District Administration - October 2008 - (Page 74)

Professional oPinion academic or behavior problems. At level 2, fixed instructional trial, usually 10 to 15 teachers and their school’s Building Assis- weeks, delivered in small groups or inditance Team (comprised of other teachers vidually, illustrated in research reported and specialists) identify and analyze prob- in the Journal of Learning Disabilities and lems and help teachers select, implement Exceptional Children. For example, Frank Vellutino, proand monitor the effectiveness of an intervention. If a student does not meet spe- fessor of psychology at the University of cific benchmarks of academic achievement, Albany, and his colleagues in 1996 asked support staff, such as school psychologists, first-grade teachers in New York to identiget involved at level 3. They use mostly fy their poorest readers early in the school behavioral problem solving to refine the year. Vellutino and his colleagues assigned intervention. At level 4, special education the children to tutoring and nontutoring assistance is considered. At each problem- groups. The tutored children received a solving level, the process is meant to be 30-minute, one-to-one intervention five the same: Practitioners determine the days each week for most of the semester. magnitude of the problem, analyze its This focused on phonemic awareness, decauses, design a goal-directed interven- coding, sight word practice, comprehention, monitor student progress, modify sion strategies, and reading connected the intervention as needed, and evaluate its effectiveness and plot future actions. It is the student’s relative Throughout this problem-solving process, and across the four tiers, “data about classroom performance a student’s responsiveness to intervention that determines becomes the driving force,” following responsiveness and special Grimes’ advice. Teachers and staff members compare the student’s performance education eligibilty. level and learning rate with what is expected in the same classroom. It is the student’s relative classroom performance, text. In second grade, tutored students rather than test performance, that deter- below the 40th percentile of national mines responsiveness or unresponsiveness norms on the Basic Skills Cluster test had and special education eligibility. another eight to 10 weeks of tutoring. Many districts, including the MinneWe recommend that schools use a apolis Public Schools, have adopted the standard treatment protocol for children problem-solving approach to intervention, with academic difficulties and a problemaccording to Andrea Canter, director of solving approach for students with obvischool psychology at Minneapolis Public ous behavioral problems with academic Schools. Its popularity is due in part to deficits. Standard treatment protocols can personalized assessment and intervention, be highly effective for academic deficits, but this individualized approach is also especially for reading problems in the pria potential weakness, as it assumes that mary grades. And the quality of preventastaff are experienced in assessment and tive intervention in tier 2 does not depend intervention. Plus they need to have the on the expertise of staff or administrators clinical judgment and experience to know who may have uneven training and diswhich assessments and interventions to similar backgrounds in instructional deapply and the knowledge, discipline and sign and its implementation. opportunity to accurately measure the efWith a standard treatment protocol, fectiveness of the interventions, according preventative intervention represents “into a 2003 report published in Learning struction that benefits most students.” Disabilities Research and Practice. Whereas the problem-solving ap- Defining nonresponsiveness proach differs from child to child, a stan- Regardless of which RTI approach at tier dard treatment protocol usually involves a 2 is adopted, two components of the as74 October 2008 RTI Recommendations Special education experts Douglas and Lynn Fuchs recommend various steps in creating an RTI model in your district: • Use three tiers. Have general educators conduct the first two tiers and special education instructors handle the third. Unresponsiveness at tier 2 should indicate a need for the intensive instruction at tier 3. • Implement two approaches for two types of students. Follow the standard treatment protocol for children with academic difficulties and a problem-solving approach for students with obvious behavioral problems. In the problem-solving approach, practitioners determine the magnitude of the problem, analyze its causes, design a goal-directed intervention, monitor student progress, modify the intervention as needed, and evaluate its effectiveness. The student’s relative classroom performance, rather than test performance, determines responsiveness or unresponsiveness and eventually special education eligibility. Implementing standard treatment protocol usually involves a fixed instructional time, such as 10 to 15 weeks, and is delivered in small groups or individually. • Use two methods to designate nonresponsiveness. Level of performance alone leads to classifying some students as nonresponsive despite strong improvement after intervention, even though they are still below the benchmark criterion of desired education. By contrast, slope of improvement alone leads to classifying some students as nonresponsive despite, at intervention’s end, their having reach the normalized or benchmark criterion. • Configure RTI to incorporate special education as a third tier. This third tier should deliver the most intensive and data-driven instructional programs designed to address individual learning needs. sessment process accompanying RTI implementation must be specified. First, methods must be determined for measuring students’ response to instruction, and second, once a student’s response has been quantified, a criterion must be applied for defining nonresponsiveness. Students are identified as “disabled” when they perform beneath the criterion or, depending on the model, are referred for a comprehensive evaluation. Various methods are available for specifying these two assessment components. However, administrators should recognize that the different methods District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2008

District Administration - October 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology
Facilities & Construction
Inside the Law
District Profile: Englewood (N.J.) School District
Choose to Stay
A Cure for Monolingualism
Virtual Worlds for Educators
DA Web Seminar Leadership Series
School Libraries Renewed
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Curriculum Books
Professional Opinion
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - October 2008