article. He claims that based on the model that is used in the school or district will determine if a student falls into Tier 2 or 3. The models can be based on the intensity of the instruction, the frequency of the delivery of instruction, or a combination of the two.
Shapiro also discusses where Special Education fits into the Response to Intervention model. Some models use Tier 3 as Special Education, others use three tiers of instruction and see Special Education as Tier 4.
Collaboration is stressed as a key component in a successful RTI model. Staff and parents must work together to determine appropriate interventions and provide adequate instruction for the success of the student.
Making Data Matter: Tools to Accelerate Achievement
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jan 22, 2010
Education Week Leadership Forum
April 7, 2010, Chicago, IL
April 19, 2010, Washington, DC
With the amount of RTI data and other educational data that schools and districts are collecting, are they using it to maximize student achievement? At the Education Week Leadership Forum, they will be looking at:
Best Practices for Making Teachers Smart Data Users and Collectors
Techniques for Using Data to Raise Your Graduation Rates
Practical Tips for Keeping Important Data From Being Swamped
Innovative Approaches for Leveraging Data to Make AYP
New Methods for Ensuring Safety and Continuity of Data
Strategies for Making the Most of Statewide Data Systems
The resources and lessons are FREE and are not only aligned to the IRA/NCTE English Language Arts standards, but also individual state standards as well. The content is written by literacy experts including professors, teachers and consultants across the country.
A large number of lessons are for small group, and can be used as small group intervention activities. Each lesson provides research indicating the validity of the activites. There is an instructional plan with each lesson, taking you step-by-step in the development of the lesson and activites. Each lesson also includes a materials list, ncluding links to printable documents and websites that will enhance the lesson.
This site is a great resource! I wish it was around when I was teaching!
Making Decisions About Adequate Progress in Tier 2
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jan 21, 2010
This article, by Douglas Dexter and Dr. Charles Hughes of Penn State University, discusses the identification of students not progressing adequately in Tier 2 of an RTI model, and provides recommendations to improve Tier 2 instruction and identify those students needing Tier 3 interventions.
Because a lot of states are considering Tier 3 interventions Special Education or a step to refer to Special Education, the success of students in Tier 2 is critical in decreasing the number of students referred to Special Education for specific learning disabilities.
As indicated in the article:
"D. Fuchs and Deshler (2007) estimate that the number of students, based on the assumption of a normal distribution, who do not show improvement in response to the increasingly intensive Tier 2 interventions and are moved into Tier 3 should fall between 2% and 7% of the general population. However, there is no clear methodological definition of how or when a student is to be identified as a nonresponder to intervention, what intervention is to be used, who is to deliver the intervention, or how nonresponsiveness is to be measured. This lack of clarity creates the potential for inconsistencies in identification of students not progressing adequately in Tier 2 and for highly variable prevalence rates at the school, district, state, and national levels (D. Fuchs et al., 2008)."
The article discusses six methods that are currently being promoted for identification of students struggling in Tier 2: a) dual discrepancy, b) median split, c) final normalization, d) final benchmark, e) slope discrepancy, and (f) exit groups. A description of each method and the data gathered on percentages of struggling students in Tier 2 through each method is provided in the article.
RTI and ELL Students: What you need to know
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jan 19, 2010
Recorded webinar presented by Casey Gordon, an ELL Coordinator at Kent ISD. The webinar focuses on how teachers can ensure that RTI is a positive program for ELL students.
Throughout th webinar, viewers will learn who is and ELL and what Response to Intervention is. Then the presentation looks at what a successful RTI program for ELL students would look like. Challenges are looked at when using RTI with ELL and students, but the presenter also provides guidance on what instruction would look like with an ELL student at the different tiers of RTI.
The webinar is free, but you will need to enter your name when accessing the webinar.
Principal Leadership magazine publilshed this story about Penn-Trafford High School in Harrison City, PA. The article describes how best practices were being used in their school to reach struggling students through RTI, but not all students were engaged. The school decided they needed a new approach for these students.
The school purchased the FastForward reading program, and those students saw gains of an average of 1.1 years in reading skill levels in just 30 days. The school also saw increased improvement in attendance and behavior as well.
FreeReading is a great website that provides an open-source resource for teachers and parents who want to work with their children on phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.
The resources are focused for children in grades K-3. There is a 40-week plan on the site for using the materials as a reading intervention program. The research base for FreeReading includes the 2000 National Reading Panel research concerning the five Big ideas in Beginning Reading (Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Comprehension).
FreeReading allows users to rate the activites on their website, as well as start discussions around their reading interventions so you can hear how other educators used that particular intervention.
Free registration is required to use the resources on the site, but all materials are available free of charge for printing and use for teaching.
Today we launched RTI Watch, a free Response to Intervention focused newsletter. RTI Watch will run 2 to 3 times a week to provide you with the latest information you need to stay up-to-date on Response to Intervention.
RTI Watch is a subscription based newsletter. To sign up for RTI Watch, click here.
The RTI Corner - Your one stop source for the best, free Response to Intervention resources
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jan 06, 2010
Today we launched The RTI Corner. The RTI Corner was created to provide educators a central place to find and access the best, free resources related to RTI.
In The RTI Corner you will find information related to:
We would love to hear any feedback, suggestions or additional resources you have related to The RTI Corner. Please contact us with your suggestions!
Bloomberg Tells Schools to Link Tenure to Student Gain
Posted by Beth DuBose on Nov 30, 2009
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the city’s public schools to start using student achievement data in the evaluations of teachers who are up for tenure this school year. He stated in a panel discussion at the Center for American Progress on November 25, 2009 in Washington that he has ordered his principals to include student-performance data in teacher assessments.
Bloomburg is urging that state lawmakers also encourage districts to tie teacher assessments to student gains so the state has a better chance of winning part of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top grants. The Race to the Top funds do not allow states to apply for the grants if they do not let schools use student performance data in teacher evaluations. Arne Duncan, who was also part of the panel on November 25, stated that he did not want states to make changes just to win the money. He wants the staes to make changes that will last decades. The American Federation of Teachers said it doesn’t oppose using student data to determine teacher effectiveness, but it should not be the only criteria in the teacher’s evaluation.
Spectrum K12 and Alphanumeric Partner to deploy RTI and Student Achievement Management software
Posted by Beth DuBose on Nov 17, 2009
Spectrum K12 School Solutions Inc, the leading provider of response to intervention (RTI), special education and student achievement management software solutions for K12 school districts, today announced a strategic partnership with Alphanumeric Systems, where Alphanumeric will be authorized to sell Spectrum K12’s award winning EXCEED™ product suite in NC, SC, VA, MD, FL and GA.
“We are excited about the partnership we have developed with Spectrum K12 and the capabilities their software provides to the K-20 sector for managing a student’s educational performance. As we look at how to be successful in early intervention and drop-out prevention, this software is far and above any other product we have reviewed,” said Jay Baucom, VP of Public Sector Operations at Alphanumeric.
On Thursday, January 21st, Spectrum K12 and Alphanumeric will co-sponsor an interactive presentation and demonstration focusing on how to utilize ARRA funding to implement RTI and student achievement management solutions. The lunch seminar will be held from 11:00am-1:30pm at Alphanumeric’s Headquarters in Raleigh. For more information or to register for this complimentary event, visit www.alphanumeric.com/january21/index.htm.
Race to the Top Fund
Posted by Beth DuBose on Nov 12, 2009
The Education Department has set aside $4.35 billion for states in the Race to the Top fund. The rules for the Race to the Top funds have recently been finalized. Bids will be rated on a point system, with the highest vales going to improving teacher and principal effectiveness. A perfect bid would be worth 500 points. The Education Department made the following statement on where these funds will go:
"Awards in Race to the Top will go to states that are leading the way with ambitious yet achievable plans for implementing coherent, compelling, and comprehensive education reform. Race to the Top winners will help trail-blaze effective reforms and provide examples for States and local school districts throughout the country to follow as they too are hard at work on reforms that can transform our schools for decades to come." (www.ed.gov)
Through Race to the Top, states are asked to advance reforms around four specific areas:
Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;
Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;
Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and
Turning around our lowest-achieving schools. The rules for the competition have recently been finalized.
Staples Foundation for Learning Awards Grant to Better Basics Intervention Program
Posted by Beth DuBose on Nov 09, 2009
Staples Foundation for Learning (SFFL), a private foundation created by Staples, Inc., announced today it has awarded 29 grants totaling $287,875 to non-profit organizations dedicated to helping youth throughout the country. These organizations were selected for their commitment to providing educational programs that help at-risk youth develop the skills and confidence necessary to become responsible adults and future community leaders.
One of these grants was awarded to the Better Basics Reading Intervention program in Birmingham, AL. The Reading Intervention program improves the reading skills, standardized test scores and self-confidence of disadvantaged elementary school students. Students are selected to participate in the Reading Intervention program through teacher recommendations and test scores. They are placed with an intervention teacher employed by Better Basics who works with the students in a small group format three times a week for 20 weeks. Other qualifying students are placed wtih trained volunteers who work with students once a week. For more information on Better Basics, please visit their website.
The International Reading Association (IRA) is conducting a survey to learn about teachers’ experiences with Response to Intervention (RTI). The survey provides teachers a chance to share their stories about how RTI is working in their classrooms and schools.
If you are a teacher or reading specialist and would like to take the IRA Survey on RTI, visit the IRA RTI Survey site. The survey is only 20 questions, and should not take but a few minutes. These results will help those of us interested in the state of RTI see how the individuals that are providing the interventions feel about the Response to Intervention process.
Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant Program
Posted by Beth DuBose on Nov 04, 2009
For districts looking for a way to help fund Response to Intervention there is a possible $650 milllion in new funding available. The U.S. Department of Education has instituted the Investing in Innovation, or i3, Fund, and plans on accepting applications in early 2010, with all applications due in spring of 2010. The fund is being setup to accelerate the creation of programs and processes that support the development and adoption of effective solutions.
All i3 funding will be handed out by September 30, 2010.
This fund will provide competitive grants that expand the implementation of, and investment in, innovative and evidence-based practices, programs, and strategies that significantly:
Improve K-12 achievement and close achievement gaps
Decrease dropout rates
Increase high school graduation rates
Improve teacher and school leader effectiveness
The U.S. Department of Education released a fact sheet in October and hosted a webinar to discuss the notice of proposed priorities for the i3 Fund. For more information on the purpose of the Investing in Innovation Fund and the proposed program requirements, visit the U.S. DOE i3 website.
The current state of Response to Intervention
Posted by Beth DuBose on Oct 29, 2009
Former Board of Education chairman of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System and current senior vice president of McGraw-Hill Education’s Urban Advisory Resource, Arthur Griffin Jr., has written a position paper on the state of the Response to Intervention (RTI) Process. He states how RTI was initially designed to be more accurate way of determining which students should be identified has having a specific learning disability. Yet what educators have found is that the RTI process has also been beneficial to any student who may be struggling in the classroom. The Response to Intervention process provides them with extra help to make sure they do not fall too far behind. Griffin also explains how RTI, unlike many other educational fads, can be a successful program because it is designed to evaluate its own effectiveness on an ongoing basis.
Griffin gives a brief overview of the RTI process that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System used, and provides three key factors to implementing a successful RTI program:
1. High and consistent standards for achievement;
2. Ongoing, scientifically based assessments and instructional practices that are continually evaluated and adjusted for efficacy; and
3. Teachers and teacher aides who have been trained properly in the implementation of the RtI assessment and intervention process.
He goes on to say how if any of those three factors are missing, the process will not succeed.
With the start of school just a few weeks ago, one of the available handouts, “How Parents Can Help Their Children with Homework” provides helpful tips for a successful school year. The handout can be found at http://www.naset.org/767.0.html#c1977.
Using Technology in the Classroom is Not as Scary as You Think
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jul 15, 2009
When I was working in the classroom, I always tried to incorporate technology into my lessons throughout the week. But I also know that for most educators, trying to bring technology into the classroom seems like another burden. Yet, if educators are properly introduced and trained on the multiple technologies that could enhance their classrooms, I believe more teachers would use these products willingly and find more exciting ways to teach.
I came across a great blog entry on Edutopia, where the author, Jim Moulton, discussed this very same topic. He suggests to not think about the kids this summer and think more about you and how you can use the summer to become more tech savvy. He believes, as I do, that the more familiar you become with these tools, the more likely you will use them in your classroom. He even includes ten suggestions to look at and possibly use in the classroom. Below are his suggestions:
Create Your Own Video Vault
Miro is like iTunes for video. With it, you can download videos from sites like YouTube and TeacherTube and save them on your local hard drive. So, now you can load up a flash drive with some of those viral videos you just have to show your sister and not worry about finding them online when you get to her house.
Oh, and when school is back in session, this will mean you can arrive in class with a host of content specific videos loaded on that same flash drive or on your laptop. You’ll never waste precious teaching time waiting for downloads or fighting filters again.
Have Fun with Photos
I just love BigHugeLabs.com. Going to a wedding or other special event this summer? Head here either before or after the big day, and come armed with some pictures. You’ll be able to make posters of various kinds, badges, trading cards, and more.
And because the results are JPEG files, you can easily pass them on to friends and family. Too much fun! In the fall, how about using this great tool as a way for kids to make content projects come to life or to celebrate a special day or a special student?
Create Comics
Plasq makes a piece of software called Comic Life. Now, I have to believe that you are going to take your digital camera with you this summer to the beach, to the mountains, horseback riding, to a barbecue, or out in the canoe. Imagine being able to easily—yes, easily—turn those pictures into a comic book?
This tool will have your friends saying, "Shazam! How’d you get so creative? This is great!" Meanwhile, back in the classroom, you’ll want to use this handy tool as a way for students to create graphic novels that clearly demonstrate their understanding of key concepts, or even as a way to make your own customized lab setup instructions.
Whip up a Wiki
Everyone is going to attend an event or two this summer, like a birthday party, a wedding, or a anniversary. If you’re a planner of one of these, then set up a wiki to share all the information about the event.
If you are an attendee, set up one of these babies as a way to organize that group of friends who will also be there, and then use it to maintain your connections after the event. In the classroom, come fall, your summer experience will have you ready to establish a classroom wiki.
Form a Questionnaire
Need to find out who is going to bring potato salad to the family reunion? Want to choose a restaurant for a group to meet at without making a civil case of it? Use a form from Google Docs or a survey from SurveyMonkey.com and ask your questions online. You’ll be able to send out a simple Web address to folks and they can answer your questions online, and you’ll get the data right away.
Both sites require registration, but they are free. Oh, and if the URL for your survey or form is one of those terribly long things, head to TinyURL.com and shrink it before you send it out.
Use these great tools for asking questions with your kids to help them understand content more deeply and get ready for the tests. Kids who know how to ask good questions are better at answering them, and in order to ask good questions about a curriculum topic, the kids have to understand it first.
Share Snapshots
Summertime is when so many memories are made. And photos help us hold onto those memories long after the sand is vacuumed out of backseats of cars and mustard stains are washed out of T-shirts. If you aren’t already using an online photo-storage site to share your pictures online, go to Google’s Picasa. There are lots of others, so ask you friends what they like.
What you’ll appreciate is the ability to take snapshots of your children doing silly jumps into the pool and then—at no cost—share them exclusively with family members and friends you select. When school begins again, how about starting a project with that friend of yours who teaches a few states over? You and your students could share images and information about where you live and the class from away will do the same. What a great way to spice up geography.
Survey the Situation
Going back to where you grew up for a visit this summer? Head to Google Maps before you go, and take a look at the old neighborhood in a whole new way. Sure, the ability to see either a map or an aerial photograph is cool, but wait until you see the street-level views! "Hey," you’ll say, "I wonder whose truck that is parked in from of Luanne’s house?"
No, they are not images in real time, but you’ll be so ready for the real visit after digitally cruising the area. Using maps is powerful across all the curriculum areas, so once you see how easy these are to use, you’ll want to explore the settings of novels you’re reading as a class or places where historical events took place.
Cache In
Geocaching is a great way to learn more about a place you and the family are traveling this summer, or even about your home area if you are going on a staycation. You really have to visit the site, but basically, through the use of a global-positioning-system receiver, you will find your way to places where folks have tucked away a small waterproof box. Might sound silly, but people who get involved love it!
Search this site by ZIP code and you’ll find where geocaches have been hidden in places that only the locals know about. GPS makes latitude and longitude come to life. Geocaching has super possibilities, so if you do anything with maps in your classroom, go geocaching.
Know the News
Visit Newseum to read the front pages of newspapers from around the world—a great way to see what is worthy of the front page in a place you are headed toward for a visit, or to keep up on the front-page news back home while you are away. If your students are going to be players in a global economy, knowing what is on the front page in a newspaper kiosk in Beijing, Beirut, Houston, London, New Delhi, or Toronto is important.
Listen Up
If you have a road trip planned, a good audiobook can be a great thing to have along. This is the best free audio collection of public domain books out there. The readers are excellent, and you’ll find many classics.
How about having The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or A Christmas Carol read to you as you drive? Put them on your mp3 player or burn a set of CDs, and you’re good to go. In the fall, consider making CDs of classic literature and sending them home to families as a gift. They will love them, and exposure to high-quality readers and classic literature will help all learners.
Along with activities to use with your students, there is also a ton of technology out there to make your life easier in the classroom. You can perform assessments, track grades and communicate with parents. You can now track all your students’ progress towards individual goals, and be alerted when they start to fall off track. For more information on this software, please visit the EXCEED webpage.
By Earle Dean Christian, who has devoted 21 years of her life to furthering education
Grant funds are available as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. A portion of the funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) program.
The SFSF program includes awarding $5 billion competitively under the “Race to the Top” and “Investing in What Works and Innovation” programs. $4.35 billion has been appropriated to make competitive grants under the “Race to the Top” fund. These grants will help states to drive significant improvement in student achievement. $650 million has been appropriated to make competitive awards under the “Invest in What Works and Innovation” fund. These grants are for LEAs or nonprofit organizations that have made significant gains in closing achievement gaps to serve as models for best practices. More information can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/presentation/index.html
Spectrum K12, CASE, NASDSE, AASA and State Title 1 Directors Announce 2009 RTI Survey Report
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jun 04, 2009
Spectrum K12 School Solutions, Inc., and leading education organizations including the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), and State Title 1 Directors today announced the results of their 2009 survey of K-12 district administrators to gauge the extent to which Response to Intervention (RTI) has been adopted and implemented.
Spectrum K12 and these organizations teamed to determine the Response to Intervention rate of adoption, the effectiveness of RTI implementation and perceived critical implementation factors to provide a roadmap for districts nationwide.
The 2009 survey results indicate strong and rapid support for Response to Intervention with 71% of districts in some stage of implementing RTI – up from 60% in 2008 and 44% in 2007. The survey results also showed RTI is being increasingly implemented across all grade levels with a significant increase in high school implementation compared to 2008.
Districts reported the three primary obstacles to implementing RTI as insufficient teacher training, lack of intervention resources and lack of an easy, comprehensive way to monitor and drive student achievement.
Of districts with enough data, 83% indicated RTI has reduced the number of referrals to special education.
This publication from the National Center for Learning Disabilities explains how the essential components of RTI — universal screening and progress-monitoring with research-based, tiered interventions — can be applied in preschool settings.
Many schools have seen success in implementing Response to Intervention in their K-12 classrooms. Now schools are starting to look at how they can provide Response to Intervention strategies to their Pre-K students. The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) has created a guidance document for schools to develop an RTI program for their Pre-K students.
The NCLD explain that the core components of RTI and Pre-K RTI are the same. Both need high quality instruction, tiered instruction and intervention, ongoing student assessment and progress monitoring, and family involvement.
The NCLD indicates that the purpose of their report and what you can learn from the report is:
(a) describe five projects that demonstrate how RTI is being adapted for pre-k children
(b) identify the critical elements of RTI needed to ensure fi delity of implementation with young children
(c) provide guiding questions to help policy makers/program directors assess their readiness to implement RTI as a framework for organizing pre-k supports and services
(d) offer policy recommendations for Pre-K RTI initiatives
How will the economic-stimulus package affect special education?
Posted by Beth DuBose on Apr 16, 2009
The Council of Exceptional Children (CEC) has put together a webpage with resources around the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and how it will effect special education. Resources include a Q-and-A summarizing portions of the act that CEC believes to be of particular interest to special-educators.
The Council of Exceptional Children has put together numerous resources to help educators understand how ARRA will effect them, their district and their students. CEC recommends that readers view the CEC’s Q&A: How the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Impacts Special Education and Early Intervention.
The Council of Exceptional Children (CEC) has a wonderful resource available for schools that are trying to use Response to Intervention with students with emotional/behavioral disorders. The article includes ways that a school can setup a tiered system to provide interventions to these students.
First, they discuss how RTI for E/B D works, providing examples of how each tier would look and what interventions would be used within that tier. They also provide insight into how staff would provide progress monitoring and data collection for the interventions. There is also a section on how and who might be on the RTI team for students with emotional/behavioral disorders, and what would need to be discussed at these meetings.
The CEC also provides guidance on how to involve parents, saying that they should be notified as soon as possible and be involvedin the meetings. They also provide advantages and challenges for using RTI for E/B D students. For example, advantages to using RTI for behavior include improved services students, decreased discipline referrals, and improved teacher performance. Some challenges being training and personnel.
Below you will find examples of what they provide for guidance on what the three tiers would look like for behavior intervntions.
Tier Services in RTI for E/BD
In Tier 1, as in School-wide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBS), all students receive explicit instruction in behavioral expectations and a system is implemented to encourage, reinforce, and acknowledge appropriate behavior. Also, all teachers implement effective, research-based classroom management practices. Additionally, in Tier 1 all students are screened to identify those who need Tier 2 support.
For Tier 2 services, schools provide targeted interventions to students who did not respond to Tier 1 interventions or were identified through screening as needing additional support. These research-based interventions are often geared to small groups and can be easily implemented.
For Tier 3 services, schools provide intensive supports to students with the most significant behavioral needs. These supports are individualized based on the student’s specific needs. Some students may require wrap-around services, which include community services.
Practice Guide for reading and response to intervention
Posted by Beth DuBose on Apr 07, 2009
The federal Institute of Education Sciences has released a practice guide on reading instruction and response to intervention.
A strong response-to-intervention, or RTI, program for early-childhood reading should include screening of all pupils, small-group instruction three to five a times a week for children who are struggling, and monitoring of those struggling students at least once a month to see how they are responding to the intensive lessons, according to the guide. It was published on the ies Web site on Feb. 18 through the What Works Clearinghouse.
Russell Gersten, the chairman of the panel that developed the guide, stated that “[Response to Intervention] has the advantage of being efficient” in providing instruction to students who need extra help.
I found the guide in the Education Week article ’What Works’ Guide Gives RTI Thumbs Up on Reading. Within the article, Education Week interviewed the director of the RTI Action Network, Kathleen Whitmire who said "the panel for the guide represented a good balance of researchers and practitioners. The guide authors also did a good job in describing certain pitfalls of implementation, and how they can be overcome."
The practice guide is the first on response to intervention that has been released through the What Works Clearinghouse. The guide includes five recommendations for schools to follow in adopting an RTI program:
Recommendation 1. Screen all students for potential reading problems at the beginning of the year and again in the middle of the year. Regularly monitor the progress of students who are at elevated risk for developing reading disabilities.
Recommendation 2. Provide differentiated reading instruction for all students based on assessments of students’ current reading levels (tier 1).
Recommendation 3. Provide intensive, systematic instruction on up to three foundational reading skills in small groups to students who score below the benchmark
on universal screening. Typically, these groups meet between three and five times a week for 20 to 40 minutes (tier 2).
Recommendation 4. Monitor the progress of tier 2 students at least once a month. Use these data to determine whether students still require intervention.
For those students still making insufficient progress, school-wide teams should design a tier 3 intervention plan.
Recommendation 5. Provide intensive instruction on a daily basis that promotes the development of the various components of reading proficiency to students who show minimal progress after reasonable time in tier 2 small group instruction (tier 3).
The practice guide does not recommend specific programs that can be used to provide the intensive instruction that some students may need. It does offer suggestions, though, for how school personnel can make good choices of different programs for their students.
The Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy examined 11 high schools in 9 districts in Massachusetts. These high schools have recently reduced their dropout rates by using strategic interventions designed for their at-risk students. By identifying students that were at-risk of dropping out, these high schools were able to develop targeted interventions for these students.
Many of these interventions focused on building strong connections between school and college or careers and creating strong relationships with faculty and community partners. Massachusetts is also fortunate to be able to provide alternatives to traditional high schools to these students.
These high schools have embraced the core values of Response to Intervention. They are not looking solely at academics for these students, but at providing interventions for every aspect of their students’ lives. Dropout prevention is a huge concern for high schools, and by providing targeted interventions as these high schools have can help districts decrease their dropout rates significantly.
A study published in the February 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics studies links between recess and classroom behavior in 11,000 children aged 8 to 9. The study showed that those children receiving more than 15 min of recess a day had better behavior and concentration in class.
This does not come as a surprise to me at all. I am sure as adults we all expect and need a 15 min break to regroup in the middle of the day, and our attention span is much longer than a child’s. The ability for children to give their minds a rest and get a little exercise is essential, I believe, to allowing them to recharge for the rest of the school day. How many times have you been in a long meeting or seminar and felt like if you could just get up and walk around for a few minutes, you could get your focus back?
I know with the expectations that are put on schools today, it is hard not to try to use every minute to provide instruction to our children. But by not giving them a break, we might be doing more harm to their concentration. Especially with schools losing Physical Education time and more students going home and playing video games instead of playing outside, a short recess for young children might be more important than ever. I am not saying go out to the playground for an hour, but 15-20 min a day should be sufficient. A lot of teachers are even working lessons into their outdoor time. I have seen classes outside doing a measurement lesson as they go around and measure different playground equipment. I have seen Science lessons being conducted as classrooms take nature walks. Being outdoors provides children with the chance of getting some fresh air and movement. Even if you plan to teach outside your students may feel like you have taken them on a mini-field trip.
There was an article in The Washington Examiner discussing how a local district in Maryland is concerned about the impact of their inclusion programs. They audited their program and found 100% of the students that had been transitioned from segregated classrooms to inclusion classrooms scored at the lowest level on Maryland’s state math exam, and 81% scored the at the lowest level for the reading exam.
I was surprised to read these facts because I have had quite a bit of experience with both segregated and inclusion classrooms, and found for most students, inclusion classrooms were more beneficial. But after reading further, I understood perhaps why this district was seeing these scores.
The audit also showed that only about 25% of the teachers were actually providing differentiated instruction to the inclusion students. And a mandatory training for teachers that would be working with these inclusion students was only attended by about 50% of the staff. These numbers are more alarming to me. Most teacher programs do not prepare general education classroom teachers to work with special education students. If these teachers are not properly trained, of course the students will struggle. There also seems like there should be better collaboration with the general education and special education teachers. The special education teachers should be able to help, model and provide differentiated instructional practices for the general education teacher. I know educators are pulled in every direction today, and collaboration among all staff is key to providing the tools necessary for helping the students. I am sure if every district across the country did the same audit as this district did, many districts might find that their numbers are pretty similar. I know inclusion is not appropriate for every student, but I do believe that it is beneficial to most students receiving special education services if the inclusion program is well developed.
Curriculum-Based Measurement and Progress Monitoring
Posted by Beth DuBose on Mar 04, 2009
The other day we looked at how Universal Screening is one element that schools and districts must consider when developing their RTI implementation plan. Another element is Progress Monitoring. Many questions arise when developing your Progress Monitoring plan.
Why can’t we just use our traditional assessments?
Traditional Assessments vs. Progress Monitoring
The reason you want to stay away from traditional assessments for your Progress Monitoring is because they are typically more time consuming. They also have many more questions that might not reflect the areas that you are trying to assess the student on. Traditional assessments are also not given frequently enough to track student progress to catch a student early if they are not making the progress we want so the intervention can be changed or tweaked.
Many schools and districts are using Curriculum-Based Measurements for Progress Monitoring. These measurements are quick and provide immediate feedback to the teacher. These measurements are focused on the district curriculum, and can be used to make educational descisions for the student.
This 2007 presentation presents information regarding the benefits and purpose of Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM). It explains how to measure student progress and how to use student progress monitoring data in reading. It was presented by Chris Lemons, Laura Sáenz, and Pamela Stecker, and released by the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring.
School Wide Reading Screenings
Posted by Beth DuBose on Mar 02, 2009
Response to Intervention is an important process that a lot of schools and districts have or are planning to adopt. Yet, some districts and schools are having a hard time determing what elements should make up their RTI plan. One of those elements that many are struggling with is Universal Screening. When should we do it? What should we use? How many times should the students be screened?
Even schools that have implemented a plan have found challenges when trying to determine the best way to provide universal screening to their students.
Challenges:
Time: Probably one of the biggest issues schools and districts must face when creating their RTI plan. How will we have enough time to do universal screening? Do we hire substitute teachers for a week so our classroom teachers can do screenings? Do we pull auxiliary teachers to provide the screenings? When I was doing my studet teaching many years ago, the school I worked with used education majors in college to provide the screenings, but this is not a luxory all schools have.
Materials: How do we determine what the best screening materials are for our students? Do we use only one screening test, or multiple?
This Powerpoint presentation by Brian Miller is one of several sessions that were presented at the National SEA Conference on SLD Determination. It discusses an elementary school in Iowa that has implemented school-wide screening in reading. The school’s implementation plan is presented, along with a discussion of its successes and challenges. Hopefully this will give you some insight into how to setup a universal screening plan at your school or district.
New Funding Opportunities for RTI
Posted by Beth DuBose on Feb 17, 2009
President Obama signed the Economic Stimulus Bill today under which K-12 public schools will receive a substantial funding increase for FY2009 and FY2010. Two areas that stand to receive a significant funding boost are Title I and IDEA.
To see an estimate of the Title I and IDEA funding your district and state will receive as part of the Stimulus bill, follow the link below (prepared by Congressional Research Service).
You can also see guidance from the U.S. Department of Education on how to use Title I, Title III and CEIS funds for Response to Intervention, including progress monitoring and student achievement management software like Spectrum K12’s EXCEED/RTI by following the link below:
Webinars presented by the Council of Exceptional Children
Posted by Beth DuBose on Feb 16, 2009
The Council of Exceptional Children (CEC) has introduced the latest webinars in their Growing Knowledge Series. They are currently two webinars slated in February, four in March, two in August, and a three part series in October and November. Below you can view the content that is availabel in these webinars.
February 2009
Planning For Classroom Implementation Of AT
Once the IEP team has determined the need for assistive technology (AT), it is their responsibility to ensure that it is implemented correctly. Learn practical ways to ensure that students with disabilities receive appropriate AT devices and/or services. Attendees will receive a copy of the Assistive Technology Planner.
Using Technology To Provide Access To The Gen Ed Curriculum
Discover technology-based practices for teaching history and enhancing literacy and written language in inclusive classrooms. National experts offer practical ideas on how to help students with disabilities access the general curriculum. Attendees will receive Technology and Media for Accessing the Curriculum—Instructional Support for Students with Disabilities .
March 2009
Defining Roles For The Interaction Of Co-taught Teams
The roles for two teachers in a classroom can be confusing if there is not clarity in purpose, practice, and outcomes. Clarifying the roles of the general and special educator in the inclusive classroom ensures success for all students and underscores the importance of the co-taught environment.
Mentoring Co-Teachers For Successful Inclusion
The importance of co-teaching and collaboration in inclusive classrooms has reached new heights in recent years. Learn how to work more effectively as a cohesive team providing appropriate instruction for your diverse group of learners.
Gifted Differentiated Instruction In The Inclusive Classroom
Meeting the needs of students with gifts and talents presents a challenge to busy teachers. Increase your knowledge of effective differentiation tools for high-ability learners. From instructional management suggestions to evidence-based teaching strategies you can use, this webinar will provide you with resources to recognize and meet the needs of students with gifts and talents in the inclusive classroom.
Develop Your Program Using The National Gifted Ed Standards
What are the national standards for preparation of teachers of the gifted? What is the implication of accreditation standards in teacher preparation programs for Pre K-12 teachers, schools, and districts? This online seminar will address these questions and target P-12 program leaders in gifted education who plan and implement professional development activities for teachers at all levels of schooling.
August 2009
PBS Through Staff Development And Coaching
This online seminar will describe a district-wide staff development and coaching model designed by the Orange County Public Schools Behavior Intervention Team. Learn how this model guides schools to develop, implement, and monitor appropriately matched, evidence-based, data-driven behavioral interventions.
Utilizing RTI For Academic And Behavior Support
This online seminar provides school-based personnel with an overview of utilizing Response to Intervention (RTI) for academic and behavior support. Presenters will highlight the essential components of design, implementation, data collection, data-based decision making, progress monitoring, and service delivery.
October 2009
Introduction To RTI
Learn how to use research-based intervention to effectively individualize instruction, monitor student progress, and implement strategies to meet students’ specific needs. Cara Shores, co-author of Response to Intervention: A Practical Guide for Every Teacher, offers an overview of key concepts and guidelines of RTI that benefit all students. General and special education teachers and administrators will find this seminar very useful.
Implementation Of RTI At The School Level
Explore the components of quality instruction at each tier of a three-tiered RTI pyramid, including general education classroom services, needs-based instructional services, and special education services. Additional topics include scheduling options, progress monitoring, interventions, data-based decision making, factors that impact sustainability of reform, and the impact of RTI on special education services.
November 2009
Considerations When Using RTI In Diverse Schools
While RTI is a promising model for changing how educators support learning for all students, practitioners face additional challenges when implementing RTI with culturally and linguistically diverse students. Learn how to implement RTI with a deeper understanding about the needs and challenges practitioners may face in today’s diverse schools.
House Democrats offered a two-year an $825 billion stimulus package that they will now negotiate with the Senate in preparation to deliver a joint package to Obama by February 13th, 2009. The proposed package offers good news for education.
“As states begin tackling a projected $350 billion in budget shortfalls these investments will prevent cuts to critical education programs and services,” said Rep. David Obey, WI, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, in his release of Stimulus Package Details.
School Construction: $14 billion for K-12 for renovation and modernization, including technology upgrades and energy efficiency improvements. Also includes $100 million for school construction in communities that lack a local property tax base because they contain non-taxable federal lands such as military bases or Indian reservations, and $25 million to help charter schools build, obtain, and repair schools.
Education Technology: $1 billion for 21st century classrooms, including computer and science labs and teacher technology training.
IDEA Special Education: $13 billion for formula grants to increase the federal share of special education costs and prevent these mandatory costs from forcing states to cut other areas of education.
Title I Help for Disadvantaged Kids: $13 billion for grants to help disadvantaged kids in nearly every school district and more than half of all public schools reach high academic standards.
Statewide Data Systems: $250 million for competitive grants to states to design and develop data systems that analyze individual student data to find ways to improve student achievement, providing teachers and administrators with effective tools.
Education for Homeless Children and Youth: $66 million for formula grants to states to provide services to homeless children including meals and transportation when high unemployment and home foreclosures have created an influx of homeless kids.
Improving Teacher Quality: $300 million, including $200 million for competitive grants to school districts and states to provide financial incentives for teachers and principals who raise student achievement and close the achievement gaps in high-need schools and $100 million for competitive grants to states to address teacher shortages and modernize the teaching workforce.
Early Childhood Development
Child Care Development Block Grant: $2 billion to provide child care services for an additional 300,000 children in low-income families while their parents go to work. Today only one out of seven eligible children receives care.
Head Start: $2.1 billion to provide comprehensive development services to help 110,000 additional children succeed in school. Funds are distributed based on need. Only about half of all eligible preschoolers and less than 3 percent of eligible infants and toddlers participate in Head Start.
IDEA Infants and Families: $600 million for formula grants to help states serve children with disabilities age 2 and younger.
New Administration and Education
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jan 21, 2009
With the inaguration of our new President, education has become a forerunner in issues that the new administration will be focusing on. “Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many,” Mr. Obama said in his inaugural address yesterday. “Everywhere we look, there is work to be done. ...We will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.” By including education in his inaguration speech, many educators feel President Obama will keep education one of his major goals.
We have already seen a piece of this with the passing of the economic-stimulus package that was released on January 15th, giving $120 billion for education programs. We will all anxiously wait as we see how this money is spent, and what programs will benefit. It will definitely be interesting to see where this administration takes education. If Obama’s campaign reflects what we can expect, we should see more public and private entities getting envolved in education support, and more emphasis on the parent’s role in educating their child. These next four years will be interesting.
Response to Intervention and Mathematics
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jan 14, 2009
Reading seems to be a primary focus for districts when first starting their Response to Intervention implementation. There are many resources available on interventions for reading, but what about math?
Well, a new resource for math in Response to Intervention is now available from the Center on Instruction: "A Summary of Nine Key Studies: Multi-Tier Intervention and Response to Interventions for Students Struggling in Mathematics"
This summary of nine studies provides information about evidence-based practices for Tier 2 interventions and how to use RTI in mathematics. This annotated bibliography identifies and describes the most current research available on the use of RTI to help students struggling to learn math.
This resource pertains Mathematics in grades 1-5. To get more information and access this resource, visit the Math resources on the Center of Instruction website.
Funding Support for Response to Intervention cont.
Posted by Beth DuBose on Jan 12, 2009
The U.S. Department of Education has published a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Implementing Response to Intervention (RtI) Using Title I, Title III, and CEIS Funds – Key Issues for Decision-makers.”
On the October 21st post, Funding Support for Response to Intervention, we looked at what IDEA 2004 states can be used to fund Response to Intervention (RTI). Now the US Department of Education has published a 46 page document explaining how to use Title I, Title III and CEIS funds to pay for RTI. Please go to the US DOE website to view the document.
Parent Involvement in Response to Intervention
Posted by Beth DuBose on Dec 16, 2008
The National Center on Learning Disabilities developed a brief on what parents should expect with the Response to Intervention process and provides tips for parents. They provide information to parents on what RTI is and what to expect when attending a RTI meeting or receiving information from the school on RTI.
Questions are provided for parents on what they should ask of the school about their RTI process including:
What are the provisions for including parents in the school planning process?
What are the provisions for ensuring that parents are involved in all phases of planning the RTI interventions for their child?
How much time must be spent in each tier to determine whether the intervention is working?
What kinds of written materials will parents receive informing them they have the right to ask for a special education evaluation at any time?
They also provide standards that a school should be judged on of their level of parent involvement in RTI.
A video by Vicki Peterman on what is the role of the parent in the RTI process is also available.
This resource would be useful to parents who are looking for information about a tiered service-delivery model of RTI.
Federal Guidance on Coordinated Early Intervening Services
Posted by Beth DuBose on Dec 12, 2008
The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has released guidance to provide states with information regarding the appropriate use of funds provided under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by local education agencies to develop and implement coordinated early intervening services (CEIS) for students who are not currently identified as needing special education.
8 States to Receive Intensive Technical Assistance Support for RTI
Posted by Beth DuBose on Dec 10, 2008
The National Center on Response to Intervention, funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office and Special Education Programs and managed by the American Institutes for Research in collaboration with researchers from Vanderbilt University and the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning, provides technical assistance (TA) support to each of the 50 states and 9 territories across the country. In collaboration with state RTI leadership teams and others, the Center has confirmed that 8 states will receive intensive TA supports that will help them to plan, implement and evaluate their RTI initiatives. The states receiving intensive TA are Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
The Center’s intensive TA help states to plan, implement, and evaluate their statewide RTI initiatives. In each of the intensive TA states, the Center is working directly with the state RTI leadership team to determine how the state and the Center will collaborate to achieve the state’s vision for RTI. For example, intensive TA supports can include helping the state develop and coordinate a statewide system for RTI professional development. Other examples of the Center’s intensive TA supports include assisting the state in developing model demonstration sites and establishing and monitoring state guidance for local district adoption of RTI tools and practices with fidelity.
Each intensive TA state has made strong commitments to RTI. These commitments include:
(a) Developing a multi-district or statewide initiative for RTI.
(b) Allocating substantial state resources (e.g., state agency staff time and financial resources) as needed to successfully implement the state’s RTI initiative.
(c) Working with the Center to evaluate the outcomes of the initiative.
The Center and intensive TA states have established formal agreements that specify the terms for our collaboration. These agreements are for one year, with options for mutually agreed upon annual renewals until the end of the Center’s five years of operation in 2012.
There are many researchers that feel that not only is the school curriculum important to a child’s development, but also the school environment. They feel schools should be a safe place where students feel comfortable expressing themselves and developing relationships. Some schools are moving away from the traditional model of individual classrooms to project based learning where students work in groups in creative ways to solve hard problems.
Edutopia has a great video of an interview with Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University. She speaks about the transition of schools and teaching methods into the 21st century, and making schools not only an academic learning environment, but also a social and emotional learning environment. She feels that this will allow students to become socially, emotionally and intellectually capable, and learn how to be part of a community. In her interview she talks about a remodel of a high school in New York. The high school was designed so students stayed with the same team of teachers for two years, similar to looping in elementary schools. Most of the work is done in groups and assessed using authentic measures. The school has seen a higher graduation rate since the transition to the new model. You can view the video below:
Edutopia also has an entire piece of their webiste dedicated to social and emotional learning, with additional videos, interviews and resources. It is a very interesting topic, and worth researching more.
Interventions do not replace core instruction
Posted by Beth DuBose on Nov 13, 2008
After a discussion in our webinar yesterday, I wanted to gather some information about Tiered instruction and how interventions are not supposed to replace the core instruction, but to supplement it. Atlas Initiative has a video on YouTube describing a 3 tiered model of intervention, and what is typically found at each of those three levels. In their explanation, they enforce that if a child is getting small group instruction in Tier 2, they should still be getting the core instruction from Tier 1 as well. Their example shows the student receiving 90 minutes of core reading instruction in Tier 1 with an additional 30 minute small group intervention for Tier 2.
The same is true for Tier 3. Even though the student is receiving individual targeted interventions, they should still be receiving the core instruction, and typically the additional Tier 2 instruction as well. An example of this would be a student receiving the 90 minutes of core instruction, a 30 minute small group reading intervention, and a 10 minute individual targeted intervention.
The Atlas Initiative also has many RTI resources and additional videos on their website. They provide additional information on tiered instruction, as well as universal screening progress monitoring and evidence-based instruction.
Twice a year, Teacher Magazine publishes the Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook. This sourcebook provides educators with insights and models for effective teaching. The Fall 2008 issue is titled Different Students, Different Approaches: The power of differentiated instruction. With Response to Intervention becoming a strong educational model across the nation, differentiated instruction and how to provide differentiated instruction is more crucial to teachers and schools.
Teacher Magazine has published their sourcebook on their website as well. Below are the topics within the current issue. As you can see the sourcebook is a wealth of information for teachers who are looking to learn more about differentiated instruction.
An independent audit of a Florida professional development program in literacy instruction offers the latest evidence that purposeful teacher training can lead to quantifiable gains in student learning.
Research to date on the impact of certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards has pretty much missed the point, concludes a report by 10 teachers who’ve earned the credential.
A selection of books on differentiated instruction published within the last year.
Response to Intervention at the Secondary Level
Posted by Beth DuBose on Nov 04, 2008
The RTI Action Network has posted a video to YouTube about implementing an RTI model at the secondary level. The video is an interview with Jay Engeln, a high school principal implementing RTI at his school. Mr. Engeln goes though the challenges that high schools will face when trying to implement RTI. He sees the biggest challenge as getting everyone past the idea that they are trying to implement an elementary program at the high school level.
The second big challenge is time. Due to the difference in schedules that high schools have compared to elementary schools, it is not as easy to find time to schedule the Student Support Team meetings. He also recognizes that there will be possible push back from staff on how will they find the time to collect the data that they need to successfully implement RTI at their school. He feels these challenges can be overcome by researching and sharing best practices and models that have worked in other high schools. If you can show data to staff members on how RTI as positively impacted all students, you will receive a higher level of buy-in from the staff. Mr. Engeln mentions data that he has seen in successful high school RTI programs where the enrollment into Honors and AP level classes have increased, and discipline problems have decreased.
Jay Engeln feels that collaboration is most important in implementing RTI becasue they staff shoudl be sharing data and information to help everyone move the child forward successfully.
The IRIS Center for Training Enhancements, a development of the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University, has created a video series on Response to Intervention. Their latest installment, RTI: Considerations for School Leaders, talks about what principals need to consider when creating and implementing their RTI process. In this module, a short, illustrated video is used together with a multi-page, step-by-step presentation to highlight the numerous components involved in an effective, school-wide RTI adoption.
The video follows the journey of fictional principal, Mr. Rodney Irwin, as he goes through the process of implementing an RTI process in his school. The module offers some fundamental questions for principals to consider prior to RTI implementation. The questions are followed by "answers" and detailed explanations of the many steps a principal must take to ensure successful RTI adoption. In addition, suggestions and strategies are provided to assist those principals looking to implement RTI in their own buildings.
Once a district has decided to implement RTI, and created an action plan, the next big question to consider is “How are we going to pay for this?” IDEA 2004 states that “An LEA may use up to 15% of IDEA funds to develop and implement coordinated, early intervening services for students who have not been identified as needing special education or related services, but who need additional academic and behavioral support to succeed in a general education environment.” Under certain specific conditions Title I and Title III funds may be used for professional development of non-special ed staff as well as for RTI related activities.
According to IDEA 2004, school districts:
♦ Can use up to 15% of Federal Part B funding to provide:
• Professional development
• Education evaluations, services, and supports
• Behavioral evaluations, services, and supports
♦ Who use the 15% of Federal Part B must annually report to their state education agencies (SEA):
• The number of students who received early intervening services
• The number of students who received early intervening services and subsequently received special education services
♦ Must use the full 15% of Federal Part B funding if minority students are overrepresented in their special education programs
In addition to using early intervening funds to implement RTI, districts and principals need to think creatively about how to fund RTI implementation. For instance, they may consider a variety of sources for funding RTI:
REAP (Rural Education Achievement Program Initiative) – These funds target small rural districts. Eligible school districts are allowed to combine the funding under several Titles and can use these funds for any authorized activity. If your school is eligible, these funds can be combined into Title II A or Title V to support RTI.
Transferability – These funds target larger urban districts. Eligible school districts are allowed to combine some of the federal funding under several Titles and use these funds for any authorized activity. If your school is eligible, these funds can be combined into Title II A or Title V and used to support RTI.
Program Improvement Funds – Schools and districts in program improvement may receive additional funds to help them make Adequate Yearly Progress. You may be able to use these additional program improvement dollars to support RTI.
Small Rural Schools Achievement Program Funds through REAP – Eligible schools can apply for these additional funds through the U.S. Department of Education. These funds can be used for authorized activities under the Title programs and can support any of the supplemental activities under the federal programs, including RTI.
General Funds – Another avenue for funding RTI is your district’s general funds. If your school staff really believes the RTI process will make a difference, you should consider collecting the data and showing how it will improve student achievement, approach your school board, and request funds to sustain it.
Pool Your Resources – Federal regulations allow school districts to pool their resources to share services among several schools. One district would simply agree to be the fiscal agent and the funds would flow through that district to pay for the shared activities. A district could pool their funds to support professional development on RTI or hire another reading or math specialist to work with identified students. Another viable option would be to share resources through a regional educational association/agency.
Encore featured in Technology and Learning Magazine
Posted by Beth DuBose on Oct 13, 2008
Technology and Learning magazine featured Encore in their September Back to School issue. It talked about the four Texas districts that have recently purchased Encore, and provides a screen shot of the product. We are very excited to be featured in the issue!
I came across a great video on You Tube that can provide those districts that are just starting to develop their RTI process with some great information on how PA has implemented their process. The video takes the viewer through the key components of RTI and how they are being addressed in PA. They show you how they have a team of people going into the classroom to do Universal Screenings through DIBELS. They discuss what they have identified as their 3-Tier model, and how it is being implemented in the schools. You get to see the small group interventions in action. You also get to hear and see what is discussed among the intervention team. They show teachers working with students and doing progress monitoring. There are interviews with everyone from the Superintendent to the students, including how the Special Education and General Education departments are working together to have a successful RTI program.
Of course, the specifics that they have developed for their RTI process meets their needs in PA, but might not meet the needs of every district. But, the basic overview infomation is what we are seeing across the nation. This video is a great real-life scenario video that can provide districts with a great starting place when developing their own Response to Intervention model.
While standardized assessment may not be needed to determine eligibility for special education programs diagnosis of learning disabilities, it can still provide educators with important information for students’ programs, even with the RTI model of eligibility. .
Ann Logsdon gave a great description on how assessments can tell us about how students learn:
First, intelligence testing provides important details on how students process information and how they learn. This information can be used by regular and special education teachers to develop specially designed instruction that truly taps their strengths and encourages skill development in their areas of weakness.
Second, standardized achievement testing can offer a larger view of how the student is learning as compared to others his age across the nation. This serves as critical guidance to ensure students make ongoing progress and move toward their long-term educational and career goals. Achievement testing can also provide diagnostic information that enables teachers to identify specific areas of strength and weakness. This helps teachers refine instructional processes.
Standardized assessments can provide us with a baseline for each of our students so we can make sure that each and every one of our students moves forward. Without this baseline, we do not know where our students stand, and how we will need to modify instruction to ensure the students make progress. Districts are using numerous universal screening methods to determine where their students are struggling. Progress monitoring methods are determining whether or not students are making gains and if interventions are working. These assessments are crucial to the Response to Intervention process. Because we are moving away from a discrepancy model does not mean that assessments are not important in providing us with important insight into how our students learn. We should not dismiss assessments; we just need to use them as tool in providing information instead of providing a determination of eligibility.
High quality Tier 1 RTI curriculum
Posted by Beth DuBose on Oct 01, 2008
Ten questions to ask when choosing high quality Tier 1 RTI curriculum
One entry within CEC’s RTI blog talks about how choosing the right curriculum for Tier 1 is highly important in providing a comprehensive core curriculum to all students. They provided ten questions that we should ask ourselves to make sure we are selecting high quality curriculum to use during Tier 1 instruction:
1. Is it comprehensive? A good curriculum cannot just focus on academics, but must address the whole child by setting goals for children’s growth in every area.
2. Is learning integrated? Children learn through everything they do, not just when the teacher sits down to instruct. The curriculum should include opportunities to learn throughout the day (e.g., play, transitions, and project work).
3. Are a variety of instructional approaches used? Because there is no one way to teach or learn, teachers must use a variety of approaches including explicit instruction, child discovery, and small and large groups.
4. Is the curriculum developmentally appropriate? Is it appropriate for the children’s ages, cultures, and individual needs and interests?
5. Is the curriculum based on accepted early childhood research and theory?
6. Is there evidence that the curriculum works? Has the curriculum’s effectiveness been documented through research?
7. Are there clear goals for learning that reflect child development theory, state early learning standards, and recommended practices?
8. Does the curriculum actively involve all children? All children should be interested and actively engaged in exploration, experimentation, and problem solving.
9. Are families expected to participate? Parents are encouraged to consider and fill many roles in planning, implementing, and evaluating the early childhood program.
10. Do professionals have a variety of ongoing professional opportunities to expand their knowledge and skills to implement the curriculum effectively?
Middle and high schools might need to start looking at teacher to student ratios to increase test scores
The Washington Post had an interesting article on how a teacher’s load can affect students’ performance. The author discussed how when principal’s are given the power over their staffing funds, that they tend to concentrate on decreasing the teacher to student ratio, or what he refers to as total student loads per teacher (TSL). Principals are doing this because they find that when teacher’s caseloads decrease, test scores increase. When I read this first part of the article, I was thinking: What is the big surprise? This makes sense to me; less paperwork, less papers to grade, less behaviors to monitor. I know when I was working as a reading interventionist, our principal always concentrated on keeping class sizes low. But that was elementary level, and this article discussed middle and high levels. Apparently teacher to student ratio is looked at in the elementary level quite frequently because you can directly see how many students a teacher has all day. But within one school day a teacher at the middle or high levels could have 7 to 8 periods of students a day. That could be around 200 students! I never worked at these levels, so having that many papers or tests to grade is unimaginable to me, but I know most teachers do this every day. The author mentions that most schools do not track these TSL levels at middle and high schools, but it is starting to become a factor in most large school districts. The article talks about a book that will be coming out that looks at large, urban school districts and how TSL is effecting them. The book by management expert William G. Ouchi should be out within the next year, and it will be interesting to read his findings.
Webinar conducted by the National Center on Response to Intervention with link to view the recording.
The National Center on Response to Intervention hosted a webinar on September 23 on “Planning for the Implementation of RTI: Examples from the MP3 Model Demonstration Project.” This webinar provided state educational agencies with a description of the process the Monitoring the Progress of Pennsylvania’s Pupils (MP3) project used to diagnose schools’ readiness to implement RTI and assess their professional development needs. In addition, this webinar discussed the professional development provided by MP3 to the schools and described the project’s initial findings. You can view the presentation and recording. You can also ask Dr. Shapiro any questions you might still have! He will be available to answer your questions until Tuesday, September 30. Click here to ask a question or view the recording.
Edward S. Shapiro, Ph.D., the Director of Lehigh (PA) University’s Center for Promoting Research to Practice, presented this webinar. Lehigh University is a partner with the National Center on Response to Intervention. Dr. Shapiro’s work focuses on outcomes of Response to Intervention models for service delivery and assessment and intervention for academic skills problems. Dr. Shapiro is co-principal investigator of the Model Demonstration Project (MP3), which is a joint partnership between Lehigh University, University of Pittsburgh, and the Pennsylvania Training & Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN), funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
Response to Intervention: Improving Achievement for all Children
Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 23, 2008
RTI webinar presented by District Administration
Today I attended the RTI webinar that District Administration conducted and we sponsored. The speakers for the webinar had some of the highest credentials I have seen for any RTI webinar that I have come across: Alexa Posny, Kansas Commissioner of Education and former Director of the Office of Special Education at the US Department of Ed; Mark Shinn, Professor of School Psychology, National Louis University, Skokie, IL; and Christy Chambers, past president of the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE). There were a lot of great points made throughout the webinar. Mark Shinn discussed what RTI is, and how a district needs to build a common vision to have a successful RTI process. He discussed how RTI is supposed to help in providing services when students need them. You should not wait for a student to fail in Tier 2 before moving them into Tier 3. You should also use the most powerful interventions you can, and provided examples of websites that recommend research based intervention in both reading and behavior. He also discussed misunderstandings about RTI. These included:
RTI is not doing your old way of business/referral and just calling it RTI
It is not expecting general education teachers to modify their curriculum for each individual student (25 interventions for 25 students)
It is not jumping through hoops to provide services to a student
It is not a referral-driven system (paperwork and psychological testing)
Christy Chambers discussed resources to help in the implementation of RTI, such as our RTI survey and CASE/NASDSE’s blueprints. I unfortunately missed Alexa’s portion of the presentation, but the webinar is archived on District Administration’s website. At the end of the webinar they took questions from education staff that are actually going through implementing a RTI process.
Richard Allington PodCast on Response to Intervention
Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 22, 2008
Podcast from past International Reading Association president, Dr. Richard Allington, provides insight into RTI.
If you’re looking for some insight into RtI, there’s an excellent podcast available at the International Reading Association’s website. The speaker is Dr. Richard Allington, a past president of the IRA and an author of numerous books.
Not all RtI curriculum is appropriate for all reading problems
I especially appreciated two points he made. First, in order for an RtI curriculum to be useful in solving the problem of a student being behind, it has to deliver more than a year of progress in one year. It doesn’t help (not much, at least) to take a student who is two years behind and learning 5 months worth of skills each year, and put that student in an intervention program that gets them to learn seven months worth of skills a year. Slowing the rate at which students fall behind is not the goal. The goal is for them to catch up. Second, students are rarely the problem. If a program doesn’t work, it’s probably because the program isn’t suited for that student.
Lack of Training is Hurting District RTI Implementations
Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 17, 2008
Lack of teacher training was identified as the biggest obstacle to implementing RTI.
This year we asked districts what they felt was the biggest obstacle to implementing RTI. According to our RTI Survey results, they felt their biggest obstacle was lack of staff training. They even stated that a majority of districts have trained fewer than one-quarter of staff! Adequate professional development is crucial to the fidelity of the implementation of a Response to Intervention process. Implementation teams need to be trained on the process for the district, how to facilitate meetings, and measure intervention effectiveness. Teachers need to be trained on how to provide interventions, perform universal screenings and progress monitoring assessments, and modifying instruction to meet the students’ needs. I know it is hard to find the time to provide professional development with the minimal amount of professional development days available. For those of you that are looking for some free resources to provide some background on RTI, I have a listed a few here:
The School Association of Special Education in DuPage County has many presentations that were conducted at workshops throughout the 2007-2008 school year. * My only suggestion is to look at these from a starting point because they are Illinois specific, but they do provide great general insight into the RTI process.
NASDSE has written an article on the suggestions for professional development that they feel are necessary for a successful RTI implementation.
The RTI Action Network provides many different forums for RTI professional development from live chats to national online forums, videos and podcasts to webinars.
The Council of Administrators of Special Education and NASDSE created RTI Implementation Blueprints for both the school level and the district level.
Response to Intervention is beneficial to all districts, big and small
Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 15, 2008
Two recent articles show how a small district of 900 can have the same success with RTI as districts with over 300,000 students.
Response to Intervention is starting to be implemented in most districts across the country. Yet, some districts may not feel that RTI will benefit their size or demographics. I recently read two separate articles showing how RTI has been successful in school districts. One article looked at a small school district of 900 students in Iowa. The other at Miami-Dade Schools in Florida with over 350,000 students. Obviously two very different school districts in both size and demographics. But despite their differences, both school districts are seeing great success so far in their implementation of RTI.
The teachers in Lynnville-Sully, IA knew they had struggling students but they did not know what to do once they identified them. The teachers would miss half of the school year before they found a way to reach the students. Acting on their concerns, the schools developed and implemented an RTI program in 2006. Since then the Heartland Area Education Agency (AEA), which includes Lynnville-Sully, has been cited often in research on RTI. The article goes on to describe how the AEA goes about implementing RTI within the schools and districts it serves. It gives great insight into some road bumps you might encounter along the way.
The other article can be found in Spectrum K12’s special report, Achievement Today, within District Administration. In 2004, Miami-Dade adopted RTI throughout the district. They knew that they would need to make changes within the district to be able to implement RTI successfully. One key item they made sure that they had was buy-in from the district cabinet. Their cabinet immediately saw the potential success that RTI could bring to their students. The district also knew that some individuals would need to take a more prominent role in RTI. This was the school psychologist who became the intervention team leader at the schools. For the past 4 years, Miami-Dade has continued to adjust and fine-tune their RTI process. Since the intiation of their implementation of RTI in 2004, Miami-Dade has seen the number of "F" grade schools decrease by half.
To download the Achievement Today special report, register here.
Special Education Helping to Fund RTI
Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 11, 2008
The line between general and special education is starting to dissolve as special education funds are being allocated to Response To Intervention initiatives.
An article in Education Week discusses how special education funds are being allocated to RTI initiatives. We have started to see a shift already from a distinc separation of general and special education to a more collaborative effort between the groups. Our latest RTI national survey showed that 56% of districts surveyed indicated that they are working in a collaborative effort on RTI. At a conference last month, state special ed directors and federal officials met to learn more about using special education funds to pay for Response to Intervention services. Many ideas were shared among the group on how to work in collaborative efforts within their districts. Even with the increased enthusiasm of educataors to work together, some are worried that the rules on special educatino funding for RTI are too complex and will cause increased paperwork. When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was reauthorized in 2004, the law allowed states to take up to 15 percent of the money they receive from the federal government for special education and use it for what was deemed “coordinated, comprehensive early-intervening services.” Early-intervening services are for children of all ages, but tend to primarily focus on K-3. If a district uses the 15% to put toward early-intervening services, they must make up the difference in the special education budget thorugh another source, such as a grant. Some states are required to use the 15% if they show a disproportionality of students in special education. If a state shows disproportionality of a certain racil or ethnic group, the funds must be spent "particularly, but not exclusively" on that racial or ethnic group. This is a very basic overview of some of the rules surrounding early-intervening services and special education funding, and even these few rules are confusing. I can understand why so many districts are frustrated to the point that they are not considering using the 15% funds. I feel better guidelines need to be created for districts to properly use this funding to benefit the greatest number of students possible. It would be interesting to hear any stories of how your districts are coping with the decision on using 15% of your special education dollars to fund RTI. Or any suggestions on how your general and special education teams could collaborate.
To read the full RTI survey and it’s results, click here.
State Superintendent Wins Million on Game Show
Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 10, 2008
GA State Superintendent of Schools, Kathy Cox, won the $1 million prize on “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”
I was in Atlanta over the weekend, and heard the buzz about the State Superintendent of Schools winning on a popular game show. Prior to the show airing, many people were criticizing GA State Superintendent of Schools, Kathy Cox, for risking her reputation by going on the game show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" Well, Superintendent Cox came away as the first $1 million winner on the show, showing students that it is still cool to be smart. I found an article in TheNew York Times about her success. My favorite piece of the article states that Superintendent Cox could have stopped at $500,000, but decided she had to continue on to the million dollar question because she could not bring herself to state to students watching that she was "dropping out." She will be giving her winnings back to the GA state schools, primarily to the GA schools for the deaf and blind.
Myths About Response to Intervention (RTI) Implementation
Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 09, 2008
Common myths surrounding the implementation of RTI.
I was sent this article after my posts on RTI implementation. These myths were originally written by Bill East, the Executive Director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). The article is posted on the RTI Action Network. I found I have heard individuals say exactly what these myths are stating are incorrect, so I thought this would be great information to pass along.
Myth # 1: The outcome and intent of RTI is identification, and therefore special education remains its own entity that "occurs" subsequent to "trying RTI."
There are two overarching goals of RTI. The first is to deliver evidence-based interventions and the second is to use students’ response to those interventions as a basis for determining instructional needs and intensity. Special education eligibility decisions can be a product of these efforts, but is not the primary goal. Using RTI as the data base for making that decision, special education services (i.e., what does this student need?) are determined by the student’s rate of response to intervention and the size of the gap that exists between the student and the benchmark. As a result, identification is not about the student’s label, but rather about determining what interventions are most helpful in closing the gap in a timely manner. Special education services can be a means to providing effective intervention services for students, but are inherently linked to instructional efforts that occurred in general education. The delivery of special education programs is part of an integrated service delivery system that is pictured as a circle (recycling on itself until success is found), not as a straight line, where special education programs are the last thing on the line (and sometimes a goal, or end in itself). The major issues in RTI involve the need to enhance the range and diversity of academic and behavioral interventions in general education (Tier I) and to increase the impact of supplemental interventions in Tiers II and III, not how to make eligibility decisions that divorce special education from general education.
Myth # 2: Tier 3 (or the last tier in a tiered model) is only special education.
Tier 3 is the most intense level of intervention provided to students in general education. A student who does not respond to these intense interventions MAY qualify for special education services when it has been demonstrated that either the intensity or type of intervention required to improve student performance either exceeds the resources in general education or are not available in general education settings. Tier 3 in the conceptual model advocated by NASDSE and many other professionals is INTENSIVE INSTRUCTION, which may or may not include special education services. If Tier 3 is defined exclusively as special education, it is possible that additional intensive instructional programs would be set up OUTSIDE of the triangle model, which defeats the purpose of having the model for delivering services to all students.
Myth # 3: The major focus of RTI should be identifying students with Specific Learning Disabilities (LD). RTI can be used to “get rid of” those students who are not really LD, but who were simply not achieving for other reasons.
If the primary focus of RTI is simply eliminating students who are not deserving of special education, there is a risk of missing the huge benefit RTI provides in prevention of disability. IDEA 2004 is clear in indicating that no single criterion can be used for special education eligibility, and most definitions of LD view response to appropriate instruction as necessary, but not sufficient. Data collected during RTI implementation can be used as one source of information when making eligibility decisions, but identification is an end product of RTI, not the primary purpose. In some states, RTI is viewed as part of the identification criteria for all students considered for special education, not just LD, which is consistent with the IDEA 2004 statute.
Myth # 4: RTI is only prereferral.
RTI is more than prereferal services; it is a comprehensive service delivery system that requires significant changes in how a school serves all students. When thought of as a prereferral system, it remains the province of special education and the desired integration of general education and special education services around the goal of enhanced outcomes for all students will not be achieved.
Myth # 5: Comprehensive evaluations do not change with RTI, so districts should continue to do traditional assessments.
RTI changes in the nature of the comprehensive evaluation away from testing for eligibility to an organization of data already collected on the student’s instructional progress for planning increasingly intense interventions. The draft regulations indicated that districts could choose RTI or a discrepancy model, but there is no point in a discrepancy model if RTI is in place.
Myth # 6: The research base for RTI is limited to beginning reading. There are no research studies comparing RTI to traditional special education services.
A substantial body of research exists to demonstrate the impact of an RTI model on the current system (e.g., referral rates, risk indices) as well as student variables (e.g., achievement). Fewer studies exist on the long-term outcomes for students from both “models.” Regardless, there will probably never be research comparing different ways of reforming service delivery systems in schools because the question is not of great interest. The research base on beginning reading is substantial, but the research base on the use of problem solving models for students at risk for or with behavior problems is just as substantial. Analyses of outcomes in RTI implementations have improved outcomes in all students and shown reductions in referrals for special education. Although there is less research in math and in secondary schools, it is not correct to indicate that there is no research. There are large-scale implementations of RTI in real schools that involve multiple grade levels and reading, math, and behavior. The problem is one of scaling, which is a different research question than one invoked when we ask whether practices like RTI are effective or implementable.
Myth # 7: No contemporary research including student outcome data are available.
In fact, there is research with student outcome data from a variety of models and the real question is why resources have not been devoted to organizing these data.
Myth # 8: The over-riding RTI model is the 3-tier, general ed/remedial ed/special ed model, so states should adopt it.
This model exists, but is one of several frameworks for RTI. States should work with their stakeholders to decide what is best for them.
Myth # 9: Tier 2 is short-term, not the 10-30 weeks that exists in many RTI models.
There is no formula for how long any intervention should last, especially if the student is making progress. The idea that the problem must be significantly impacted in 4-6 weeks, or special education is the route to go, implies that current implementations of special education are associated with improved outcomes, which may not be correct.
Myth # 10: Because of “time to disposition” issues with longer Tier 2 interventions, the special education identification process will not fit into the RTI framework.
The evaluation timeline does not start until the referral is made and/or consent is obtained—depending on the state and consistent with the statute.
Myth # 11: Move slowly because the status quo is not that bad. Some tweaking is needed, but RTI can support the “traditional but tweaked” model.
RTI is a dramatic redesign of general and special education; both need to change and the entire system needs reform if schools are going to make AYP targets and meet the needs of all students. Tweaking will not be sufficient.
To learn more about NASDSE’s resources on Response to Intervention, visit the NASDSE Web site.
Tips for Struggling Readers
Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 08, 2008
Ten tips for teachers of struggling readers
Reading may be the most important skill for children to learn. Yet, research shows that 26% of twelfth grade students cannot read. What can we do to reach struggling students early? Below are some tips to consider when developing your reading program for this school year:
1. Classroom Expectations
Management and behavior issues can cause a great disruption to instruction, especially during small group instruction. Make sure your students are aware of the expectations in your classroom. Have them posted somewhere that can be easily seen by all students. You can even involve your students in the creation of your expectations.
2. Small Group Instruction
You will have a variety of reading levels throughout your classroom. Working in small groups will allow you to work on specific strategies and skills that each student needs.
3. Universal Screening
Within the first few weeks of school, teachers should assess each of their student’s current levels in reading. By doing this, you will learn the dynamics of your classroom, and have a baseline to show a student’s progress throughout the school year.
4. Progress Monitoring
Once you have a baseline for your students, you should monitor their progress on a regular basis. This will provide you with important information on how a student’s reading skills are improving, and if you need to change your focus on your small group instruction.
5. Motivate Reluctant Readers
You will have a variety of personalities within your classroom. You will need to explore both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations to encourage any reluctant readers. Positive reinforcement is always one of the best ways to encourage a struggling reader.
6. Mentor Program
Establish a mentor program with older students that can work with your struggling readers to provide guidance as they work on specific skills needed to improve their reading fluency and comprehension.
7. Encourage Independent Reading
No matter what their ages, children benefit from independent reading. Create independent reading plans for your class to develop reading skills, goal setting and motivation.
8. Build your Classroom Library
Filling your classroom library with books that are interesting to your students will encourage them read and share what they learn with their classmates.
9. Take Home Books
School and classroom libraries can provide books to those students that may not have access to them otherwise. Whether you encourage your students to check books out of the school library or send them home with a book from your classroom, students should be provided the opportunity to continue reading at home.
10. Home Support
Ongoing support should occur at home to ensure that children retain their reading skills. Research indicates that skills will be lost if not encouraged to practice at home and students that continue to read at home usually improve and retain skills taught in school.
A Blueprint for the Future
Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 04, 2008
Margaret Honey shares lessons learned from nearly 25 years of educational technology policy.
I came across this article today, and Margaret Honey has some great insight into where educational technology is and where it needs to move for the future. She talks about a shift in paradigm in educational technology. In the past, technology in schools was used primarily as a replacement for traditional teaching. Educators mainly used it for drill and skill practice. Now we are starting to see the view of educational technology shift towards reconstructing teaching and learning. Technology is being used to enhance students learning, and even transforming traditional teaching practices. There are even new literacies in education. No longer do students need to just learn reading, writing and math but also how to navigate the internet, use word processing programs, and online social networking.
I am proud to say that Spectrum K12 School Solutions also realized this shift in educational technology. Our new product, EXCEED, will transform traditional teaching methods and enhance the productivity of every member of the district. No longer will districts expect technology to just replace what they are doing by hand, but to revitilize it.
The Essential Top 10 Concepts for Technology Integration in the 21st Century. An article by Gerald Bailey of the College of Education at Kansas State University published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
Bailey states that while technology is rapidly changing, a small number of administrators consider themselves technology leaders. Yet these individuals are making the technology decisions for their districts. This article provides the top ten concepts or "buttons" that administrators need to look at to become a technology leader. Within each button, Bailey provides a set of basic questions or instructions to help you think about administrators and their leadership roles in technology as well as some background information.
The ten buttons of technology integration are:
Change
Technology Planning
Ethics
Teaching and Learning
Safety and Security
Curriculum
Staff Development
Infastructure
Technical Support
Technology Leadership
These 10 concepts will help you in developing a 21st century learning environment within your district.
Bailey, Gerald D. , "What Technology Leaders Need to Know: The Essential Top 10 Concepts for Technology Integration in the 21st Century." Learning and Leading with Technology, 1997, 25(1), 57-62.
Ensuring the Fidelity of your RTI process
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 29, 2008
Now that you have a Response to Intervention process in place, how will you ensure that it is being delivered appropriately?
Once you have your RTI process in place, you will need to make sure that everything you have developed is being followed throughout the district. Below are some things to consider to make sure you can track the fidelity of your process.
Who will observe the interventions as they are conducted?
How will the team decide if an intervention has been effective?
How will the team track the effectiveness of the interventions?
How will the district gather data to create the essential reports?
How will the district ensure a solid, consistent process is followed?
Everyone thinks about what their process is going to be, but typically do not think about how to ensure that it is being followed though until the process is already put in place. The fidelity of your process is extremely important. Without it, not only will your data be inaccurate, but if everyone is not following the process appropriately, it could be hindering the most important reason for RTI: the student’s learning.
To learn more about tracking fidelity of the Response to Intervention process, click here.
Understanding new roles and responsibilities in the RTI process
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 28, 2008
The Response to Intervention process may be new to some district staff members. Learn what titles might be included in your process, and their possible responsibilities.
Some of your intervention team members may be familiar with goal writing and progress monitoring. But many individuals you will want to have on your team may have never been involved in a process such as RTI. Below are some frequent titles we see on intervention teams, and what their role and responsibilities might be.
Project Coordinator
Training staff on intervention process, interventions, any tools
Remove the potential for reluctant change
General Education Teacher
Design Tier 1 & 2 Interventions
Progress Monitoring
Data Provider
Be ready to conduct Tier 3 interventions decided on by Interventions team
Parent
Data Provider
Interventionist
Progress Monitoring
Psychologist
Data Manager/Analyzer
Possible provider of Progress Monitoring
Principal
Providing for the assessment of intervention/instructional fidelity
Positive force behind RtI implementation, cheerleader
Special Education Teacher
Data Provider
Provide Targeted Assessments
Progress Monitoring
Suggest Intervention Opportunities
Intervention Team
Which students require intervention
Conduct/facilitate Initial and Review meetings
Set timelines per student
Modify interventions
Track effectiveness of interventions
Identify “key” interventions
Decision for more or less intense programs
Response to Intervention Tools
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 26, 2008
Tools a district will need to consider to effectively carry out their RTI process.
Yesterday we discussed items to consider when developing an RTI process. Today we look at what tools your district might need when carrying out that process.
What Universal Screening programs will your district use?
There are many tools you can select from that will allow you to do Universal Screening. Some district are using state-wide assessments, but there has been discussions that suggest schools use tools other than state-wide assessments for Universal Screening, mainly because most states only do state-wide assessments once a year, and you may want to screen students more than once in a school year. You can also consider multiple tools that your schools can select from. This is beneficial because one tool may work well for 1st graders, but it may not be appropriate for high school students.
What type of Progress Monitoring program(s) will be used?
What types of behavioral and instructional supports are needed?What type of training will your staff need?
Your district will probably be implementing new interventions. To ensure the fidelity of the intervention and instruction, your staff will need training, materials and staff support. There will need to be a process in place to train your staff on any new instructional programs, and a process in how they go about seeking help
Will there be forms for the Intervention Team?
Many district want to make sure and document their Intervention Team meetings as well as the goals and interventions assigned to each child. One way to do this is through forms. There can be district specific or school specific forms. From my experience I would suggest using district forms. We had school specific forms, and when the district wanted to gather data on each of the schools, the forms they received all looked different, and they had to spend time finding the data they needed on each form rather than knowing exactly where to look on each one.
What type of software program will be used to track the process?
There are software program, such as EXCEED/RTI, that can house and track all the meeting information, as well as indicate whether or not a student’s progress is moving towards their goal. EXCEED/RTI provides one seamless, integrated tool to manage and measure the day-to-day activities, meetings, research based interventions and outcomes used to help all students achieve academic success. Click here to learn more
RTI Process Checklist
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 25, 2008
Questions to consider when developing your Response to Intervention process
As your district looks at developing a Response to Intervention process, there are many items to consider. Over the next few days we will look at key decisions that need to be made when implementing RTI.
First and foremost, your district will need to decide what process works best for YOUR school district. There are many examples out there of what other districts are doing, but they might not be the best fit for your district. Below are some key questions that a district must consider when developing their RTI process:
When will your Universal Screenings take place?
This can vary depending on the district or schools need. Some schools decide to screen once at the beginning of the school year. Others screen in the fall, winter and spring.
How/when will students be referred to the Interventions team?
Some districts have created forms to refer students. Others have software programs, like EXCEED/RTI, which allows a teacher to indicate a meeting is needed and appropriate parties are automatically notified. Also, when the Intervention team becomes involved can vary depending on district/school. Some schools have decided to include the team on all intervention decisions, while others only bring them in on Tier 3.
Who will make up the Intervention team?
I have seen many different titles across states and districts make up the intervention teams. Everything from guidance counselor to psychologist, general ed to special ed teachers. You will need to decide for your district or school who will bring the best skills to make these important educational decisions for the students.
When will Intervention team meetings be held?
This will more than likely vary by school and when teachers are able to easily meet together. When I was in the school districts, we decided that our intervention meetings would be only on Tuesday’s during the child’s teacher’s planning period. This way, all the individuals that made up the intervention team knew not to schedule any other meetings on Tuesdays. I have seen some districts only meet before or after school. Scheduling is always a difficult task, but it is important to set some ground rules about when to hold meetings so everyone’s schedules are not so scattered.
How long will the interventions run?
Of course this will vary depending on the student and intervention, but putting some boundaries on timelines will help guide your intervention team.
When will the team decide to change or intensify the intervention?
Again, some boundaries on how long to wait before deciding if an intervention is working will help in guiding your teams.
How will the Interventions team refer students to other programs is needed?
Your district might already have a process to refer students to other programs such as 504 or Special Education. But some of the members of your intervention team may have never had to refer a student. Making sure everyone knows this process will ensure a smooth referral transition.
How will your RtI program roll out? What is the timeline?
Depending on the size of your district, it might be easier to roll out your intervention program to a few schools at a time. This way you can test your process and make adjustments as needed. If you are a smaller school district, it might make sense to roll it out to everyone at the same time. Response to Intervention implementations do not happen overnight, so make sure to give your district enough time to have a successful implementation.
Tiered Model of Instruction
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 20, 2008
An example of how a district can implement a three-tiered Response to Intervention model.
When a district is considering implementing a Response to Intervention program, they need to understand what RTI will mean to their district, and the possibility of changes to current processes. A good RTI program should be developed to guide districts in proactive early intervention, constructing interventions that will yield results, reduce disproportionality and over identification, evaluate the instruction, and help all students. To do this, a Response to Intervention program is broken into multi-tiered instruction. There can be 2, 3, 4 or even 5 tiers in a district’s RTI plan, but we have found the majority of districts to use a 3 tier model, and this is the model we will look at today.
Yesterday we talked about universal screening, and how the scores can help indicate which students might need instructional interventions. The scores can also indicate to teachers which skills overall need extra attention within the classroom. Tier 1 encompasses whole group classroom instruction. Let us take a typical real life classroom situation. Ms. Jones teaches 3rd grade, and currently her class is studying the multiplication tables. She realizes that as a whole, her class of 21 students is struggling with this skill. She decides to modify her lessons to include additional practice through whole class and partner games. From this additional and/or modified instruction, most of her students are progressing appropriately, but she still has 6 students that are struggling with this skill.
Ms. Jones has decided to move these 6 students into Tier 2 of her district’s RTI process. Tier 2 involves small group instruction that provides short-term targeted interventions. So while the rest of the class is working at their seats, she pulls these 6 students to provide more targeted practice on the multiplication tables. She might use flash cards with these students, and finds that 5 of the students in the small group are responding well to the small group instruction, but she still has 1 student that is still not grasping the skill.
Ms. Jones has now provided whole class instruction and intervention, as well as small group interventions to her students, but still has 1 student not making appropriate progress. She has decided to move this student to Tier 3, and refers the student to the intervention team. The intervention team is made up of a group of staff members at the school that can provide educated decisions on interventions for the student based on their need. The team will look at the previous interventions the teacher used, as well as the universal screening scores to determine an intervention and goal for the student. Once the team has created that personalized learning plan, the teacher will now start to provide that intense, individualized intervention and monitor the student’s progress. The team will meet back in a few weeks and decide to continue with the intervention, modify the intervention, or refer the student to another program such as special education.
This is one example of how a district might define the tiers within their RTI process. We have seen many different ways of developing these tiers, and your tiers should follow the needs of your district. Below you can an example of a three-tiered process.
What are the main components of RTI, and how can districts implement them.
During the RTI: Strategies for Success webinar we conducted last year, we discussed the background of Response to Intervention and topics districts would need to consider when implementing a RTI program.
First of all, what is Response to Intervention (RTI), and why has it become a frontrunner in district policy? Many districts are still struggling with these questions as they look at planning a RTI program for their district.
In answering the first question, what is RTI, we need to look at what the practice of an RTI program would include:
providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student need
monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals
applying child response data to important educational decisions
High-quality instruction and interventions matched to student need: How can we accomplish this? Districts will need to train teachers on the intervention programs they plan on implementing. If the staff members do not know how to provide the intervention, how can quality instruction be ensured? Staff members will need to be observed and given feedback to make sure the interventions are delivered appropriately. Once a plan is in place to ensure the fidelity of instruction, the interventions will need to be appropriately matched to the need of the student. One way districts can do this is by tracking the effectiveness of the interventions in relation to need. Once districts can see a trend in which interventions are more effective, teams can start to match those interventions to specific needs of the students.
Progress monitoring is an integral part of Response to Intervention. Prior to tracking progress, students will need a baseline score. Most districts are doing universal screenings 2-3 times a year to gather their baseline data. Once they have the scores, they can see how each student compares to the average of the students within their grade level. This can give staff members an early indicator of students that may need interventions. Once the intervention team indicates a goal for a student, the teacher will now need to monitor the student’s progress to ensure that the intervention is effectively helping the student. Progress monitoring can provide insight into any progress the student is making, and can also indicate if an intervention needs to be modified or changed if the student is not making progress.
The data gathered from universal screenings and progress monitoring can help team members make important educational decisions for a student. This data can indicate that a student is making great progress, and might be moved to a less intense intervention, or not need them at all. Or the data could indicate little progress achieved, and the team might make the decision to refer a student to special education.
Knowing the main components of Response to Intervention can help a district that is just starting to make decisions about their RTI program. Districts need to think about how to ensure high-quality instruction, how to track intervention effectiveness, what universal screening and progress monitoring tools will be used, and how will a team decide when to refer a student to special education.
Many districts are still creating their Response to Intervention program. See how your district compares to other districts around the country.
As a new school year starts, many school districts will be implementing a Response to Intervention (RTI) program. But many school districts are still struggling in how to setup an appropriate RTI program to meet their districts’ needs. This week we will discuss some tips to help your district in implementing an RTI program.
First of all, if you feel like your district is not as far along in implementing an RTI program, you may be surprised. Spectrum K12 and the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) teamed up to conduct a survey of district implementations throughout the United States. We found that school districts across the country are in many different stages of implementation. In fact, the majority of the districts are still in the piloting or planning stage. The 2009-2010 school year seems to be the target for most districts to be fully implemented with their RTI program.
Tomorrow-we will look at strategies to begin planning your RTI program.
What Does the First Year Look Like?
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 15, 2008
Posted by Machele Stefhon, a 16 year veteran of education as a special education teacher and administrator.
Advice for the first year teacher
From the time you are hired, you need to know there will be paperwork and preparation. In today’s business environment, the school district will have quite a bit of forms and materials for you. From the simple IT permission form to the selection of health insurance. All of these items will help make for a smooth transition as you approach the first day with kids.
Many of the school districts will have an official new teacher orientation which may be anything from 1 day to 1 week. This can vary from knowing how to work within a school to knowing the curriculum that needs to be taught. The amount of preparation will vary on what level of competency the individual has. Besides knowing your physical environment, you will want to know your colleagues. Although the contract will specify specific work days, there will be more days needed to get ready. Getting in to the classroom, getting the textbooks, finding out what the routine will be all are things that are better known sooner as opposed to later.
If the school district has a mentor/induction program, you will have a professional assigned to you so you can have that very personal contact. This is mandated in some states and is more voluntary in others. They should help in your growth so you can survive the stresses yet to come. The staff development offered will be beneficial, but when you sit down in the evening with a pile of papers to grade, you might think that another interference is going to make you quit.
Your first year will be hectic, difficult, frustrating, and hopefully the best experience you will have. It will be more work than you ever dreamed, but you have to continue to remember why you got in to the profession. Students expect and at some age groups demand that you are on top of your game every day, every period, every class.
Good luck with this most important of jobs. It will be tiring but rewarding. You made it and now you get to practice the most satisfying and frustrating job that requires a college education. Teaching is so much more than standing in front of the class. Be prepared and be flexible.
Great Books to Help Start a New School Year
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 13, 2008
Posted by Machele Stefhon, a 16 year veteran of education as a special education teacher and administrator.
A list of great resource books to help new and veteran teachers start off a great year.
Today, I wanted to provide you with some great books to help to start off with a great school year:
First Six Weeks of SchoolBy Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete
Geared toward K-6 educators. Learn how to structure the first six weeks of school to lay the groundwork for a productive year of learning. Discover how taking the time to build a solid foundation in the early weeks of school can pay off all year long in increased student motivation, cooperation, responsibility, and self-control. Includes daily lesson plans and guidelines for the start of school.
The Power of Our Words:Teacher Language that Helps Children LearnBy Paula Denton, EdD
This book, by an author with more than twenty years of experience teaching children and educators, will help you recognize the influence your words have on the children you teach. It will show you how to use language more skillfully, building a classroom where students feel safe, respected, appreciated, and excited about learning.
The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong
This book focuses on classroom management and lesson mastery. The book walks a teacher, either novice or veteran, through the most effective ways to begin a school year and continue to become an effective teacher.
New Teacher Induction: How to Train, Support, and Retain New Teachers by Annette Breaux & Harry Wong
This book blends first hand knowledge into workable solutions for easy implementation. Written for school and district administrators, principals, school board members, and anyone in a decision making capacity, New Teacher Induction will show you how to set up a support program step-by-step.
First Year Teacher’s Survival Guide: Ready-To-Use Strategies, Tools & Activities For Meeting The Challenges Of Each School Dayby Julia G. Thompson
This book gives new teachers a wide variety of tested strategies, activities, and tools for creating a positive and dynamic learning environment while meeting the challenges of each school day. Packed with valuable tips, the book helps new teachers with everything from becoming effective team players and connecting with students to handling behavior problems and working within diverse classrooms.
Teaching Strategies: A Guide to Effective Instructionby Donald Orlich, Robert Harder, Richard Callahan, Michael S. Trevisan, Abbie H. Brown
An introductory core text known for its practical, applied help with commonly used classroom teaching strategies and tactics. Accommodating both traditional and non-traditional education students as well as site-based teacher education programs, the text focuses on topics such as lesson-planning, questioning, and small-group and cooperative-learning strategies.
Fred Jones Tools for Teachingby Fredric H. Jones
In Tools for Teaching, Dr. Jones describes the skills by which exceptional teachers make the classroom a place of success and enjoyment for both themselves and their students. Tools for Teaching integrates the management of discipline, instruction and motivation into a system that allows you to reduce the stress of teaching by preventing most management headaches. Dr. Jones helps you reduce student disruptions, backtalk, helpless hand-raising and dawdling while helping you increase responsible behavior, motivation and independent learning. These skills are made accessible by practical, down-to-earth language and many examples and illustrations.
Start Off Another Great Year
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 12, 2008
Posted by Machele Stefhon, a 16 year veteran of education as a special education teacher and administrator.
Tips for special education teachers to consider when starting a new school year.
Yesterday, we looked at tips for the first year teacher. Today I wanted to focus on Special Education teachers, and some tips that can help you as you start a new school year.
I found a great website that provides year-round tips for Special Educators, including some great things to remember when starting a new year. The tips are geared towards self-contained classrooms, but they are all good things to think about for inclusion and resource teachers. Here are the tips to start off the school year.
1. PHYSICAL CLASSROOM ARRANGEMENT
Desks should be arranged in a manner where each student has his/her own personal desk...no sharing or grouping, as this leads to major distractions for a child with special needs.
The teacher’s and aide’s desks should be placed at opposite ends of the classroom, front and back, for supervision purposes.
2. BULLETIN BOARDS
As in the general education classrooms, some bulletin boards should be reserved for the students’ work, while others should cover topics that are also being covered in the curricula at that time. For example: when I work on my Ocean Unit, I put up a bulletin board with a blue backing, different sea life taped onto it, and I drape an old fishing net over it, complete with small sea shells caught inside the net. Next to this board, I have a center with many shells, complete with two books all about shells and the ocean floor.
3. CLASSROOM INTRODUCTIONS
On the first day, plan on reviewing your CLASSROOM RESPONSIBILITIES, (not RULES--the kids become immediately resistant), SCHOOL STANDARDS, and your PERSONAL EXPECTATIONS.
This last part is extremely important. Most of these students have gotten used to low expectations from their previous teachers...and as a result, have tried little, academically and behaviorally. If your personal expectations are high (but realistic) they will raise themselves to your expectations!
Depending on the age of the students, you may want to include your expectations for the overall year. However, for special education students, you must be clear about choices they make, and positive and negative consequences of those choices.
4. THE FIRST COUPLE OF DAYS
Placement tests: Begin the first day giving at least one placement test and try to have all tests completed by the third day. The sooner you have the students in a routine, the better.
Fun activities: Plan some fun activities for the first day. Let them have a period of time to interact together. They may play games, work on a fun assignment together, or whatever you decide.
In an elementary school, start organized P.E. from the very beginning. Tremendous social skills, along with physical skills, classroom cohesion and organizational skills are developed on the playground--especially with the special ed student.
5. THE TOP FOUR SURVIVAL TIPS
ALWAYS PLAN MUCH MORE THAN YOU’LL GET THROUGH IN A DAY. Sometimes, some of your ideas won’t work out with these particular kids on that particular day, and you’ll have to switch. Also, with high expectations...your students may do better than you expected, and finish sooner than expected!
Be prepared to THINK ON YOUR FEET. These students are often extremely intelligent and expect you to take them to areas you may not have anticipated. On the reverse side, a discipline, or learning problem, that unexpectedly shows up and is not dealt with immediately and appropriately, can destroy a lesson for the entire class.
Be FLEXIBLE. Some days, even the first week, you end up having to forget about your plans and do something unplanned. That’s okay and part of being a special ed teacher!
Finally, and probably most important, ENJOY YOUR KIDS. These are usually sweet, fun kids, and a good special ed teacher can have a greater effect on their future than anyone else
The site goes on to provide tips for a special education teacher throughout the year, including modifying the curriculum to meet the needs of the special education students. Definitely worth checking out.
Posted by Machele Stefhon, a 16 year veteran of education as a special education teacher and administrator.
Jane Fung, a 22 year veteran and teacher mentor, provides novice teachers with tips on how to start a great first year.
With many school getting ready to start the new school year, I wanted to provide some great resources this week for back-to-school.
Teacher Magazine has a great article for new teachers as they prepare for their first year. The author, Jane Fung, is a 22 year veteran of teaching and a teacher mentor. Fung wanted to provide teachers with things she knows know that she wished she knew her first year teaching. She provides some great pointers for first teaching assignments:
Find a friend
Take a tour of the school
Ask other teachers on your grade level what they usually do the first week of school
Have classroom management and expectations ready
Take observation notes on students
Find out who your students are
She also gives great advice on what school procedures you should know on the first week of school:
How to take attendance and (if it’s not all computerized) where to send attendance
Where to sign in and out each day
Official reporting hours
How to arrange for a sub when ill
What is the general bell schedule for recess, lunch, and dismissal
How do students purchase a lunch and where do they eat
What if a student becomes ill or gets hurt in class
Where do students play at recess/lunch
Where (depending on grade level) do I pick up my students
Where do I dismiss students at the end of the day
In case of an emergency (or fire drill), what do I do
How do I contact the office if there is an emergency
How often will my class be cleaned
Procedures for ordering class materials and what is available
Where do I check out playground and/or PE equipment
Will I have a mentor
The article allows for comments, so you can also get great advice from other teachers that have commented on the article.
Lack of physical activity in schools has teachers turning to new avenues
As reading becomes more and more stressed at the elementary level, other classes tend to be cut short or completely out. In many districts, some students might receive only one PE class a week. With video games, ipods, and TVs, many times these students are not getting much physical activity at home. Students are being robbed the needed physical activity that their young bodies need to stay energized and focused during the school day. To combat this, many schools are introducing exercise activities in the morning or mid-day to help the students work off some energy and help stay more focused on their lessons. When I was teaching, our PE coach created a 10 minute morning exercise program for the students that was set to popular music. The students do the same moves in PE class as a warm up, so the teachers do not need to teach them. I thought it did help, especially with those students that were still a bit sleepy at the start of the day.
One of the new fads happening in schools is to introduce Tai Chi in the classrooms. An article in the Newark Metro discusses how an urban third grade classroom uses tai chi to energize their “classroom warriors” to get ready for the school day. Another article at Tampa Bay Online explains how tai chi is beneficial for students with physical disabilities as well. They state that “the Web site of the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability lists several benefits of tai chi, including promoting relaxation, improving lung capacity and cardiovascular and respiratory function, improving balance and posture, increasing flexibility and reducing pain.” The University of Tennessee is also studying the therapeutic effects of “wheelchair tai chi.” Participants will take two 45-minute classes a week to see whether it can improve sitting balance, respiratory function and mental health.
Teachers do not need to be masters of tai chi to be able to bring this to their students. There are many DVDs out there that can be used so the instructor on the video can teach everyone in the classroom to perform the movements.
I thought that bringing tai chi into the classrooms was an interesting idea. I have not experienced this myself to know if it works, but would love to hear from anyone that has tried this or other programs to get your students moving in the classroom.
Study Shows Remedial Instruction Benefits Dyslexia
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 07, 2008
A recent Carnegie Mellon University study has shown how the brain can rewire itself to overcome reading difficulties if students are given a minimum of 100 hours of intensive remedial instruction.
There have been numerous studies using brain imaging to see how targeted instruction can benefit students with Dyslexia. A recent Carnegie Mellon University study has shown how the brain can rewire itself to overcome reading difficulties if students are given a minimum of 100 hours of intensive remedial instruction. The article, posted on ScienceDaily.com, tells how scientists studied changes in the regions of the brain responsible for reading and decoding. The looked at the brain activity prior to increased instruction, and then again one year later after receiving the instruction. After one year, the gap in brain activity between the students with Dyslexia and the students with no reading difficulties had significantly decreased, showing that the extra instruction the students received had greatly improved their ability to decode and form words while reading. The scientists determined that “any kind of education is a matter of training the brain. When poor readers are learning to read, a particular brain area is not performing as well as it might, and remedial instruction helps to shape that area up.” They feel that their study can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching methods and curriculum, or even shape educational policy.
Educators currently involved in Response to Intervention can already attest to the changes in educational policy. Response to Intervention will be helping students target those areas where they are having difficulty, and provide additional instruction for them to “train their brain.” Obviously educators have already known that the findings from the study would show that 100 hours of additional targeted instruction would benefit the students with Dyslexia. Yet, schools do not have brain imagaing technology. How will we know if the specific instruction we are providing is helping our students make gains? How can we track the fidelity of the interventions to make sure they are effective?
One elementary school has used collaboration among team members to successfully implement a three tier model of RTI
Response to Intervention (RTI), though still a fairly new concept, is becoming widely adopted in districts across the country. In collaboration with the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), we recently performed a nationwide survey to determine the level of adoption and implementation of RTI within school districts. We found that over the past 12 months, adoption levels of RTI have increased from 44% to 60% of school districts surveyed, with the majority stating that they plan to fully implement by the 2009-2010 school year. 56% of districts also indicated that the RTI implementation is being lead by joint collaboration between the Special Education and General Education teams. It seems that without buy-in from all groups, RTI will not be successful, and it is great to see such a high percentage of districts using a collaborative effort to successfully implement their RTI program.
While doing research on RTI, I came across a great video for educators to view that can give them a real life scenario of how a three tier RTI method is being implemented successfully within Iron Springs Elementary School. You can view the video here. They are discussing a phonics intervention program that they use at their school, and how it is being used at each tier level. They also talk about the importance of collaboration among the teachers, reading specialists and special education to make their RTI program work. It is a great video to introduce new teachers or districts to the RTI process. The district in the video uses Tier III as strictly special education, but many districts are using Tier III as a combination of students receiving special education and students not in special education but receiving highly targeted, personalized interventions.
Districts use inventive strategy to provide professional development
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 05, 2008
Three San Antonio area school districts split the cost to bring summer professional development to teachers.
Following a similar topic to yesterdays blog, I came across an article in District Administration that discussed how three school districts in the San Antonio, TX area pooled their money together to offer more training opportunities during the summer for their staff members. The districts would now be able to offer 90 different professional development courses to staff for free! Many of the courses that were offered were needed by staff to meet state and district requirements. This is showing how many districts realize the need for continued professional development for their staff members, and even though most districts are going through budget crunches, they are still finding inventive ways to provide this staff development to their teachers.
Professional Development linked to higher test scores
Posted by Beth DuBose on Aug 04, 2008
For each six-hour teacher-training session in literacy, students gained one half point on state standardized reading tests.
With summer coming to an end, I wanted to reflect on what many educators do during this time: professional development. As state standardized testing becomes more important for AYP, one way districts are trying to improve test scores is by providing targeted professional development to staff members. I came across an article in Education Week stating that Duval County, FL performed an audit of their Literacy 101 program, and found that students in a classroom whose teacher attended the training, on average, scored 7 points higher than students in classrooms where the teacher did not receive the training. Great news!! Hopefully all teachers will be able to receive this staff development.
The article also stated that the teachers received 84 hours of training. Unless staff members are able to take this training during the summer, I do not know if a district would be able to provide that many hours during the school year for staff development. When I was teaching we had three days at the beginning and end of the school year, and a half day once a month. Yet, the statistics show that targeted staff development is highly beneficial to the students. Should districts or states be providing more opportunities for staff development? Many states provide catalogs of staff development opportunities over the summer, but are typically optional. Should districts/states require individuals to take staff development shown to be effective on their own time?
How to Prepare our Children and Stay Involved in Their Education during Deployment
Posted by Beth DuBose on Apr 25, 2008
By Earle Dean Christian, who has devoted 21 years of her life to furthering education
This article was published by the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC). The article identifies three phases in the deployment cycle: 1) pre-deployment, 2) deployment, and 3) reunion. Suggestions are provided for the caregiver and the educator on how to work with the children in each of these phases. The article includes artwork and poetry by military children.
The Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) website has other great tips regarding the various aspects of the military child’s life. The website has a Moving link, which provides important information such as a Checklist for Transferring Students, K and Grade 1 Requirements, Graduation Exit Matrix (for each state requiring and exit exam) etc.
There is also information about the Special Education Leaders Institute (SELI), which is sponsored by the MECE. The purpose of the SELI is “to promote awareness and increase the availability of professional educators who understand the challenges associated with transitioning mobile military-connected students with special needs.” Approximately 13% of military students are special needs students.
Earle Dean Christian has devoted 21 years of her life to furthering education. She spent nine years as a middle school classroom teacher, six years as an Elementary School Media Specialist and three years as Lead Teacher/ Grant Writer in high school.
Disproportionality in Special Education
Posted by Beth DuBose on Apr 21, 2008
by Wanda Duff, former Special Education teacher of 25 years
A recent publication by the National Education Association in collaboration with the National Association of School Psychologists entitled “Truth in Labeling: Disproportionality in Special Education” provides an enlightening overview of issues related to “over- and under-representation” by specific populations in special education and gifted and talented programs.
Across the nation, increasing numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students are populating America’s public schools making this issue more relevant than ever before.
Substantiated by numerous statistical references the subject of disproportionality has been thoroughly investigated by the authors, and they present a wealth of valuable information for school districts as well as individual practitioners.
Focusing on factors that have historically contributed to the problem of disproportionality, the authors cite local policies that may contribute to the problem. Budgetary and resource constraints are usually at the root of these limitations that include
Class sizes too large for teachers to provide attention to individual student needs
A dearth of early childhood programs for low-income families
Limited implementation of early intervention programs
Zero tolerance discipline policies that move students out of the educational environment
The expansion of a rigorous academic curriculum in order to increase performance on district and state-wide testing to the detriment of slower learners
Spotlighting case studies from around the country, a number of proposals for positive change are presented including those with emphasis on
English language proficiency for content comprehension in a rigorous academic environment
Increased emphasis on early childhood programs
Early intervention services, tracking, and documentation through the implementation of a formalized Response to Intervention (RtI) program
Positive behavioral supports as the norm rather than zero tolerance policies which often result in escalating negative behaviors
Professional development in the areas of classroom management and culturally responsible teaching
Development and use of culturally responsible assessment practices and tools
Family and community partnerships related to education and academic growth
Gathering and reporting accurate and relevant statistical data related to diverse populations
The article concludes with a wealth of valuable print and online resources that will be of special interest to those involved in positive change and educational reform. Read more at the NEA website where you can download a copy of the 57-page document for free.
Wanda Duff retired from Omaha Public Schools after 25 years of teaching Special Ed students. She has a B.S. in Education from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and a MLS from Emporia State University.
IEP Software Implementation Checklist
Posted by Beth DuBose on Apr 15, 2008
By Beth DuBose, former Special Education teacher
SIIA Software Implementation Guideline for Educators
SIIA has released a checklist for schools and districts to help in the implementation of both instructional and administrative software. I thought this would be important for anyone researching and implementing IEP software systems. Most school districts have not carried out large-scale IEP software implementations before, and the document that SIIA created is a guideline for educational institutions to be successful in enterprise-level software implementations. The document provides “The Ten Essentials” to having an effective software implementation, and can be used for an IEP software implementation as well. These factors are crucial to both the IEP software vendor and the school district as they work together to provide an effective implementation. SIIA also provide a table indicating a software implementation cycle for both instructional and administrative software, so schools and districts can have a realistic view of the timeline in implementing such a system. Hopefully this will provide districts with an effective tool as they venture into their IEP software implementation. The SIIA Software Implementation for Educators can be downloaded at http://www.siia.net/education/pubs/pp_Checklist.pdf
About the author
Beth DuBose has a B.A. in Early Childhood Education and was a K-5 Reading Intervention Specialist for three years. Upon completing her Masters in Special Education, she taught 1st though 5th grade Self-Contained Emotional Behavioral Disorders for a year, where her classroom became the model classroom for integrating America’s Choice Curriculum and Special Education.
Effective Teams in Education
Posted by Beth DuBose on Apr 15, 2008
By Maggie Massimore, retired Director of Special Education, Metro Nashville Public Schools
As NCLB and IDEA evolve and bring general education and special education closer to a unified educational system for all, educators and administrators across the nation are struggling to help all students achieve at higher and higher levels.
As NCLB and IDEA evolve and bring general education and special education closer to a unified educational system for all, educators and administrators across the nation are struggling to help all students achieve at higher and higher levels. As I read the literature, note the news articles, and spend time in different states and districts, I see several common themes evident in schools where all students are progressing.
In these, schools, there is strong administrative support and an environment of collaboration and cooperation, of community and of ownership and responsibility for all students. There is no atmosphere “your students” or “my students,” but a theme of “our students.”
Co- teaching and team teaching is practiced, with special and general educators working together in a variety of ways to support the students assigned to them. The benefits for all parties are great. General education teachers gain in their understanding of disabilities and the impact on the students’ instructional and behavioral needs. They become more comfortable with their own skills working with students with disabilities. Special Education teachers gain a deeper understanding of general education curriculum, state standards and the requirements at each grade level. Each member of the team begins to understand more deeply his or her role on the IEP team, and participation on the team becomes more meaningful. The IEP process becomes more collaborative, with each contributing from his or her area of strength and skill. General Education teachers bring to the table their knowledge of the curriculum and the state standards, and Special Education teachers contribute through their understanding and knowledge of disabilities and specialized instruction. Both develop a stronger understanding of how general education students are performing, and how the individual child with disabilities is doing within that picture.
A better IEP is developed with more individualized goals and objectives that are aligned with the state and district standards. The student with disabilities becomes more involved in the general curriculum and in school life in general. Students who are not in Special Education are able to receive more focused, intensive instruction from a teacher who is able to utilize a variety of instructional strategies, and these students often make progress far beyond what they would have with a single teacher working alone. All students benefit from the additional support, and are able to learn from the positive models provided by teachers and a school community that work collaboratively.
Mrs. Masimore has over 30 years’ experience in the field of Special Education, including serving as Director of Special Education for Metro Nashville Public Schools from 1992 – 2002. Since her retirement she has worked as an Education Consultant and trainer with Spectrum K12 School Solutions.
Graduation Dilemma by Carlene Marak
Posted by cloetz on Mar 11, 2008
All states are facing the same challenges when it comes to graduation of students with disabilities. Challenges include drop outs, state testing participation rate, state testing passing rates, success of exiting seniors and the list goes on. With good intentions, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004, has not solved the graduation dilemma and in some opinions, may have worsened the problem. Let me explain my view point.
BELIEF:
Studies show that when teachers raise their standards and expectations - clearly raising the bar for students, the student achievement will also substantially increase. While recognizing that some students with disabilities must overcome significant barriers, in high achieving schools, these obstacles are not seen as insurmountable. Students are offered ambitious and rigorous courses of study. 1 I believe this is the noble intent of NCLB and I, along with most educators, have always believed this to be true. We are beginning to chip away at the tip of the iceberg.
Now, what about those students with disabilities who have struggled with academics daily and upon reaching the secondary level, have almost given up? What about students who get physically ill worrying about passing the state exit or competency test prior to graduation? Those secondary students who are taking the exit test for the 4th and final chance and wish desperately to pass. We also know that some students drop out of school when they cannot meet this high standard. Below are the “reporting requirements” all states must use to show progress in this critical area of graduation.
Accountability:
The Office of Special Education Programs, (OSEP), has provided direction to the states by determining 20 Indicators in which all states will set criteria and report progress annually to OSEP in the State Performance Plan (SPP). All 20 indicators are interrelated. In addition, in summer of 2007, OSEP gave the states a Determination Ranking on a scale of 1 through 4 in which to measure progress on these 20 Indicators. The states’ Determination Ranking, of course, is based on the sum / data of all the local schools in each state. If the local schools rank #1 then they are in good shape. If they rank #3 or #4, at worse, they need intervention. If there are numerous schools in the state that rank low on each indicator, the state’s overall ranking on the Indicators in the SPP will be lower.
The specific Indicators referencing Graduation or impacting Graduation are:
Indicator 1. Improving graduation rates for students with disabilities.
Indicator 2. Decreasing dropout rates for students with disabilities.
Indicator 3. Ensuring participation in statewide assessments for students with disabilities.
Indicator number 3 is directly related to the graduation rate. Each state can set the criteria in the SPP for annual progress on the Indicators. In my state, there are choices of which state assessment the student will take and the IEP Committee will determine the appropriate assessment and accommodations necessary. Sound good so far?
1. Senge, P. M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline. The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday Currency. See Part III, The Core Disciplines: Building the Learning Organization.
Below reflects the scenario (simplified) in my state:
OSEP Indicator Number
State Target Criteria
(can change when the SPP is updated for OSEP)
Statewide Assessments
Available
Correlation
1. Percent of youth with IEPs graduating from high school with a regular diploma compared to percent of all youth in the State graduating with a regular diploma
The graduation rate for students with disabilities
will increase 0.2% from the previous year’s rate.
All students get a diploma that looks the same. The transcript reflects accurate information.
2. Percent of youth with IEPs dropping out of high school compared to the percent of all youth in the State dropping out of high school
The dropout rate for all students shall not exceed 2.9%
Drop out due to lack of curriculum options, state testing challenges, etc.?
3. Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP): Participation and performance of children with disabilities on statewide assessments.
AYP Target Criteria
in NCLB
Participation rate in both Math and Reading: 100%
Passing Performance on Math for 2007-08: 50%
Passing Performance on Reading for 2007-08: 60%
Passing Performance criteria increases annually.
Three choices are available:
State Test – with or without accommodations (97% of the sp.ed. population must take the same test that students in general education take)
State Test - Modified
(only 2% of sp.ed. population can take this or counts against AYP)
State Test - Alternate
(only 1% of sp.ed. population can take this or counts against AYP)
IEP Committee can choose a graduation option without passing state test.
The student’s transcript will denote if they have passed the state test or not.
Catch 22
The target is students with disabilities must pass the same rigorous state test that all students take in order to graduate.
Students with disabilities must pass the state test in order for schools to meet NCLB-AYP criteria.
Students with disabilities may drop out because they cannot pass the state test.
Never fear, some states have come up with a “work around” to help students graduate without passing the state test, however, this “work around” does not help the district Determination Ranking for Indicator #3. If anything it only perpetuates the problem. * If the student cannot PASS the State Test, but stays in school through 12th grade, completes all required state/local credits = our state rule (and others as well) allows the student to graduate without passing the state test. Incentive??? Students may graduate and receive a regular diploma - “all diplomas look the same”.
The transcript will specify if the student passed the state test or not and which test taken.
The 97% of students with disabilities expected to take the “real” state test includes a percentage of students who are functioning at a very low level of mastery.
Meeting AYP Indicator 3 will become increasingly more difficult each year.
Special educators and general educators alike will continue to work diligently with students using creative, peer reviewed research based instructional strategies with the genuine intent of improving outcomes for students. Our challenge is to create a learning environment whereby special education students see their goal to stay in school and work toward passing the academically demanding state test for graduation.
The Age of Information is here! by Ginger Sewell
Posted by cloetz on Mar 03, 2008
How well are we preparing our children for a future beyond our ability to even envision?
"Upon graduation from high school our current first graders will have access to a computer that exceeds the capacity of the human brain.”
How can we even comprehend a piece of technology that exceeds the capacity of the human brain?
Are we, as educators, creating a daily environment in which students learn to work together collaboratively to solve problems, communicate effectively, and creatively resolve conflict?
Take a moment to watch what I think is an outstanding video.
Reflect upon what you are personally doing to become a more effective educator in this Age of Information.
Recently, at ERDI, we were finishing a very invigorating panel discussion when one of the participants, Mark Edwards, Superintendent in Mooresville, NC, commented on a funny video on teachertube.com. Being an internet junkie and spending way too much time in airports, I thought I’d take a look. What did I find – whoa! the mother lode!
For fun, I did a search on “Response to Intervention” and the first thing I see is a discussion about RtI with Alexa Posny, the Kansas Education Commissioner. I was fortunate to hear Dr. Posny give one of the key note addresses at CASE this winter in Long Beach. It was nice to see teachertube had this caliber of materials posted.
So, as I continued my journey….I searched the website using the tabs at top. It’s pretty easy to navigate and pretty typical, i.e. ‘Home, New Videos, Channels, Groups, Blogs….” and of course you can expect the familiar favorites of “Most viewed and Most Recent.” Hey – it’s not just anywhere that you can see Ms. Burk do the “Perimeter Rap.” I’m inspired!
In all seriousness, what a great medium to reach educators. I would encourage anyone reading this blog to visit this site. I’m going to make a personal commitment to contribute to this site at some point! When I do – you can rest assured that it will be on this blog.
So I leave you with this…in a time where we have to “think before we post” see the video…
It is refreshing to find a site focused on education and learning. Bravo!
Preparing of Education Leaders by Dr. Sally Earnest
Posted by cloetz on Feb 25, 2008
As an educator who got into campus administration by the “back door” and then began working toward an administrator’s certificate, it is extremely refreshing to see the emphasis now being placed on leadership training for principals. Many assistant principals and principals are teachers one day and administrators the next day without the benefit of training other than watching how other principals led and managed our campuses. For some, the modeling was top-notch. For others, it wasn’t. Preparation programs include courses in various areas of campus management and educational issues, but many have been using the same curricula for years. As research in both education and business focus on the importance of leadership and as accountability is driving our educational area, it is timely that leadership programs & academies for principals raise their standards so that the principals are taught skills utilizing current research and trends in school leadership, organizational management, instructional focus, data analysis, strategic planning, effective communication, best practices, and building collaborative processes.
With more districts removing or changing principals when schools don’t meet state standards, why not first ensure that principals have been given strong preparation before giving them positions.
Georgia is one state that is taking action in requiring higher standards for principal ship training (EdWeek,December 19, 2007) Additionally, Arkansas has a long-standing Principals’ Academy. At the recent National Council of State Legislators, a roundtable was devoted to principal preparation and leadership.
The Wallace Foundation as an executive summary, “How leadership influences student learning.” The authors (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson & Wahlstrom) report that “leadership not only maters: it is second only to teaching among school related factors in its impact on student learning.” Congratulations to states and organizations that are moving from just talking about “instructional leadership” to taking action on providing our current and future educational leaders with the tools they need.
Great Special Education Resource Site by Wanda Duff
Posted by cloetz on Feb 21, 2008
Are you searching for information on Learning Disabilities?
If so, you will likely find the National Center for Learning Disabilities website a valuable resource that offers a wealth of information for parents, educators, and individuals diagnosed as LD. Well organized and easy to navigate, this site offers timely, pertinent articles on a wide-range of topics related to Learning Disabilities.
Of particular interest to those involved in today’s special education community is RTI or the Response to Intervention initiative that is a focus for many school districts today.
By following the “LD InfoZone” link on the home page, the user can select RTI as one of the current Hot Topics and choose from a variety of links on the subject including research, parent guide, and the opportunity to subscribe to the RTI e-newsletter. Details of the spring launch of their RTI website will be forthcoming, so check it out. http://www.ncld.org
solutions for K-12 school districts announced today announced it’s 
Week Leadership Forum, they will be looking at:
some fundamental questions for principals to consider prior to RTI implementation. The questions are followed by "answers" and detailed explanations of the many steps a principal must take to ensure successful RTI adoption. In addition, suggestions and strategies are provided to assist those principals looking to implement RTI in their own buildings. 