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.

View the interview with Jay Engeln.