Response to Intervention

1
Response to Intervention

• Data-Based Decision-Making Model for
  Differentiating Instruction

2
Acknowledgements

• Selected slides of this presentation come from a
  workshop offered at the annual convention of the
  Association of School Psychologists of
  Pennsylvania and presented by
• Joseph Kovaleski, D.Ed. Indiana University of PA
• Edward Shapiro, Ph.D. Lehigh University
• Helena Tuleya-Payne, D.Ed. Millersville
  University
• Richard Hall, Ph.D Eastern Lancaster
  County School District
• Amy Smith, M.S. PaTTAN, King of Prussia
• Paul Lowery, Ph.D. PaTTAN, Harrisburg

3
Where does RtI come from?

• IDEA 2004 reauthorization and definition of
  Specific Learning Disability
• In determining whether a child has a specific
  learning disability, a local educational agency
  may use a process which determines if a child
  responds to scientifically research-based
  interventions.

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• Follows in line with expectations of NCLB
• Accountability to ensure all children are
  learning to grade level
• Use of scientific research-based practices in the
  classroom
• Supports involvement of all children in the
  general education curriculum

5
RtI Defined

• A comprehensive, multi-tiered intervention
  strategy to enable early identification and
  intervention for students at academic or
  behavioral risk
• May be used as an alternative, or in addition, to
  the discrepancy model for the identification of
  students with learning disabilities

6
Characteristics of RtI

• Universal Screening of academics and behavior
• Multiple tiers of increasingly intense
  interventions
• Differentiated curriculum-tiered intervention
  strategy
• Use of scientifically research-based
  interventions
• Continuous monitoring of student performance
• Benchmarks/Outcome assessment

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Remember IST?

• Request by teacher or parent
• Child study team suggests instructional
  strategies per that child
• IST teacher implements strategies which may have
  implications for whole group instruction
• Monitor the childs progress over time to
  determine if need for evaluation

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Enter RtI

• Need is identified by universal screening rather
  than by student failure to achieve
• School, grade, group, or child teams replace
  child-level teams
• Regular education teachers implement
  instructional interventions with assistance of
  team
• Progress monitoring for all students at regular
  intervals and at varying intensity dependent on
  degree of achievement
• Results can be used as part of decision to refer
  for evaluation for placement in special education

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RtI Assumptions

• Use of empirically validated curriculum for all
  students
• Empirically validated curriculum delivered with
  fidelity
• On-going and universal progress monitoring of all
  children
• Increasingly intense levels of differentiated
  instruction using empirically validated
  interventions
• Increasingly intense levels of progress
  monitoring at more intense levels of intervention

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Additional Assumptions

• Fluidity of movement between contiguous tiers
• 80 of children should be progressing within the
  typical curriculum
• 15 of children will need some intermediate level
  of differentiation to progress in the regular
  curriculum
• Only 5 of children will require intense
  intervention and only some portion of those will
  actually require services of special education

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RtI Framework
Tier 3 Intensive
interventions for low performing students
5 Tier 2 Strategic and targeted
interventions for students at-risk for
failure 15 Tier 1 Benchmark and
School-wide interventions for all students 80
(students both with and without supports)
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Tier 1

• Those students who are progressing as expected in
  the general education curriculum and who
  demonstrate social competence
• All students have access to schoolwide
  interventions that include
• Effective instruction
• Clear expectations
• Effective student support
• Periodic benchmark assessments
• Universal prevention

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Tier 2

• Those students who are not making progress in the
  general education curriculum and/or have mild to
  moderate difficulties demonstrating social
  competence (at risk for academic failure)
• Use of strategic and targeted interventions that
  include
• Use of standard protocol interventions
• Scientifically research-based interventions that
  include academic and behavioral interventions
• Core instruction with supplemental materials
• Differentiated instruction in general education
• Specialists assist with strategic instruction in
  regular education

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Tier 3

• Those students who are lagging significantly
  behind established grade-level benchmarks in the
  general education curriculum or who demonstrate
  significant difficulties with behavioral and
  social competence
• Intensive interventions include
• Use of standard protocols
• Supplemental instructional materials
• Small intensive groups
• Can be outside the general education classroom
• Tutoring by remedial teachers
• 10-20 week interventions

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Examples of Interventions

• Targeted assistance based on progress monitoring
• Administered by teacher or specialist
• Provide additional instruction (individual or
  small group)
• Match materials to instructional level
• Modify modes of task presentation
• Modify instruction time
• Increase task structure
• Increase task relevance
• Mini-lessons on skills deficits
• Decrease group size
• Increase amount and type of cues and prompts
• Teach additional strategies
• Change curriculum
• Change types and method of corrective feedback

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Examples of what interventions are not

• Preferential seating
• Shortened assignments
• Parent contacts
• Classroom observations
• Suspension
• Doing more of the same assignments
• Retention

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Post-Tier 3?

• If following the intensive interventions in Tier
  3 the child is still not progressing, now go to
  permission to evaluate.

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5 Questions for Eligibility

• Was the student effectively taught?
• After 3 tiers of intervention, is the student
  significantly deficient in relation to
  benchmarks?
• During three tiers of intervention, was the
  students rate of progress (slope) significantly
  deficient in relation to peers?
• Does the student need specially designed
  instruction (i.e., special education) to make
  meaningful progress?
• Have other factors or conditions been ruled out?

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Was the student taught effectively?

• Using a scientifically researched curriculum
• Example of reading core curriculum with
  scientific backing would include explicit and
  systematic instruction in
• Phonological awareness
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Vocabulary
• Comprehension

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• Delivered with fidelity
• Consideration of
• Length of time curriculum has been in place
• Adequate teacher training in the curriculum
• Are teachers using the prescribed materials
• Length of time student has been taught using this
  curriculum
• Are teachers delivering the curriculum according
  to prescribed directions

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Does your reading curriculum align with 5 big
ideas for reading?

• Florida Center for Reading Research
• www.fcrr.org
• Oregon Reading First Center
• http//oregonreadingfirst.uoregon.edu/
• Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts
• www.texasreading.org

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What Are Scientific and Empirically Validated
Interventions?

• Typically supplements to core reading programs
• Early (Soar to) Success (Houghton Mifflin)
• Read Well (Sopris West)
• Reading Mastery (SRA)
• Great Leaps (Diamuid,Inc.)
• Read Naturally
• Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS)
• May also be empirically validated general
  strategies targeted to a particular problem
• Previewing
• Elaborating
• Summarizing, etc.

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Tier 3 Interventions

• Strategic and targeted to area of need
• Delivered with intensity and frequency
• Examples
• Corrective Reading (SRA)
• Earobics
• Language
• Soar to Success

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Progress Monitoring

• RtI hinges on
• Empirically validated universal methods and
  interventions
• Progress monitoring at increasing levels of
  frequency depending on the tier
• Tier 1 progress monitoring approximately 3 times
  a year
• Tier 2 progress monitoring at least 1 time a
  week
• Tier 3 progress monitoring daily
• How long should children stay in each tier?
• Some guidelines suggest 10 to 20 weeks
• Some guidelines suggest 10 weeks
• Decisions are made based on data from progress
  monitoring
• No intervention should be tried for less than 3
  weeks or for more than 6 weeks if the data
  indicate that the student is not making
  improvement

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Progress Monitoring?

• All progress is based on comparisons against
  benchmark performance
• The floor level of performance the lowest level
  of performance that predicts benchmark
  performance at the next grade level
• PSSA? Proficient?
• 30th to 35th percentile for proficient
• Already below the average if they are only at
  benchmark

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Progress Monitoring Requires

• Establishment of benchmarks
• Local
• National
• Data collection routines
• Progress monitoring tools to chart progress or
  lack of progress
• www.studentprogress.org
• Go to Tools and to Tool Chart for details of tool
  review for technical adequacy of certain progress
  monitoring tools (DIBELS Dynamic Indicators of
  Basic Early Literacy Skills, AIMSweb, etc)
• Or use the progress monitoring system you already
  have in place and collect data

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Managing and Interpreting Progress Monitoring Data

• Commercially available progress monitoring
  systems have data management packages
• Can use EXCEL spreadsheets and graphing functions
  to do the same thing
• Graphs plot expected levels and actual levels and
  change over time
• http//iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu
• Resources to Star Legacy Modules to RtI
  assessment to Teachers Materials Center (at
  bottom of page)
• Short term goal calculator
• Slope calculator

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• Students may enter the Tier 2 intervention stage
  at any point along in the routine benchmarking
  process (i.e., fall, winter)
• Once in Tier 2 intervention stage calculation of
  short term goals and slope is essential to
  determine if
• Student can move back to Tier 1 or on to Tier 3
• An academic deficiency exists despite
  interventions that necessitates special education
  
• one suggestion is two times below the criterion
  level e.g., if wpm 100, our student has wpm
  50

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Progress Monitoring Using Curriculum-Based
Measurement
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What is CBM

• Developed in the late 70s as a way to use
  frequent data collection to make educational
  programming decisions for students in special
  education
• It is an approach to measuring the growth of
  student learning in key academic areas
• Reading
• Math
• Writing

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What is measured?

• In reading
• Fluency
• Accuracy
• Sometimes comprehension
• In math
• The number of correct digits
• In writing
• The number of correct writing sequences
• The number of words written
• The number of words spelled correctly
• The number of letters written

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Purpose of CBM

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a students
  educational program
• Through frequent sampling of performance (weekly,
  quarterly, semester-by-semester)
• And graphing the progress made

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Advantages of CBM over Norm-referenced assessment

• Based on the local curriculum
• Individually referenced as well as comparatively
• Peer referenced
• Tool that allows for direct and continuous
  monitoring of progress
• Sensitive to short-term gains
• Time efficient
• Easily understood results

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General Method for doing CBM

• Brief timed samples or probes
• 1-minute reading samples
• 2-minute math samples
• 3-minute writing samples
• Probes come from the academic material of the
  school curriculum
• Standardized administration

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Reading CBM

• Prepare Reading probes
• Choose 3 probes from each basal reader for each
  grade
• For 1st and 2nd grade, choose probes
  approximately 150 words long
• For older students, choose probes approximately
  250 words long
• If not using basal readers, can choose probes
  using a readability index to determine difficulty
  of probes
• Or can use probes from basal readers
• Avoid poetry, drama, abundance of dialogue, and
  foreign phrases or words

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• Make one copy for the student to read and
  numbered copies for administrator to mark
• Provide the standardized directions
• When I say start, begin reading aloud at the
  top of this page. Read across the page
  (demonstrate by pointing). Try to read each
  word. If you come to a word you dont know, Ill
  tell it to you. Be sure to do your best reading.
  Are there any questions? pause Start.
• Using a stopwatch, time the reading for exactly 1
  minute and say Stop.
• Do this for all three probes at the level of
  testing.

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Scoring

• Fluency is calculated by determining the number
  of words attempted and then deducting from that
  the number of words read incorrectly.
• Accuracy is determined as a percent (the
  percentage of words read correctly)

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What counts as an error?

• If the child does not say a word within 3
  seconds, provide the word and mark it as an error
  by drawing a slash (/) through it.
• Words that are mispronounced
• Bell for bill
• Substitutions
• Store for shop
• Omissions
• When several connected words are skipped in a
  row, drop all but one because the omission is
  considered to be a single error of tracking no
  matter the number of words. Count the number of
  words omitted and the number of words attempted
  in the 1-minute timeframe. Subtract the number
  of dropped omissions from the end point to obtain
  the number of words attempted. Subtract from
  that number the number of errors and the adjusted
  number of omissions to find the fluency count.
• Transpositions of word-pairs are counted as one
  error
• Big, black dog as black, big dog

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What is a correct read?

• If the child self-corrects, count it as correct.
• If the child repeats a word correctly, it counts
  as one word read correctly.
• Dialectical speech is counted as correct.
• Inserted words are ignored for accounting
  purposes.

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• Obtain fluency measures for all three probes and
  take the median as the best estimate of
  proficiency in reading.
• Use the median error score as the best estimate
  of reading errors.
• Determine the percent accuracy by dividing the
  number of words correctly read by the total
  number of words attempted and multiply by 100.

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Math CBA

• 2 types of math CBA
• Single skill probes
• Multiple skill probes
• Both types can be administered individually or in
  groups
• Create the math probes using either local
  curriculum or scope-and-sequence charts from math
  textbooks
• Should contain between 80 and 200 problems
• Worksheets should have items on front and back

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• Provide the standardized directions
• The sheets on your desk are math facts. If
  single math skill say All the problems are
  addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc. If
  multiple skill say There are several types of
  problems on the sheet. Some are addition, some
  are subtraction, some are multiplication and some
  are division. Look at each problem carefully
  before you answer it.
• When I say start, turn them over and begin
  answering the problems. Start on the first
  problem on the left on the top rowpoint. Work
  across and then go to the next row. If you cant
  answer the problem, make an X on it and go to
  the next one. If you finish one side, go to the
  back. Are there any questions? (pause) Start.
• After 2 minutes say Stop.

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Scoring

• Give credit to each individual correct digit
  appearing in a solution
• Credit is given to all digits that appear below
  the line of the numerical problem
• This allows partial credit
• Correct digits include
• Individual correct digits
• Reversed or rotated digits are not counted as
  errors unless their change in position makes them
  appear to another digit, i.e. 6 and 9
• Incorrect digits include
• Digits that appear in the wrong place value

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Writing CBM

• Writing probes can be delivered individually and
  in groups
• Probe consists of a lined composition sheet with
  a story-starter sentence or partial sentence at
  the top
• The student is given 1 minute to think about what
  to write
• The student is given 3 minutes to write.

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• Administer the standardized directions
• I want you to write a story. I am going to read
  a sentence to you first, and then I want you to
  write a short story about what happens. You will
  have 1 minute to think about the story you will
  write and then have 3 minutes to write it. Do
  your best work. If you dont know how to spell a
  word, you should guess. Are there any questions?
  (pause and at the end of 1 minute say) Start
  writing.
• After 3 minutes say Stop.

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Scoring

• Several options
• Number of words written
• Includes misspelled words but not numerals
• Number of letters written
• Includes misspelled words but not numerals
• Number of words correctly spelled
• Words are considered separately, not within the
  context of the sentence
• Number of writing units placed in correct
  sequence
• To receive credit writing units must be spelled
  correctly, be grammatically correct, and make
  sense within the context of the sentence

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Charting CBM Data

• Progress monitoring graph
• Each academic behavior has its own chart
• Known time-limit of the CBM probe (per minute)
• Vertical axis label for the academic behavior
  occurring within the time-limit, numbers
  representing a range of frequency of academic
  behaviors
• Horizontal axis number of weeks over which CBM
  data is graphed

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• Determine the CBM performance goal for each
  student
• The rate of increase in skills fluency that the
  child is expected to achieve by the end of a
  monitoring period
• Performance goal formula
• Estimated increase in fluency per week X Number
  of instructional weeks student baseline

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• Determining the estimated increase in fluency
• Weekly improvement rates
• Grade Modest Reasonable Ambitious
• 1-2 1.0 1.5 2.0
• 3-6 .5 1.0 1.5

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• Plot the baseline rate and draw a line connecting
  it with the performance goal estimate
• Enter each median score at each monitoring
  interval
• Apply the three data-point decision rule
• If 3 successive data points lie above the
  aimline, adjust the aimline upward
• If 3 data points lie below the aimline, change
  the instructional intervention to boost learning
• If 3 successive data points lie around the
  aimline, make no changes.

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BenchmarksResearch Norms

• Reading
• Grades 1 through 3
• Level Median WCM Median Errors PM
• Frustration 29 8 or more
• Instructional 30-49 3-7
• Mastery 50 or more 2 or fewer

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• Grades 4 and Up
• Level Median WCM Median Errors PM
• Frustration 49 8 or more
• Instructional 50-99 3-7
• Mastery 100 or more 2 or fewer