Response to Intervention Organizing for Success: A Principal’s Leadership Guide

1. Response to Intervention Organizing for Success: A Principal’s Leadership Guide A module for pre-service and in-service professional development MN RTI Center Authors: Jane Thompson, Principla Minneapolis Public Schools; & Ann Casey, Director MN RtI Center www.scred.k12.mn.us click on RTI Center

2. MN RTI Center Training Modules This module was developed with funding from the MN legislature It is part of a series of modules available from the MN RTI Center for use in preservice and inservice training: 2

3. Overview • Response to Intervention (RtI) • RTI and Leadership • The 4 Big Ideas • 1.) Consensus Building • 2.) Infrastructure Development • 3.) Implementation • 4.) Fidelity of the Process • Resources, References, Quiz, Discussion Questions

4. Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential. ~Winston Churchill

5. Hand In Hand • Just as RTI is an equal pairing of assessment and well planned interventions… • Creating an RtI model in a school requires an equal pairing of strong leadership and a well developed plan.

6. RtI Definition • Practice of providing high quality instruction and interventions matched to student need • Monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction • Applying student response data to important educational decisions

7. A Unified RtI Model Tier 3: Intensive 5-10% Tier 2: Strategic 15-20% Assessment Instruction Tier 1: Universal 75-80% Problem-Solving & Organization

8. A Smart System Structure: School-Wide System for Student Success Academic Systems Behavioral Systems • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • High Intensity • Of longer duration • Targeted Group Interventions • Some students (at-risk) • High efficiency • Rapid response • Targeted Group Interventions • Some students (at-risk) • High efficiency • Rapid response • Universal Interventions • All students • Preventive, proactive • Universal Interventions • All settings, all students • Preventive, proactive 75-85% 75-85% • Intensive, Individual Interventions • Individual Students • Assessment-based • Intense, durable procedures 5-10% 5-10% 10-15% 10-15%

9. 3 Components & 3 Tiers of Support • Let’s reflect on leadership needs in a system that employs Response to Intervention • Self reflection • Assessment • Balancing leadership with management

10. Getting Ready to Lead:Self Reflection and Assessment • What are my beliefs… • About my role as a principal? • About being an instructional leader? • About my responsibilities to students and adults? • How comfortable am I with change? • Do I look at change as an inconvenience or an opportunity? • Do I believe I can lead this change?

11. Self Reflection and Assessment (Cont’d) • What is my knowledge of RtI? • Can I clearly articulate why my school needs this framework (purpose and expectations)? • What are my strengths as a leader? • What support and/or professional development would I need to lead?

12. Balancing Leadership With Management • “Management is doing things right: leadership is doing the right things” ~Peter F. Drucker • Building leaders have jobs like no other professionals with… • many people to supervise • a building to maintain • a community with which to engage and respond • While these are givens, great outcomes for all students are unlikely if only these variables receive attention

14. IMPLEMENTATION CONSENSUS INFRASTRUCTURE 4 Big Ideas • Consensus Building • Infrastructure Development • Implementation • Fidelity of the Process PROCESS FIDELITY

15. IMPLEMENTATION CONSENSUS INFRASTRUCTURE 1.) Consensus Building PROCESS FIDELITY

16. Consensus Building Activities • Identify belief systems that drive the actions of the school • Identify expectations of all shareholders • Build a shared vision and shared goals • Identify building leaders to assist in development of the plan to implement RtI • Analyze outcome data to provide rationale • Provide professional development about what RtI is, what it is not, and rationale for adoption • Provide opportunities for discussion and questions

17. Identify the School’s Beliefs & Culture • The beliefs of the school develop and sustain the culture • Beliefs determine behavior • Belief systems can promote or prevent changes in behavior

18. Faulty Assumptions • “RtI takes a lot of time.” • The majority of the time is put into initial planning. • Implementation will involve using time differently. • “RtI costs a lot of money.” • Actually it can be done without a lot of money invested. It more often means shifting resources. • Costs will depend on the quality and quantity of materials (core and intervention) needed. • A school can begin with a small pilot so that resources for future expansion can be budgeted.

19. Faulty Assumptions (Cont’d) • “My staff won’t want to participate.” • Even resistant staff recognize success when they see or experience it. • RtI can be introduced slowly, with fidelity, in some grade levels, or school-wide. • The clear vision (frequently communicated by the principal), clear expectations, and visibility of the principal in supporting RtI activities has great impact here.

20. Faulty Assumptions (Cont’d) • “It’s too late to begin; we’ll wait until next year.” • Anytime is a good time to begin. • Culture change/ examining beliefs can begin at anytime during the year. • The planning phase can begin mid year and implementation can begin whenever one decides.

21. More Assumptions • “RtI is about changing the students.” • The ultimate goal of RtI is to improve student outcomes. • However, in the implementation of RtI, the real work is about changing systems in the school and adult behavior. • “My staff expects me to make the decision about whether we engage in RtI.” • Strong principals guide their staff toward a vision of improvement. • Consensus building activities are key to garnering support. • Strong principal leadership may require more directive expectations.

22. Consensus: Not a One Time Activity • Strong leaders revisit consensus as needed, and at least annually. • Without a reiteration of vision, goals, and plans you likely will find implementation drift away from the original intent • Bring new staff on board while we remind each other why we started this in the first place

23. IMPLEMENTATION CONSENSUS INFRASTRUCTURE 2.) Infrastructure Development PROCESS FIDELITY

24. System Supports • Scheduling • Professional development • Data management & utilization • Action planning • Resources - curriculum, interventions, and using human resources to maximize student success • RTI building leadership team + teaching teams who meet to use data to make instructional decisions

25. Attend to the Master Schedule • School schedules often drive what happens in schools - thus, one place to address infrastructure is in the schedule. • The schedule needs to include… • Time for teaching teams to meet • Time for students who need additional instruction (tiered support) that interferes as little as possible with the core instruction

26. Professional Development (PD) • PD that is based on student data • The data tell us student strengths and weaknesses • If there are big pockets of weak areas, this suggests that professional development for teachers should focus more on these areas so more students are successful

27. Data Systems • Make data collection routine - screening and progress monitoring • Use data management systems that make data analysis easier • Provide PD opportunities so that staff have the confidence to use the data to improve instruction

28. Other Infrastructure Supports • Action plan • Goals based on screening data, actions to improve outcomes, and timelines in which to achieve the goals • Resources for core and tiered supports • Evidence based practices • Human resources - coaches, para professionals, trained volunteers • Teaching teams who meet to use data to make instructional decisions • RtI leadership team who guides the process

29. Develop RtI Leadership Team • Function: • To work with the principal to create an action plan to implement and support RtI. • The leadership team supports the vision. • I.e. communicates the message through words and actions

30. Leadership Team Members • Teacher leader(s) • Champion the changes • Data mentor • Collects data and coaches the team and school on analysis of data • Content specialist • Provides content expertise • Facilitator • Manages the work, agendas & timelines

31. Principal’s Role on Leadership Team • Keep the vision visible • Instructional leadership • Build leadership capacity of team members • Create and manage change process • Communicate and communicate again! • Acknowledge and celebrate accomplishments

32. IMPLEMENTATION CONSENSUS INFRASTRUCTURE 3.) Implementation PROCESS FIDELITY

33. Implementation • The building RtI team reviews building data to determine areas of need and where supports are most needed • Professional learning communities • Job embedded professional development • Coaches and mentors (desirable) • Universal screening & progress monitoring • Grade level (teaching) teams use data to plan instruction

34. Responsibilities of the Team • Assess core program (materials) • Identify screening tools and frequency of use • Identify evidence based supplemental and intervention programs (materials) and strategies • Identify benchmarks for tiers • Identify assessments based on targeted areas for improvement

35. Framework Questions (from Heartland AEA, IA) Is our core cycle sufficient? If the core is not sufficient, why not? How will needs identified in core be addressed? How will the sufficiency & effectiveness of the core cycle be monitored over time? Have improvements to the core been effective? For which students is the core cycle sufficient & not sufficient, why? What specific supplemental & intensive instruction/curriculum is needed? How will specific supplemental & intensive cycles be implemented? How will the effectiveness of supplemental & intensive cycles be monitored? Which students need to move to a different cycle?

36. RTI Team Implementation Responsibilities • Organize, summarize and display data • Develop master schedules • Monitor student learning • Review the alignment of curriculum, instruction and assessment • Assess allocation of resources, staff, materials, and time • Remember RtI is about more time and intensity of instruction

37. Continued Tasks For Team • Plan for evaluation of effort and outcomes- What is success? • Determine goals/achievement targets • Technology needs • Plan for monitoring fidelity of instructional delivery of tier 2 and 3 • Organize progress monitoring meetings • Organize data collection process/who/how often • Plan for instructional, flexible groupings

38. IMPLEMENTATION CONSENSUS INFRASTRUCTURE 4.) Fidelity of the Process PROCESS FIDELITY

39. Focus: Are we doing what we set out to do? • A major role for school leaders is ensuring that • consensus is built • the infrastructure needs are addressed • the implementation is happening as planned • Actively acknowledge behaviors supporting RtI • Be visible • Coach and provide feedback • Monitor all the things planned above

40. Don’t Forget… • That this is a major reconstruction of the school’s belief and operating system. It requires sustained effort to succeed. • To create a master schedule that includes a designated time for interventions. • To balance the collection of quality data with appropriately matched quality instruction.

41. Don’t Forget (Cont’d)… • To allow enough time to develop a comprehensive plan that includes a realistic timeline for implementation. • That RtI is about making instructionally sound decisions based on student needs, not a purchased program. • That professional development is effective in improving student learning if it is aligned with student needs.

42. Assessment of Instruction • Identify needs for professional development • Integrity of delivery/fidelity • Need for PD in data collection/ understanding data

43. Analysis of Grade Level Team Meetings • Is there an agenda that focuses the discussion on student learning? • Is the facilitator skilled in leading the meeting? • Are learning goals identified using data? • Are instructional decisions appropriately based on data? • Are interventions and materials of high quality? • Is there a mechanism for monitoring progress? • Is there a schedule for regular team meetings?

44. Laser Focus: Balancing Big Picture with Needs Now • Action plan may have long and short term goals • Evaluate your progress towards these goals, and revise long term goals as needed • But always remember… • The action plan drives the activities that happen in your building

45. Paradigm Shift • Really, an RTI framework is a means to re-culturing your school to focus on those things that are going to provide the greatest benefit to your students’ achievement. • One of the main assumptions in the framework is ‘all the students can make progress and that all the students are all our responsibility’

46. Inspiration • Good leaders inspire others by their actions of support to make the kinds of changes necessary. • Programs, technology, and/or curriculum may be valuable tools, but without gaining the commitment of educators our efforts will have little effect. • Thus, a leader’s role is to create a climate for educators to learn, collaborate, and take risks for the common good.

47. Leadership: A Focus On Results • Your challenge: • Manage the process on a day-to-day basis to produce better student outcomes over time! • Effective leaders…(Dave Tilly of Heartland AEA, IA) • Cause their school to define what it is that they want their students to know and be able to do • Cause their schools to align their curricula and instruction to teach students these things • Keep score and use results from their scorecard to improve teaching in a continuous improvement manner

48. We must become the change we want to see. ~Mahatma Ghandi

49. Resource Websites • Monitoring Student Progress: Administrative Issues • www.rti4success.org/images/stories/pdfs/administrativeissuespartiiiiv9-28-05.pdf • RTI Action Network - many resources, but one in particular is a blog on leadership • www.rtinetwork.org/Connect/Blog/Leadership-Leadership-Leadership • Blueprints for implementation: school buildings • www. nasdse.org/Portals/0/SCHOOL.pdf • Questions for discussion • www.ideapartnership.org/report.cfm?reportid=296 • Implementing RTI: Considerations for Practitioners • www.rti4success.org/images/stories/RTIWave3/0407rtifeature.pdf

50. References • Batsche, G. et.al (2005). Response to Intervention: Policy Considerations and Implementation. NASDSE: Alexandria, VA. • Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a Culture of Change. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, CA. • Tackett, K. K., Roberts, G., Baker, S., & Scammaca, N. (2009). Implementing Response to Intervention: Practices and perspectives from five schools. Frequently asked questions. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. • The National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). (2006). Myths about Response to Intervention (RtI) implementation.