Implementing Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI²) Required Elements

Instructional Programming Team Special Populations

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Our new accountability system has two overarching objectives

and

Growth for all students, every year

Faster growth for those students who are furthest behind

Beliefs

Every student can learn, demonstrate growth, and has the right to actively participate in high quality, research-based education that maximizes their potential in the least restrictive environment.

Specialized education is a continuum of services, not a place.

Relationships with all stakeholders, based on respect and understanding will result in making decisions in the best interest of ALL students.

Every staff member has the responsibility to teach, support and encourage ALL students.

Strong leadership at every level is the foundation of a collaborative and inclusive environment that supports ALL students.

High quality professional learning in conjunction with family and community support, empowers all stakeholders to collaboratively build capacity for the success of ALL students.

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Key Goals of Special Populations

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Improving Student Outcomes Prevention Intervention Achievement Outcomes

Manage Performance Effective employees at every level of the organization with

a focus on improving student outcomes.

Policy Change

As of July 1, 2014, RTI² will be the framework used by teams to identify a student with a Specific Learning Disability.

Final reading approval from State Board of Education was June 21, 2013.

Required Elements

Universal Screening: The Universal Screening tool will be skills-based and provide national norms. It will be administered 3 times a year for grades K-8 and is recommended for grades 9-12 (see Component 1.3 of the Implementation Guide).

Tier I: Core instruction will be provided to ALL students using grade-level Tennessee State Standards in ELA and Mathematics.

Tier II and Tier III: Tiered interventions will be provided in addition to the core instruction provided at Tier I. Interventions will be research-based and will address a student’s area of deficit. They will be provided within the time frames described in Components 3.2 and 4.2 of the RTI² Manual.

Progress Monitoring: Progress monitoring will occur in the specific area of deficit at the frequency described in Components 3.3 and 4.3 of the RTI² Manual.

Required Elements

District and School RTI² Teams: District and School RTI² Teams will be established per the guidelines outlined in Component 1.2. School teams will meet every 4.5 weeks at a minimum to make data-based decisions that inform instruction/intervention.

Fidelity of Implementation: Fidelity monitoring will occur as described in Components 2.6, 3.6 and 4.6 of the RTI² Manual and Implementation Guide.

Parent Contact/Communication: Parents will be notified of student progress as described in Component 1.6 of the RTI² Manual and Implementation Guide.

Highly trained personnel: Highly trained personnel will provide interventions. Highly-trained personnel are those who are adequately trained to deliver the selected intervention as intended with fidelity.

• Is this what every school should look like?

• Who fills out the student referral to RTI2 team?

• Do data points carry over into the next school year?

• Who conducts Fidelity Monitoring?

Common Questions & Concerns

Who fills out Tier I fidelity, behavior, and lesson plan checklist?

Areas of DeficitA Universal Screener will explicitly

measure…

Basic Reading Skills (letters, letter sounds, phonological awareness, phonics)

Reading Comprehension Reading fluency Written expression Math calculation (column addition, basic facts, complex

computation, decimals, fractions, conversions, percentages, etc.)

Math reasoning/problem solving (number and operations, base ten, place value, measurement and length, fractions, geometry, algebra, expressions, linear equations etc.)

What does your Universal Screener tell you?

Intervene on a standard Tells you what to

reteach/remediate (Tier 1) Adaptive. Task changes

based on student performance

Does not consistently measure the same skill over and over to determine if intervention is working

Intervene on skill deficit/need Warning system for your

most at-risk students and identifies discrete skill deficit(s)

Not adaptive. Task does not change based on student performance

Consistently measures same skill

Independent of grade level standard

What is a survey level assessment? When do I have to administer it?

Standards based Skills based

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Reteaching VS. Intervention

Reteaching/Remediation

Tier I-Common Core Standards

Goal is to reteach standards that students are struggling with rather than specific skill deficits. These are your students close to being identified as proficient on district standards based assessments.

Standards Based Assessment: Benchmark Assessment Summative Assessment Formative Assessment

Intervention

Tier II/III/Special Education Intervention

Goal is to provide research based interventions aligned to specific skill deficit(s) as identified by a universal screener. The universal screener will identify skill needs in basic reading, fluency, comprehension, written expression, math calculation and math reasoning.

Skills Based Assessment: Skills based universal screener

aligned to area(s) of deficit Skills based Progress Monitoring

specific to area(s) of deficit Formative assessment

When does the Tier II decision tree need to be completed? How do we place students in Tier II? Who provides Tier II Intervention? Where do the students go who do not need a skills specific intervention?

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Tier II Interventions

A change in intervention will be considered within each tier before moving to the next tier of intervention.

8-10 data points (if progress monitoring every other week) OR 10-15 data points (if progress monitoring weekly) are needed to make a sound data based decision.

Number of data points reflects empirical research required to make an informed data based decision.

The intervention must have empirical evidence supporting its use in remediating the area of suspected disability (i.e., Basic Reading Skills).

A skills based progress monitoring tool must be able to provide evidence that the student did not make a sufficient amount of progress in the area of deficit.

Fidelity Monitoring Questions

District and School RTI² Teams: District and School RTI² Teams will be established per the guidelines outlined in Component 1.2. School teams will meet every 4.5 weeks at a minimum to make data-based decisions that inform instruction/intervention.

Fidelity of Implementation: Fidelity monitoring will occur as described in Components 2.6, 3.6 and 4.6 of the RTI² Manual and Implementation Guide.

What does fidelity monitoring mean? Who conducts the fidelity monitoring? Should special education intervention be monitored?

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Implementation Guide: Sample Tier II Direct Observation Rubric

Component 3.6 RTI² Implementation Guide

Observer: Interventionist: School: Grade:Start time: ________ End Time:_______Program: Skill(s):

Focus Criteria

3 2 1 0Structure and Delivery of Tier II Intervention SCORE:_________

Adherence to precision to fully implement procedures as prescribed. All components are used to deliver a high intensity intervention. Correct time schedule is followed to provide optimal intervention during the time allocated. Intervention is delivered as designed.

Interventionist and students are engaged. Pace is effective and students are actively involved. Correct materials are used. Intervention time is focused and uninterrupted. Lesson is delivered as designed.

Interventionist and students are in correct places but materials are not at hand. Interventionist appears unprepared. Time delay to effectively begin intervention time. Some interruptions noted. No clear plan for the lesson.

Intervention not occurring at scheduled time and no manual or lesson plans used

Management SCORE:_________

Enthusiastic delivery by interventionist. Correct and effective management in place. Interventionist and students effectively making use of time. Structure of intervention provides effective pacing and optimal use materials.

Good delivery by interventionist. Management is effective. A few difficulties noted during implementation. Most students engaged in learning. Structure guides intervention time with occasional lapses in time.

Poor delivery by interventionist. The interventionist does not follow set procedures for effective implementation. Several students off task. Structure lacks coherence.

Ineffective delivery by interventionist. Students are not engaged. Interventionist does not guide structure for intervention.

Progress Monitoring, Documentation, and Communication SCORE:_________

Progress monitoring is completed once every other week and clearly documented on all forms. Communication of assessment results with teachers and parents exceeds the minimum requirements. Documentation of interventions and progress is very clear to understand and well organized and systematically communicated.

Progress monitoring is generally accurate. Communication with teacher and parents happens at least twice each nine weeks. Documentation of interventions and student progress is adequately communicated.

Progress monitoring is sporadic. There is not a clear system for communicating results with the teacher or parents. Limited documentation of interventions or progress is noted. Progress is rarely communicated.

Progress monitoring is not occurring. No communication with teachers or parents. No documentation of interventions or progress.

Observations:

Strengths:

Concerns:

Results Checklist YES NO

Post observation review of fidelity check

Review of areas of concern addressed, if any were indicated

Plans for improvement established in areas identified

When does Tier III decision tree need to be completed? How do we place students in Tier III? Who provides Tier III Intervention? How is Tier III more intensive than Tier II?

Does the student NEED more Intensive Intervention(s)?

Students may immediately require Tier III intensive intervention. • If students are below the 10th percentile or 1.5 to 2.0 grade

levels behind. • Your data team should make these decisions on an

individual basis.

Students who are immediately placed in Tier III level intervention must receive the minimum number of recommended minutes of intervention.

The purpose of immediately placing a student in Tier III intervention is to increase the intensity of the intervention, not to shorten the duration of the intervention period.

Tier III Interventions

A change in intervention will be considered within each tier before moving to the next tier of intervention.

8-10 data points (if progress monitoring every other week) OR 10-15 data points (if progress monitoring weekly) are needed to make a sound data based decision.

Number of data points reflects empirical research required to make an informed data based decision.

The intervention must be more intense than the intervention provided at Tier II.

A skills based progress monitoring tool must be able to provide evidence that the student did not make a sufficient amount of progress in the area of deficit.

Progress Monitoring

Progress Monitoring- Progress monitoring is used to assess students’ academic performance, to quantify a student rate of improvement or responsiveness to instruction, and to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Progress monitoring can be implemented with individual students or an entire class.

A change in intervention will be considered within each tier before moving to the next tier of intervention.

What is progress monitoring and how does it relate to data points?

What will progress monitoring tell us?

Student Screening: Does this require permission?

Students may be screened by a specialist (e.g., school psychologist or reading specialist) at any time within the tiers to provide instructional and/or program planning information.

Consent is not required for screenings that inform instruction/interventions within the tiers.• Example: Phonics screening to determine specific

interventions.

If data indicates a student’s progress is not sufficient, then the team may obtain Notice and Consent for Initial Evaluation.

The team must complete all evaluations and establish the student’s eligibility for service within the initial evaluation timeline.

The student will remain in intervention and will continue to be progress monitored while the requested evaluations are being completed.

All information collected including the student’s responsiveness to intervention will be a part of the student’s eligibility determination.

Initial Evaluations

Beginning July 1, 2014, RTI² will be the framework used to identify students with a Specific Learning Disability.

Re-evaluations as of July 1, 2014 All re-evaluations for students with a Specific Learning

Disability will be grounded in progress monitoring data.

Existing data including ongoing assessments of progress and focused/diagnostic evaluations will be reviewed through the Re-evaluation Summary Report to determine if additional information is needed.

A gap analysis will be completed and the student’s ROI will be calculated in order to determine the amount of services/intervention required to close the achievement gap.

The level of service required (special education versus general education) will be used to negate or substantiate continued eligibility.

What happens if a Parent Requests an Evaluation?

The team must complete the agreed upon components of the evaluation within the initial evaluation timeline.

The student may be eligible for services as a student with a Specific Learning Disability based only on the RTI² Framework. • No option to use discrepancy model.  

If the team lacks sufficient evidence to establish the student’s eligibility for services:• the team may agree to request an extension of the

evaluation timeline. OR

• the student will be made ineligible until sufficient data can be collected.

Consider this…Special Education is not a place! It is the most Intensive Intervention!

Special Education Interventions: The student will remain in core, differentiated instruction

(Tier I) within the general education curriculum to the greatest extent possible.

The same problem solving approach used in the general education RTI² framework will be used in special education.

Interventions will be tailored to the student in the area of identified disability, and progress toward their IEP goals will be monitored weekly or every other week.

If students fail to respond to interventions provided through special education, an IEP team meeting will be reconvened.

Consider this…Special Education is not a place! It is the most Intensive Intervention!

After the team determines an area of deficit, the student will receive a research based intervention in his or her specific area of need. Students will receive progress monitoring in the area of deficit and parents will be notified.

Students receiving special education intervention will receive their intervention outside of core instruction to the greatest extent possible.

Special education intervention will be the most intensive interventions provided.

Students may receive intervention from special education and general education at the same time. Focus on the data!

EA’s are used to help children access the core instruction. They are not the intervention.

Tier II, Tier III or Sped Intervention: Core Instruction Plus A skill specific intervention

Core Instruction

Tier II

Tier III

Sped Intervention

Does a student have to have Tier II, Tier III, and Special Education Intervention at the same time?

Response to Instruction & Intervention Implementation Guide

Implementation Guide

Resources• Example schedules• Sample forms• Universal Screener and Intervention Rubrics• Guidance for data based decision making• Gap analysis and Rate of Improvement

Resourceswww.TNcore.org

RTI.questions@tn.govwww.TNSPDG.com

Follow RTI² on Twitter@TnRti2

Division of Special Populations - Instructional Programming Team

Tie HodackExecutive Director of Instructional

PlanningTie.Hodack@tn.gov

@HodackTie

Joann LuceroReading Intervention Specialist

Joann.Lucero@tn.gov@JoannL_81

Ryan MathisMathematics Intervention

SpecialistRyan.Mathis@tn.gov

@RyanMathisCool

Jill OmerSpeech-Language & Austism

CoordinatorJill.Omer@tn.gov

@jill_omer

Dr. Joshua StanleyHigh School Intervention &

Transition CoordinatorJoshua.Stanley@tn.gov

@drjstanley

Alison GauldBehavior and Low Incidence

CoordinatorAlison.Gauld@tn.gov

@AlisonAGauld

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FRAUD, WASTE or ABUSE

Citizens and agencies are encouraged to report fraud, waste or abuse in State and Local government.

NOTICE: This agency is a recipient of taxpayer funding. If you observe an agency director or employee engaging in any activity which you consider to be illegal, improper or wasteful, please call the state Comptroller’s toll-free

Hotline:

1-800-232-5454

Notifications can also be submitted electronically at:

http://www.comptroller.tn.gov/hotline