Implementing a Multi-Tiered System of Supports at Response at the Secondary Level

1. Implementing a Multi-Tiered System of Supports at Response at the Secondary Level October 15th, 2012 RtI Best Practices Institute Presented by: Kim Gibbons, Ph.D.

2. RtI In Middle and High Schools Yes! – It can be done! Yes! – It has been done! Yes! – You can too!

3. Facts about SCRED • 14,000 total students • Early Implementation of RtI (1995) • Pilot Site for CBM’s in the 1980’s • Long History of Data-Based Decision -Making

4. Technology Integration • m.socrative.com • Room number: 78738

5. What is your knowledge about RtI? A: I’ve heard the term, but don’t know much about it. B: I’ve been to a few workshops but still have a lot to learn C: Middle of the road, some experience with implementing aspects of framework. Intermediate but it helps to hear the information again. E: Advanced, our building or district could be a model site.

6. What are the top 3 things you want to learn more about today?

7. $330,000,000,000

8. Context: OUR WORLD • Not what it used to be. • Pace of change is increasing. • Issues we (and our kids) will face will become increasingly complex • Other parts of the world are figuring this out faster.

9. Context: OUR SCHOOLS • Schools are Not Adapting fast enough to Meet the Challenges we face. • Achievement Gaps, High Dropout Rates, & Unprepared Students are Unacceptable!

10. Context: THE PUBLIC • Expectations of Schools continue to Increase. • Our Schools are Under Intense Scrutiny & Criticism - some fair and some unfair. • Many community members Do Not Understand the Challenges educators face in meeting expectations.

11. Context: CHANGE • Too Much Energy spent on Blame & Too Little on Solutions. • Change is Difficult; Systems are Hard to Change, & most people struggle with change. • Change Will Occur whether we like it or not - we can either work to create the future or respond to the future that someone else creates for us!

12. Agenda for Today • Why RtI in Secondary? • Essential Components of Framework • Where to start?

13. NAEP DATA 2009 8th Grade Reading Performance: • 2% Advanced • 28% Proficient • 43% Basic • 26% Below Basic 69% scored Below Proficient

14. NAEP DATA 2009 8th Grade Math Performance: • 7% Advanced • 25% Proficient • 39% Basic • 29% BELOW Basic 68% scored Below Proficient

15. Academic Achievement? • More than one in five young people who graduate from high school do not meet the minimum academic standard required to enlist in the U.S. Army. • Employers estimate that 45 percent of recent graduates who have entered the workforce lack the academic preparation they need to advance beyond entry-level jobs.

16. 75 – 85 % SCRED RtI Model: Academics & Positive Behavior Support Tier 1: Universal Assessment Instruction Tier 2: Strategic 10 – 20 % Tier 3: Intensive 5 - 10 % Problem-Solving & Organization

17. Facts about RtI • RtI is for ALL children and ALL educators. • RtI must support and provide value to effective practices. • Success for RtI lies within the classroom through collaboration. • RtI applies to both academics and behavior. • RtI supports and provides value to the use of multiple assessments to inform instruction. • RtI is something you do and not something you buy. • RtI emerges from and supports research and evidence-based practices.

18. RtI: It’s a Framework! • It’s not a class, program, Tier 2, or special education. • It is a framework for educating all students.

19. Key Assumption 1: Move from Sifting & Sorting to Multi-Tiered Serving. Historically, schools use extrusion and isolation. Children were categorized & labeled. We need to shift to identification procedures that are curriculum-based & remedies to be in the curriculum and instruction realm.

20. If All You Have is a Hammer, Everything Starts to Look Like a Nail

21. If All a Teacher Has for Support for Students with Academic and/or Behavioral Needs is Special Ed Every Student with Academic and/or Behavioral Needs Will Look Like a.......

22. This is what we had… Special Education General Education Amount of Resources Needed To Benefit Sea of Ineligibility Severity of Educational Need or Problem

23. Problem Solving Approach Special Education General Education With Support Amount of Resources Needed To Solve Problem General Education Intensity of Problem

24. Successful Multi-Tier Models Have: Continuum of services and/or programs across tiers that are scientifically based Methods of evaluating & monitoring progress across tiers, ideally those considered scientifically based Efficient, COMMON methods of communicating student performance for all disciplines.

25. Key Assumption 2: Shift our focus from struggling students to making sure all students struggle. All students should be challenged! Instruction should be matched to their level and all students should be working in their zone of proximal development. This is a challenging area to change!

26. Key Assumption 3: The best place to start correcting learning problems is in the instructional process. The best place to start correcting reading problems is by teaching kids to read - not in attempting to remediate underlying deficits The best place to start remediating math problems is math instruction. Efforts to remediate process deficits prior to content instruction repeatedly have been shown to be unnecessary.

27. Key Assumption 4: Focus on Alterable Variables We spend far too much time making predictions about students’ lives, and far too little time making a difference in their lives. We have new subtypes of conditions and subtypes of subtypes. We have invented new processes or abilities for students to be deficient in (Ysseldyke, 2009). Keep the focus on Really Terrific Instruction!

28. If the water in the aquarium is dirty, don’t spend time diagnosing individual fish. Students don’t learn in a vacuum. They function in environments that include curriculum, specific instructional strategies, peers, and school organizations.

29. The Water… O I L C E

30. The question needs to change! Shift the question we are asking from: “What about the student is causing the performance discrepancy?” to “What about the instruction, curriculum, & environment should be altered so that students will learn and be more successful?”

31. What IS NOT RTI: It’s Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile 1. The Old Way of Doing Business with a New Label (e.g., Pre-Referral Intervention, Old Team-New Name) 2. Expecting GE Teachers to Meet the Needs of ALL Students (25 Students-25 Different Interventions 3. A Referral-Driven System That Considers Students 1 at a Time (Lots of Paper, Lots of Testing, Lots of Meetings, Lots of Paper, Lots of Meetings, and on and on)

32. Critical Components for Secondary RtI • High quality instruction and standards aligned core curriculum • Relational Support • Data-based decision making • SRBI methodologies and strategies • High quality professional development

33. Guiding Questions for RtI Implementation • Is the core program sufficient? • If the core program is not sufficient, why isn’t it? • How will the needs identified in the core be addressed? • How will the effectiveness and efficiency of the core be monitored over time? • Have improvement to the core been effective? • For which students is the core program sufficient and not sufficient and why? • What specific supplemental and intensive instruction is needed? • How will supplemental and intensive instruction be delivered? • How will effectiveness of supplemental and intensive instruction be monitored? • Which students need to move to a different level of instruction? Sharon Kurns, Heartland AEA #11

34. Advantages of Using an RtI Framework • You will : • Know immediately, “Is what we are doing working?” • Know which students need more • Know what each student needs • Provide structures to deliver what students need • Raise student achievement Heartland AEA #11

35. Why RtI? How often do you hear the following statements? • “Isn’t this just another way to identify sped kids?” • “I have to get through my content and you want me to • teach [insert 1 million other things here]?” • “Won’t I have to do more work?” • “How is this relevant to me - today - right now?” • “It’s just another initiative.” • “Is this workshop over yet?”

36. Why RtI? Think of three reasons why you think your district is pursuing RtI – Share with your neighbor What categories resulted?

37. Why RtI? • Increase achievement for all students? • Accountability for results? • Increase collaboration? • Unified framework of academics and behavioral support? • Allocate resources based on needs? • Non-discriminatory assessment practices? • High rates of referrals for special education?

38. 75 – 85 % SCRED RtI Model: Academics & Positive Behavior Support Tier 1: Universal Assessment Instruction Tier 2: Strategic 10 – 20 % Tier 3: Intensive 5 - 10 % Problem-Solving & Organization

39. Key Purposes of Assessment • Screening • Diagnostic • Progress Monitoring • Outcomes

40. Screening • Fast and relatively inexpensive • Given building or district-wide • Provides an indication of overall performance in a domain (i.e., math) • Allows for local comparisons • Tells you which students might be in trouble • Need to gather more data on these students

41. Screening: Secondary • General Outcome Measures (GOMs) • Grade 6-8 (All students) • Grades 9-12 (Some students) • Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) • State Assessments? • Credits • Grades • Office Disciplinary Referrals

42. Middle School Risk Indicators Academic and Engagement Indicators • Attend school less than 80% of the time • Due to absenteeism or discipline issues • Excused or unexcused absences • Receive a low final grade for behavior • Fail either math or English/Reading Retention • 64% of students repeating a grade in elementary school eventually drop out • 63% of students held back in middle school eventually drop out Mobility • Multiple schools during educational career Kennelly & Monrad, 2007

43. High School Risk Indicators Academic indicators • GPA less than 2.0 • Course Failures • Behind in Credits Behavioral/Engagement indicators • Attend school less than 80% of the time • Consistently miss instruction due to behavioral issues • Psychological or Social disengagement • Lack of peer group • Lack of involvement in school extracurricular activities • Low educational expectations • Lack of personal relationship with adults at school Retention • Retained 1 or more years Mobility • Multiple schools during educational career

44. Extreme Off Track 2-3 Years Behind No chance for graduation in a traditional school setting Disengagement Example: Credits Earned 1st Semester 09-10 < 3 Credits 08-09 < 9 Credits 07-08 <15 Credits 06-07 < 21 Credits High Off Track Lacking 2 or more graduation requirements Behind 4 or more Credits Currently failing 3 or more classes Excessive Referrals and/or Absences Off Track Lacking 2 graduation requirements Behind 1-3 Credits 10% Absences 3 or less Level 2 referrals or 2 Level 3 Referrals 9th graders indentified “at high risk” (3 F’s in 8th grade) • At Risk for Off Track • Lacking 1 of 3 Graduation requirements • < 5%Absences • 3 or less Level 1 or 2 referrals On Track Exceeding or Meeting all graduation requirements (Credits, FCAT Score, GPA) 6 or less Absences No referrals Pasco County Schools

45. Screening: Behavior • Office disciplinary referrals • Other Red Flags: • Failing 2 or more classes • Greater than 3 disciplinary referrals in a semester • Chronic Absenteeism • Greater than 6 assignments to detention

46. Diagnostic • More detailed and lengthy than a screening tool • Provides an examination of strengths and weaknesses within a domain (i.e., number sense, spatial sense, etc.) • Requires subtests of each “strand” to be reliable and valid • If comparing the strands is valid, diagnostic tools can directly inform instruction

47. Diagnostic Examples: • Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) • Common Formative Assessments • Specific skill mastery assessments • Diagnostic Reading Assessments (DRA) • Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)

48. Progress Monitoring • Given repeatedly to an individual over time • Must be relatively efficient and inexpensive • Must be “sensitive” to growth • Directly informs instruction – how well is it working? • Formative assessment

49. Frequent Monitoring We do NOT KNOW ahead of time whether an intervention will be successful for an individual student Do they assume in the hospital that your heart is working just fine after your bypass surgery? After all… the surgery works well for MOST patients…..