Building Infrastructure:

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A collaborative project between the Florida
Department of Education and the University of
South Florida
FloridaRtI.usf.edu
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Outcomes of State Efforts

• Introductory RtI TAP disseminated on March 3,
  2006 can be accessed at http//www.fldoe.org/ese
  /pdf/y2006-8.pdf
• Collaboration and Emphasis on General Education
  Involvement/Leadership
• Problem-Solving/RtI Florida Project is accessible
  at http//floridarti.usf.edu/
• PS/RtI
• Teaching Learning Connection (TLC) academic
  focus
• Positive Behavior Support behavior focus
• State-wide PS/RtI Implementation Plan
• Relevant Rule Revisions E/BD, Proposed
  Administrative, Draft SLD, Draft LI

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PS/RtI Integrates Efforts
PS / RtI
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State-Level Collaborators

• Bureau of School Improvement, FLDOE
• Just Read, Florida!, FLDOE
• Florida Center for Reading Research, FSU
• LD Research Project, FSU
• PS/RtI Pilot Project, USF
• RtI-TLC Project, UCF
• Positive Behavior Support Project, USF
• Student Support Services Project, USF
• FL Center for Research STEM, FSU
• Office of Math and Science, FLDOE
• Bureau of Exceptional Student Education and
  Student Services, FLDOE
• Reading First Professional Development, RFPD
• Family Network on Disabilities of Florida, FND
• Florida Educators Association, FEA

5
What does the State Plan do?

• Provides an overview of Floridas perspective and
  approach to RtI.
• Connects and integrates terms and concepts with
  existing initiatives.
• Specifies foundational beliefs about how to
  create ideal conditions to promote student
  achievement.
• Calls for active engagement of parents.
• Discusses positive impact on school improvement,
  student achievement, and disproportionate
  representation of minority populations in special
  education programs.
•  

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What does the State Plan Do?

• Specifies State and District responsibilities in
  the scaling-up process.
• Outlines the state team infrastructure.
• Policy leadership team
• Implementation team
• Advisory group
• Reports current and future activities.
• Suggests flexible funding considerations.
• Applies to English language learners (ELL).
• Applies to Special Education eligibility.
• Contains links to resources and related efforts
  to assist the reader in next steps.

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Tools to Support Efforts

• District/School Self-Assessment Tool
• Take a few minutes and complete the Self
  Assessment for your school
• Provide our baseline
• Provide input for our districts plan

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What is RtI?

• RTI is the practice of (1) providing high
  quality instruction/intervention matched to
  student needs and, (2) using level of
  performance and learning rate over time to (3)
  make important educational decisions to guide
  instruction.
• National Association of State Directors of
  Special Education, 2005

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Core Principles of RtI

• A process designed to maximize achievement for
  all students
• Frequent data collection on student performance
• Early identification of students at risk
• Early intervention (K-3)
• Multi-tiered model of service delivery
• Research-based, scientifically validated
  instruction/interventions
• Ongoing progress monitoring - interventions
  evaluated and modified
• Data-based decision making - all decisions made
  with data
• Focused on outcomes

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Response to Intervention is Not

• About the identification of LD
• An instructional program. It is a framework to
  make decisions about instructional needs based on
  student data
• A way to avoid special education placement
• A hoop to jump through to ensure Sp. Ed.
  placement
• Intended to promote or encourage placement for
  students
• Intended to focus only on students who are below
  expected levels of proficiency
• Possible to implement alone it is a cooperative
  effort of teachers, administrators, and support
  staff

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Whats it look like?What does it do?

• Characteristics of a Building with RtI
• a. Frequent data collection on
  students in critical areas
• b. Early identification of students
  at risk
• c. Early intervention (kindergarten)
• d. Interventions evaluated and
  modified (if necessary) frequently
• e. Tiered levels of service delivery
• f. All decisions made with or verified by data
• Outcomes of RtI
• a. Improved rate of academic and behavior
  performance
• b. Significantly reduced disproportionality
• c. Reductions in special education
  referrals and placements

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Big Ideas
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Ideas
What We Now Know
What We Used to Think
Thorough understanding of the intrapersonal
(within person) causes of educational
disabilities is the most critical factor in
determining appropriate treatment.
Persons within disability categories have similar
educational needs that are different in
educationally important ways from persons in
other disability categories.
Matching treatments to underlying characteristics
will result in maximally effective interventions.
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Traditionalvs.Response to Intervention
Intervention
Traditional-
Intervention
J
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Response to Intervention-
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How we got here
Referral for Psychoeducational Evaluation
Psychoeducational Evaluation Conducted
Teacher Recognizes Problem
Eligibility Determination
Intervention Brainstorming
Intervention Brainstorming
Data Analyzed To Determine Systemic v. Individual
Student Problem
Teacher/ School Level Screening Recognizes Problem
Disability Characteristics Determined
Monitoring of Response to Intervention
Monitoring of Response to Intervention
Discovery of Student Need
Eligibility Determination
Informed Intervention
Intervention Revision
Assessment
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A Shift in Thinking

• The central question is not
• What about the students is causing the
  performance discrepancy?
• but
• What about the interaction of the curriculum,
  instruction, learners and learning environment
  should be altered so that the students will
  learn?
• This shift alters everything else

Ken Howell
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We Need A New Logic

• Begin with the idea that the purpose of the
  system is student achievement
• Acknowledge that student needs exist on a
  continuum rather than in typological groupings
• Organize resources to make educational resources
  available in direct proportion to student need

David Tilly 2004
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Three Tiered Model of School Supports Example of
an Infrastructure Resource Inventory
Academic Systems
Behavioral Systems
Tier III Comprehensive and Intensive
Interventions ( Few Students) Students who need
Individualized Interventions
Tier III Intensive Interventions ( Few
Students) Students who need Individual
Intervention
Tier II Strategic Interventions (Some
Students) Students who need more support in
addition to the core curriculum
Tier II Targeted Group Interventions (Some
Students) Students who need more support in
addition to school-wide positive behavior program
Tier I Universal Interventions All students all
settings
Tier I Core Curriculum All students
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Three Tiered Model of School Supports Example of
an Infrastructure Resource Inventory
Tier 3 Comprehensive and Intensive
Interventions Individual Students or Small Group
(2-3) Reading Scholastic Program,
Reading,Mastery, ALL, Soar to Success, Leap
Track, Fundations
Tier 3 Intensive Interventions Individual
Counseling FBA/BIP Teach, Reinforce, and Prevent
(TRP) Assessment-based Intense, durable procedures
1-5
Tier 2 Strategic Interventions Students not
responding to core curriculum Reading Soar to
Success, Leap Frog, CRISS strategies, CCC Lab
Math Extended Day Writing Small Group, CRISS
strategies, and Just Write Narrative by K.
Robinson
Tier 2 Targeted Group Interventions Some
students (at-risk) Small Group Counseling Parent
Training (Behavior Academic) Bullying
Prevention Program FBA/BIP Classroom Management
Techniques, Professional Development Small Group
Parent Training ,Data
5-10
Tier 1 Core Curriculum All students Reading
Houghton Mifflin Math Harcourt Writing Six
Traits Of Writing Learning Focus Strategies
Tier 1 Universal Interventions All settings, all
students Committee, Preventive, proactive
strategies School Wide Rules/ Expectations
Positive Reinforcement System (Tickets 200
Club) School Wide Consequence System School Wide
Social Skills Program, Data (Discipline, Surveys,
etc.) Professional Development (behavior) Classroo
m Management Techniques,Parent Training
80-90
Students
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Tiers of Service Delivery
1. Problem Identification- Whats the problem?
Tier I
Tier II
Tier III
2. Problem Analysis- Why is it occurring?
4. Response to Intervention- Is it
working?
3. Intervention Design/Implementation-
What are we going to do about it?
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Problem Solving

• A systematic and structured process that uses
  the skills of professionals from different
  disciplines to develop, implement, and evaluate
  intervention plans that result in the significant
  improvement (closing the gap) of student
  performance

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Implications for Activitiesat Various Tiers
More
Less
Instructional Time
Applicable evidence-based interventions
Measurement Frequency
Measurement Precision
Group Size
Measurement Focus
Depth of Problem Analysis
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More
Less
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Step 1 Problem Identification What is the
problem?

• To identify a problem, you need to start with
  three pieces of data
• Expected level of performance
• Student level of performance
• Peer level of performance

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Problem ID
compliance
weeks
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Step 2 - Problem Analysis Why is it occurring?

• The development of hypotheses about probable
  causes for the identified problem
• Assessment data are collected to validate
  hypotheses

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Problem Analysis

• The problem is occurring because
  ________________.
• If ____________ would occur, the problem would be
  reduced.

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Step 2 - Problem Analysis Why is it occurring?
RIOT by ICEL
DOMAINS R Review I Interview O Observe T Test
I Instruction
C Curriculum
E Environment
L Learner
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Step 3 Intervention Design What are we going
to do about it?

• Effective teaching strategies consider both what
  to teach and how to teach it.
• Making good decisions will increase student
  progress.
• It is critical that the instruction be matched to
  the problem.

Howell Nolet, 2000
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Step 3 Intervention Design What are we going
to do about it?
Match intervention type and intensity to
student(s), setting, problem Interventions must
focus on teaching desired behavior Select
evidence-based interventions that match context
of school/classroom culture Provide support for
implementation Coaching Evaluation of
implementation integrity
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Step 4 Progress Monitoring Is it working?

• Making instructional / intervention decisions
  based on review and analysis of student data
• Progress monitoring always includes graphing

Classroom Intervention I
Classroom Intervention 2
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Response to Intervention
Classroom Intervention
Performance
Expected Rate
Observed Rate
Time
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Application IssuesChallenges - Data

• Collection
• What is collected and who collects it?
• How frequently is it collected?
• Organization
• Disaggregated by grade, gender, race, language,
  SES?
• Designed to answer specific questions (Tier 1/2
  effectiveness?

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Application IssuesChallenges - Integrating Tiers

• Tier 1 (Core) instruction present at all three
  levels
• Purpose of Tier 2 is to improve success in Tier 1
• Purpose of Tier 3 is to improve success in Tier 2
• Is there a single intervention plan made up of
  different Tier services?

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Application IssuesChallenges - Intervention
Support

• Intervention plans should be developed based on
  student need and skills of staff
• All intervention plans should have intervention
  support
• Principals should ensure that intervention plans
  have intervention support
• Teachers should not be expected to implement
  plans for which there is no support

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Need for Systems Change

• PS/RtI is not another project or program
• PS/RtI represents a new way of thinking about how
  we educate all students
• PS/RtI represents a New Way of Work
• Implementation of a PS/RtI model requires major
  systemic change

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Change Model
Consensus
Infrastructure
Implementation
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Stages of Implementing Problem-Solving/RtI

• Consensus
• Belief is shared
• Vision is agreed upon
• Implementation requirements understood
• Infrastructure Development
• Regulations
• Training/Technical Assistance
• Model (e.g., Standard Protocol)
• Tier I and II intervention systems
• E.g., K-3 Academic Support Plan
• Data Management
• Technology support
• Decision-making criteria established
• Implementation

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The Process of Systems Change

• Until, and unless, Consensus (understanding the
  need and trusting in the support) is reached no
  support will exist to establish the
  Infrastructure. Until, and unless, the
  Infrastructure is in place Implementation will
  not take place.
• A fatal error is to attempt Implementation
  without Consensus and Infrastructure
• Leadership must come both from all levels

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What changes need to occur?

• Beliefs
• Knowledge
• Skills

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Beliefs

• Making the shift to a new paradigm, like PS/RtI,
  does not simply involve accepting a new set of
  skills. It also involves giving up certain
  beliefs in favor of others.
• PS/RtI requires systemic change in the way we
  educate all students

Ken Howell
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Beliefs

• Student performance is influenced most by the
  quality of the interventions we deliver and how
  well we deliver them- not preconceived notions
  about child characteristics
• Decisions are best made with data
• Our expectations for student performance should
  be dependent on a students response to
  intervention, not on the basis of a score that
  predicts what they are capable of doing.

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Beliefs

• Every student is everybodys responsibility
• PSM/RtI is a General Education Initiative-Not
  Special Education
• Improving the effectiveness of core instruction
  is basic to this process
• NO Child Left Behind Really Means NO
• Assessment (data) should both inform and evaluate
  the impact of instruction
• Policies must be consistent with beliefs
• Beliefs must be supported by research
• Focus on alterable variables

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Knowledge

• The Problem-Solving method
• The relationship between RtI and the
  Problem-Solving method
• Empirically validated instructional practices in
  the general education classroom at Tiers 1, 2,
  3
• Importance and methods of assessing instructional
  quality

Adapted from Response to Intervention, NASDSE,
2006
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Knowledge (contd)

• Determining appropriate interventions based upon
  student data
• Difference between the intensity of a problem and
  the severity
• The role of progress monitoring
• State and Federal Statutes Regulations
• Critical factors in systems change
• Small Group Planning and Problem-Solving
  Techniques

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Final Thoughts

• Problem Solving
• Response to Intervention