Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI)

1. Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI) A CULMINATION OF INFORMATION PRESENTED BY: JUNE MCMILLAN LEACH, MS CCC-SLP AND MA Ed.

2. Now what are the big shots cooking up for us to do?

3. The Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI) is • “The responsiveness to intervention (RTI) process is a multitiered approach to providing services and interventions to struggling learners at increasing levels of intensity. • It involves universal screening, high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student need, frequent progress monitoring, and the use of child response data to make educational decisions. • RTI should be used for making decisions about general, compensatory, and special education, creating a well-integrated and seamless system of instruction and intervention guided by child outcome data.” • https://www.asha.org/members/slp/schools/prof-consult/RtoI.html

4. Who sits down and thinks up these things. Where do they find the time to think this stuff up?

5. New Roles in Response to Intervention:Creating Success for Schools and Children November 2006 - A Collaborative Project With: • The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) • Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) • Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) • Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD) • Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) • International Dyslexia Association (IDA) • International Reading Association (IRA) • Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) • National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) • National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) • National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) • National Education Association (NEA) • School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA)

6. From where in the zodiac has this arrived- exactly?

7. RTI Has Historic, Legal, and Financial Implications • Historic Roots • Prevention • Alternative identification of learning disabilities • Legal Roots • NCLB No Child Left Behind - Accountability to Outcomes • IDEA (04) Alternative to Discrepancy formula fir Identification of LD • Early Intervention Services • 15% of IDEA funds are allocated to prevention of reading problems by improving reading instruction • Involves both general and special education. ?

8. You are chopping up my way of doing things. I guess the next thing you will tell me is: • leave my comfort zone. • Change the way I do things. Change – Hummm where have I heard that before?

9. TO MEET THIS CHALLENGE-SLPs will need to be: • open to change—in how students are identified for intervention; how interventions are selected, designed, and implemented; how student performance is measured and evaluated; how evaluations are conducted; and how decisions are made; • open to professional development—training (as needed) in evidence-based intervention approaches, progress monitoring methods, evaluation of instructional and program outcomes, and contextually based assessment procedures, and the implications for both pre-service and in-service training; • willing to adapt a more systemic approach to serving schools, including a workload that reflects less traditional service delivery and more consultation and collaboration in general education classrooms; • willing and able to communicate their worth to administrators and policymakers—to educate others.

10. ASSUMPTIONS • All children and adolescents can learn • “Waiting to fail is not a good approach • Scientific based instruction is a must as a starting point • One size does not fit all in learning • Intervention for struggling students is not just a special education enterprise • Instructional decisions should be data based • Assessment and instruction/intervention form seamless system

11. Role of SLP • Shifts from” Wait to fail” to “Supporting success” • Make knowledge of literacy and language more visible • Active participation in the school RtI program

12. So what are you serving up?

13. Three Tiered Levels That Must have: • Frequent monitoring • Consistent evaluation and intervention • Identify children who are not thriving under whole class instruction • Evidence Based

14. THREE TIERED MODEL University of Pittsburg Monitoring progress of Pennsylvania pupils

15. Tier I • Is linked to standards, research and is curriculum based • Assist to create literacy rich environment • Support flexible grouping • Encourage thematic units • Team Teach • Collaborate with teachers and other professionals

16. The SLP Role in TIER 1 • Phonological awareness • Identify • “treatment resisters”, • language challenges, • Intensive code instruction? • Family engagement

17. Tier 2 • Those who do not respond at Tier 1 • Provide 2ndry preventions • More intensive supplementation (given by teachers and paraprofessionals) • Weekly monitoring.

18. Tier 3 • Reduce student – teacher ratio • Flexibility in moving students in and out of general education classrooms • Weekly monitoring • Intensive daily instruction (usually delivered by the classroom teacher) • More intensive assessment

19. SLP Role - in Tier 3 • Identify non-productive learning patterns • Lack of stimulability • Processing disorders • Other characteristics of communication disorders/disabilities • Vary the support based on information gathered (may or may not include a diagnosis)

20. Present Challenges Collaboration/coordination Pre intervention meetings IEP meetings Time for paperwork required by law and reimbursement Hard to group children in separate locations Childs needs are all day long/ SLP is there 20-30 minutes Varying needs that are not met with a fixed traditional schedule Moving Towards Encouraging self –management Alterative strategies for direct service delivery Generalized teaching strategies across settings Strategic supports within the instructional context Separating “what needs attention” Scheduling

21. LOOK AT FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING - PART 1 • “All” children on caseload do not equal “equal time” Shift from 1-1 Pull out to as a way to account for time • Shift from caseload to workload • Schedule classrooms instead of individual students • Look to provide strategic supports within the context of instruction • Look at teaching strategies that can be generalized across settings.

22. LOOK AT FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING PART 2 • Look at alternative strategies regarding direct service delivery • Encourage self-management • Flexible in addressing student needs and changing classroom concerns. • Meet weekly despite absences • See students in their classrooms where necessary • Use multiple time slots based on the number of students needing service • Within an academic year, allow flexibility (vs. concrete assignments).

23. LOOK AT FLEXIBLE SCHEDULING - PART 3 • Configure IEP times on a monthly rather than weekly basis • Some suggest 9-week grading period configuration. • Consider one day a week or one week a month (3-1 ) scheduling • Allows for testing • IEP meetings • Consultation in classrooms • 3-1 scheduling associated with more productivity and less burnout (Roth well, 2007, Van-Zandt & Montgomery, 2006

24. CULMINATING SOURCES • Ehren, Barbara J. EdD, CCC-SLP (2008) Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI): Magic or Cruel Trick? ASHA Schools 2008 Concurrent Session 17 • Ehren, Barbara J. EdD, CCC-SLP- Workload and RTI: Living Happily Ever After ASHA Schools July 25-27, 2008 Concurrent Session 17 • Justice, Laura M, Evidence-Based Practice, Response to Intervention, and the Prevention of Reading Difficulties - http://lshss.asha.org/cgi/content/abstract/37/4/284 • - 37.6KB- ASHA Journalscitation_date:10/01/2006 • ASHA ON Line - Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI) – What is it? http://www.asha.org/members/slp/schools/prof-consult/RtoI.htm • New Roles in Response to Intervention: Creating Success for Schools and Children - November 2006 A Collaborative Project With: The American Speech-Language -Hearing Association ( ASH A) Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) Council for Exceptional Children (C EC ) Council for ...http://www.asha.org/NR/rdonlyres/52CD996A-16A9-4DBE-A2A3-EB5FA0BE32EB/0/rtiroledefinitions.pdf

25. RTI the alternative to “Wait -to -Fail