Student Support Team (SST)/ Response to Intervention (RtI)

1. Student Support Team (SST)/Response to Intervention (RtI)

2. Did you know? 45% of students perceived their connection to school was "good" or "excellent" 46% of students perceived their commitment to learning was "good" or "excellent" 45% of students perceived that they were "good" to "excellent" in the area of empowerment 50+% of our students don't perceive themselves to be connected to school, committed to learning, or possess feelings of empowerment . - From Developmental Assets Survey, District Average for Students in Grades 9-12

3. Did you know? In 2004 there were 895 students identified in the categories of Attendance and Tardies, Vision/Hearing, and other Physical Health Problem on the Universal Screening Instrument (USI). Here is a look at those 895 students on November 19, 2008: • 3 of those students were in the11th grade • 358 were in the 10th grade • 294 were in the 9th grade • 96 were 8th graders • 105 were 7th graders • 39 were still in the 6th grade • 320 are no longer in the District • Only 50 students were referred or were provided services through our Student Support Service Department

4. SST Definition The SST is a team of trained educators who work together on a collaborative basis to uncover the underlying reasons why a student is experiencing academic or behavioral difficulties and to assemble practical, classroom-friendly interventions to address those problems.

5. RtI Defined A multi-level, effort-based framework to maximize student achievement by providing formative academic and behavioral support to all PK-12 students.

7. Organizing for Effort Stage 1: Early Stage Intervention Stage 3: Specialized Programs Stage 2: SST All Students Students who continue to struggle Students who need extension opportunities Stage 1: Classroom Extensions Stage 3: Specialized Programs Stage 2: Change in Classroom Setting Adapted from Jacobson, D. Coherent Instructional Improvement, Is it Possible to Do Both?

8. Making Connections Under the Formative Assessment and Feedback umbrella, effective implementation of the RtI Model allows for: The setting of clear expectations of the desired academic and behavioral outcomes, Educators to improve practice in the use of tasks, accountable talk, and fair and credible evaluations, Students to self manage their own learning and become true apprentices of the content.

9. Making Connections When used early and continuously, our RtI Model utilizes formative assessment and feedback principles to keep students engaged in the learning. The District’s RtI Model is inclusive of “students that don’t get it,” and “students that have gotten it.”

10. Student Support Team(SST) Primary Functions: • Serves as the committee that determines if children receive Dyslexia services. • Refers children for evaluation for Section 504. (share some committee members). • Partners with Diagnosticians to determine if the child has a disability under the provisions of IDEA. • Refers Level II Discipline Offenses to DAEP.

11. Core Members Administrator Counselor(s) Nurse Master teachers Person making referral Parent (or family member serving as parent) Psychological and Social Services staff Student (if appropriate) Other teachers Temporary Members Speech clinician Special education teacher(s) Bilingual education teacher(s) Reading teacher(s) Gifted and talented teacher(s) Youth and Family Center staff Psychological and Social Services staff Trained Educators

12. SST Chairperson Annually trained by SST office Core Members Annually trained by the SST chairperson Faculty Annually trained by the SST chairperson Trained Educators

13. Work together • Weekly meeting • Core members serve in one or more team roles (recorder, case manager, etc.). • Principal is the general chairperson of the team. The principal designates someone to serve as the working chairperson. • Principal protects team time and ensures all core team members have the SST as their primary committee assignment.

14. Student Support Teams SST is a three tier process. • The tiers are designed to be progressive with each tier building on the previous one. • The process begins with the Universal Screening Instrument. • The Dallas ISD RtI Model is an additive, growth-mindset framework rooted in formative assessment and feedback. • Tier 1 Instruction is within the course of a classroom lesson and encompasses the many differentiated strategies necessary to engage all students.

15. Student Support Teams • Tier II: The Student Support Team is responsible for recommending interventions in this tier as well as assigning a case manager from the SST to assist the teacher. • Tier III: The child is referred to another program such as Psychological and Social Services, Youth and Family Centers, Evaluation for a Disability (IDEA), and/or §504.

16. Universal Screening Research indicates one in five students who experience academic problems have some sort of mental, physical, behavioral, or emotional problem. Identification, attention, and treatment of these problems affecting a student will result in higher achievement scores, less disciplinary problems, and happier students. Adelman and Taylor, UCLA

17. Universal Screening All teachers will consider students in their classroom to identify a student or groups of students who are experiencing difficulties in the categories of Behavior, Social-emotional issues, and/or Health in tandem with poor academic success. The screening is designed to determine if Health, Social-emotional, and Behavioral issues are contributing factors to academic difficulties for this student.

18. Universal Screening All identified students are provided assistance through Counseling Services, Health Services, Student Support Team, and/or Psychological and Social Services departments. Teachers should consider referring the identified students to the SST. All identified students are monitored through the Encore Data System.

19. Effective Intervention • Effective interventions have 6 steps: • Problem Identification • Problem Verification • Designing Appropriate Interventions • Documentation (Progress Monitoring) • Evaluating Intervention Effectiveness • Deciding Next Steps

20. Step 1: Problem Identification • Problems targeted for intervention must be: • Specific – global problems must be broken down into manageable pieces. Example: Math is too broad of a problem. Is the child’s difficulty in computation? If so what type, i.e. addition, subtraction, etc. Or is the problem math reasoning? What part? What specific types of problems? • Observable and Measurable – Problems that are observable and measurable allow us to know when we have made progress.

21. Step 2: Problem Verification • Structured Observation: provides an objective measure of the child’s participation in the classroom environment. • Behavior Logs: helps to examine patterns of performance across time and context. • Curriculum Based Measurement: provides accuracy, fluency, and comprehension rates in reading, math, and writing. • Skill vs. Performance Deficit Assessment: Is the problem the child cannot perform the skill or is it the child can perform the skill but does not consistently perform?

22. Step 3: Designing Appropriate Interventions • Uses data gained in problem identification and problem verification to determine: • Target of intervention: skill problem vs. performance problem • Level of intervention: class-wide, small group, individual • Area of intervention: skill acquisition, fluency building, training for generalization

23. Step 3: Designing Appropriate Interventions • Skill acquisition - Interventions that involve re-teaching with guided practice and performance feedback • Fluency building - Interventions that involve guided practice with reinforcement for increased rates of behavior • Training for generalization - Interventions that involve application of a skill in a new way

24. Step 4: Progress Monitoring • Intervention progress should be monitored at every intervention point. • Measurement tool must remain constant and focus on skill being intervened upon. • It is best to use same tool as the one used during pre-intervention.

25. Step 5: Formative Assessment • Intervention effectiveness is measured through on-going progress monitoring data. • The team is looking for patterns of responsiveness, but how would you tell?

26. * An Important Note * • Intervention Integrity: did the person performing the intervention complete all steps as designed? • If an intervention lacks integrity, we can not be sure if the lack of response is a product of the child or an improperly run intervention. • Without integrity, intervention data is useless!

27. Step 6: What to do next • The teacher ask for help from the SST. He/she presents the student to the team along with interventions tried at Tier 1, 2, and 3. The team meets and determines if more and different interventions are necessary or if a referral to a specialized program.

29. Exceed Exceed

31. to be answered during the SST process • Why is this child being referred to the team? • Has anyone verified the student’s academic issue or behavior problem? • What is the history of this student? • What are the student’s grades? What about last year? • How often does the student attend school? • Can the student see? How do you know? • Can the student hear?

32. to be answered during the SST process • How long has the student lived in the United States? • How long has the student lived in the State of Texas? • Is the student chronically late for school? • Are the parent’s aware of the problem? • How does the student function outside of the school setting? • How has the teacher (referring person) tried to alleviate the problem?

33. to be answered during the SST process • How long has the teacher tried the interventions? • What are the results of the interventions? • What information does the team need to know about the child to make a decision? • Who needs to be on the decision making team? • What are the decisions the team makes?

34. Questions • When does the process start? • When does the process end? • Is this process designed to refer children for evaluation for IDEA or Special Education? • Who is on the Student Support Team? • Who chairs the Student Support Team?

35. Questions • Name three functions of the SST. • Name two duties of the SST chairperson. • Is the Student Support Team the same as the §504 Committee? • Who determines if a child receives dyslexic services? • How often should your campus SST meet? And why?

36. Questions • What is Response to Intervention? • Provide two reasons why RtI is important. • What is the purpose of the Dallas ISD’s • Universal Screening Instrument?

37. Contact Information • Truman Thomas (972) 794 – 3570