Problem Solving and Response to Intervention: The Conceptual Background

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Problem Solving and Response to Intervention
The Conceptual Background

• Training Module 1
• From the University of South Florida

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Federal Changes Affecting General and Special
Education

• IDEA Re-Authorization
• Focus on academic outcomes
• General education as baseline metric
• Labeling as a last resort
• Increasing general education options
• Pooling building-based resources
• Flexible funding patterns
• ESEA Legislation-No Child Left Behind
• National Emphasis on Reading
• Response to Evidence-based Interventions

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Federal Changes

• Authentic/Curriculum-Based Assessment
• Accountability-Student Outcomes
• Early Intervention Programs
• High-Stakes Testing
• Pupil Progression/Retention Legislation

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No Child Left Behind Act 2001(NCLB)

• Re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary
  Education Act (ESEA)
• ESEA first authorized in 1965
• Defines the federal governments involvement in
  education

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NCLB-Components of the Act

• Title I Improving the academic achievement of
  the disadvantaged
• Title II Preparing, training and recruiting high
  quality teachers and principals
• Title III Language instruction for Limited
  English Proficient (LEP) and immigrant students
• Title IV 21st Century Schools
• Title V Promoting informed parental choice and
  innovative programs

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Components

• Title VI Flexibility and accountability
• Title VII Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska
  Native education
• Title VIII Impact aid program
• Title IX General provisions
• Title X Amendment to other statutes

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NCLB Reform Principles

• Stronger Accountability for Results
• Flexibility for States and Communities
• Concentrating Resources on Proven Education
  Methods
• More Choice for Parents

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Stronger Accountability Implications for Student
Services

• States set standards (Floridas Sunshine State
  Standards accessible at www.fldoe.org)
• Primary metric for school success is academic
  progress
• Scores must be reported (e.g., school grading)
• Primary focus of all services will be
  relationship to academic outcomes
• Student services ensure student readiness to learn

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Flexibility for States and Communities
Implications for Student Services

• Local direction of federal dollars
• Direct dollars in areas of greatest need
• Intervention programs that enhance academic
  engaged time (AET) can be promoted

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Presidents Commission on Excellence in Special
Education ReportRecommendation 1

• Focus on results--not process
• Law must retain safeguards
• IDEA must raise expectations and become results
  oriented-not driven by process, litigation, etc.
• System must be judged by outcomes achieved

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Presidents Commission on Excellence in Special
Education ReportRecommendation 2

• Embrace a model of prevention, not a model of
  failure
• Reforms must move system to early identification
  and intervention
• Use scientifically-based interventions
• Will require reforms in pre-service level training

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Presidents Commission on Excellence in Special
Education ReportRecommendation 3

• Consider children with disabilities as general
  education children first
• Special education should not be considered as a
  separate cost system
• General and special education should share
  instruction
• Funding should not create an incentive for
  identification
• All resources in a school should be used to meet
  the needs of all children
• Flexibility in use of all funds, including IDEA,
  is essential

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Individuals With Disabilities Education
Improvement Act (2004)

• In general. Notwithstanding section 607(b), when
  determining whether a child has a specific
  learning disability as defined in section 602, a
  local educational agency shall not be required to
  take into consideration whether a child has a
  severe discrepancy between achievement and
  intellectual ability in oral expression,
  listening, comprehension, written expression,
  basic reading skills, reading comprehension,
  mathematical calculation or mathematical
  reasoning.

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Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act (2004)

• (B) Additional authority. In determining whether
  a child has a specific learning disability, a
  local educational agency may use a process that
  determines if the child responds to scientific,
  research-based intervention as part of the
  evaluation procedures described in paragraphs (2)
  and (3).

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(5) SPECIAL RULE FOR ELIBIGILITY DETERMINATION-
In making a determination of eligibility under
paragraph (4)(A), a child shall not be determined
to be a child with a disability if the
determinant factor for such determination
is (A) lack of appropriate instruction in
reading, including in the essential components
of reading instruction (as defined in section
1208(3) of the ESEA of 1965) (B) lack of
instruction in math or (C) limited English
proficiency.
Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act (2004)
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Reduce Over-identification/Misidentification of
Students, Including Minority Youth

• Disproportionate number of minority students are
  wrongly placed in special education
• Studies show the proportion of minority students
  identified in some disability categories is
  dramatically greater than their share of the
  overall population
• Will require local school districts with
  significant over-identification of minority
  students to operate pre-referral practices and
  procedures that work to reduce over-identification

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Reduce Over-identification

• Eliminate the outdated "IQ-discrepancy" model
  that relies on a wait to fail approach for
  identification of specific learning disabilities
• Introduce a response to intervention model
• Use more programs that rely on positive
  behavioral interventions and supports

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Floridas Goals

• Increase the use of prevention and early
  intervention strategies
• Decrease inappropriate referrals of minority
  students to special education
• Increase appropriate referrals for gifted
  education
• Increase the number of schools using effective
  literacy and behavioral interventions for
  students who are culturally and linguistically
  diverse

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The significant problems we have cannot be solved
at the same level of thinking with which we
created them. Albert Einstein (1879 1955)
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Why Do We Need the Problem Solving Approach?

• Misleading assumption Thorough understanding of
  the intrapersonal (within person) cause of
  educational problems is the most critical factor
  in determining appropriate treatment
• Learning problems results from a complex
  interaction between curriculum, instruction, the
  environment and learner characteristics (e.g.,
  Howell, 1993)

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Why Problem Solving Response to Intervention
(RtI)?

• The Vision of IDEA was not just that students
  would be found
• The Vision of IDEA was not just that students
  would be identified
• The Vision of IDEA was not just that students
  would be placed in special education
• The Vision of IDEA was not just that students
  would receive services
• The Vision of IDEA was also that the services to
  students with disabilities would be EFFECTIVE!

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Why Problem Solving RtI?

• Need to integrate general and special education
  expertise
• Need to document effectiveness of special and
  remedial education
• Need to align identification procedures with
  effective instruction
• Need to re-examine assumptions underlying
  practice
• Need to attend to AYP in high stakes testing,
  disaggregations RtI fits hand and glove with
  NCLB

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Why RtI? Ultimate Purpose of IDEA 04

• To assess and ensure the effectiveness of efforts
  to educate children with disabilities

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Why RtI?

• RtI is about maximizing results
• RtI provides the mechanism for schools to take
  control of their outcomes
• One of the keys of RtI is that it provides an
  iterative, self-correcting mechanism, driven by
  student results

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In Sum Why RtI?

• Most importantly, despite our best efforts many,
  many children with disabilities and at-risk
  learning characteristics are still not successful
  in acquiring basic skills

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In Sum Why RtI?

• We can do better than we ever have before
• We know scientifically-based strategies which are
  proven to work
• An issue of how do we deploy it so that it can
  work
• RtI is the most critical component if prevention
  and early intervention efforts are to be
  successful

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What Educators Should Be Able to Do

• Understand the big ideas associated with NCLB
  and IDEA 2004
• Collaborate and communicate effectively
• Apply the basic steps of the problem-solving
  process
• Understand concepts related to universal,
  strategic, and intensive intervention/assessment
  practices
• Accurately identify the needs of students at-risk
  for school failure
• Collect high frequency, unobtrusive data that
  accurately reflect student performance (e.g.,
  Curriculum Based Measurement)
• Determine if a student is in an effective
  instructional or social environment

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What Educators Should Be Able to Do

• Quantify levels of peer performance
• Facilitate the implementation of evidence-based
  interventions
• Evaluate levels of risk
• Implement a response to intervention paradigm
• Determine when a student is eligible to generate
  funding for special education services
• Use technology to facilitate implementation

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The Obstacles

• Its a different way of doing business for most
• It requires an expanded set of skills
• Interventions are integrated, not done by team
  members or special educators only

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The Obstacles

• It can focus on OUR weaknesses rather than the
  students
• It requires good collaboration, communication and
  a common commitment to student success

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High above the hushed crowd, Rex tried to remain
focused. Still, he couldnt shake one nagging
thought He was an old dog and this was a new
trick.
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Web Resources

• NCLB www.ed.gov/nclb
• IDEAwww.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspeciale
  ducation/reports.html
• Student Progression www.fldoe.org
• (hot topics)
• Reading First www.read-to-learn.org
• Just Read Florida www.justreadflorida.org
• NASP www.nasp.org
• Student Support Services Project
  http//sss.usf.edu

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More Web Resources

• National Resource Center on Learning Disabilities
  Core Concepts of RtI
• www.nrcld.org/html/research/rti/concepts.html
• Task Force on Evidence-Based Interventions in
  School Psychology
• http//www.sp-ebi.org/
• The Access Center National Technical Assistance
  Center U.S. Dept. of
• Education
• www.k8accesscenter.org
• National Association of School Psychologists
• www.nasponline.org

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Web Resources Contd

• Intervention Central A Comprehensive Resource
  for Evidence-Based
• Interventions
• www.interventioncentral.org
• KidSource Comprehensive Education and Healthcare
  Resource for Parents
• and Children Birth-21
• www.kidsource.com
• National Center on Secondary Education and
  Transition
• www.ncset.org