The Role of the School Psychologist on the RTI Problem-Solving Team

RTI Toolkit: A Practical Guide for Schools The Role of the School Psychologist on the RTI Problem-Solving Team Jim Wright, Presenter August 2011 Rochester City Schools Rochester, NY Jim Wright 364 Long Road Tully, NY 13159 Email: jim@jimwrightonline.com

2 Frequently Asked Questions About Response to Intervention 1. What is Response to Intervention (RTI)? RTI is a school-wide model of student support. While all students can benefit from the RTI model, a primary focus is students in general-education classrooms who are struggling with academic and/or behavior problems. The foundation of RTI in any school is strong core instruction happening in all classrooms. The school also uses screening data such as brief academic assessments, disciplinary office referrals, attendance, and grades to identify students who need additional intervention assistance. The school then designs individualized intervention plans for those at-risk students to meet their learning needs. All interventions used under RTI should be evidence-based : that is, they have been shown through rigorous research to be effective in school settings. When the school puts students on intervention plans, the school collects baseline data to estimate the student s current performance in the area(s) of academic or behavioral difficulty and sets goals for improvement. During the intervention, the student is monitored periodically so that the school can judge in a short amount of time (e.g., 6-8 instructional weeks) whether a particular intervention plan is effective. 2. What type of student is RTI designed to help? The RTI model benefits all students. The first area of focus for RTI is on high-quality universal instruction. In a typical school, however, it is estimated that about 20 percent of the general-education student population may not be successful even when receiving high-quality classroom instruction. These difficult-to-teach students require more specialized intervention plans to supplement their core instruction. Schools can also see benefits in applying the standards of the RTI model to special education students. Schools should expect, for example, that the IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) of special needs students will contain evidence-based instructional and behavior management strategies, identify student baseline and performance goal levels, and require the collection of progress-monitoring data to determine if those students are in fact reaching their performance goals. 3. How does RTI organize a school s intervention services? RTI intervention services are set up in a multi-tier system, with intervention plans becoming increasingly intensive as students face a higher risk of school failure. The first tier of RTI support, Tier 1, is universal instruction/intervention and is available to all students. Tier 1 is the responsibility of the classroom teacher, who delivers strong core instruction and also employs a range of feasible, practical strategies to provide additional academic or behavioral support for struggling students. It should be noted that a classroom Tier 1 intervention plan continues as a required foundation even for those students who may eventually go on to receive more intensive intervention assistance at Tiers 2 and 3. In a typical school, up to 20 percent of students will need additional interventions to address academic delays beyond what is available in the classroom. Most of these students would receive supplemental Tier 2 intervention services. When setting up Tier 2 services, a school will typically adopt what is referred to as the standard treatment protocol approach. That is, the school identifies common areas of student concern (e.g., deficits in general academic vocabulary, limited reading comprehension fix up skills) and purchase or create an evidence-based standard treatment program to target these student academic deficits. Tier 2 services are most often delivered in small groups (capped at 6-7 students) or via computer-based learning. Approximately 5 percent of general-education students in a typical school receive Tier 3 intervention support in a given year. The profile of a Tier 3 student is one who has not responded to lesser interventions and who is facing a potentially negative, high-stakes outcome such as course failure if that student cannot significantly improve his or her academic or behavioral performance. Most schools adopt a problem solving protocol when planning Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 2

3 intensive, Tier 3 interventions: The school establishes an RTI Problem-Solving Team that meets with the referring teacher(s) and efficiently uses the intervention resources of the building to develop a customized intervention plan that matches the unique needs of the student. 4. What role do assessment and data collection play in the RTI process? Student assessment is a necessary part of RTI, as data allows the school to locate students who need intervention support and to judge in real time whether specific interventions are actually helping those students. At Tier 1, the teacher who has a student on classroom intervention collects information from the instructional environment to show whether the student is benefiting from that intervention plan. Because teachers typically intervene proactively at Tier 1 to address emerging student deficits before they become major, the stakes are lower. Therefore, the kinds of data collected by teachers to document their classroom interventions can be varied and may not be as time-intensive or rigorous as data collection at the higher-stakes Tiers 2 and 3. At Tier 1, for example, a teacher may document a student s classroom writing intervention through work samples of student writing assignments, grades, occasional scoring of writing assignments using a rubric, and perhaps a weekly administration of a Curriculum- Based Measurement writing probe. RTI schools also adopt a proactive approach to identifying struggling learners by selecting several methods to screen the entire student population at several points per year. Schools may use a mix of data sources in their screenings, including brief, timed academic measures (e.g., Curriculum-Based Measures such as oral reading fluency probes and Maze Reading Comprehension passages); disciplinary office referrals; grades; attendance; recent state test results; etc. Individuals who are flagged in these universal screenings as needing additional intervention support are placed in supplemental (Tier 2 or 3) intervention services. Academic measures selected to monitor the progress of students at Tiers 2 and 3 should possess technical adequacy : that is, they should be valid, reliable, have multiple alternate forms to allow repeated administration, and be sensitive to short-term student academic gains. Examples of CBMs that can be useful for assessing academic skills include phonemic awareness, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension (Maze passage), math computation, and writing probes. Students who receive Tier 2 standard treatment protocol interventions should have their progress monitored at least 1-2 times per month. Students on high-stakes Tier 3 interventions overseen by the RTI Problem-Solving Team should be assessed at least weekly. 5. What is the role of the classroom teacher in the RTI model? The classroom teacher is responsible under RTI for providing high-quality core instruction to effectively reach the widest possible range of learners. Additionally, the teacher notes any struggling students who need additional differentiated instructional or behavioral support and provides that support in the form of a Tier 1 (classroom) intervention plan. Of course, the teacher should document Tier 1 interventions. The teacher should also be prepared to refer any students who do not respond sufficiently to classroom Tier 1 interventions for higher levels of RTI support--while continuing to use RTI classroom strategies with those students. The classroom teacher should also contact parents of struggling students to share concerns about these students and to encourage open, positive and regular communication between school and home. Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 3

4 6. What is the parent s role in the RTI model? The school is responsible for finding ways for struggling students to be successful whether or not parents choose to actively participate in their children s educational program. Nonetheless, there is wide agreement that parents play a crucial role in guiding and motivating their children toward academic success. For example, parents can serve as influential role models for work and study skills, set up and supervise homework sessions, stay in close communication with the school about their child s academic performance and behaviors, and dispense home privileges contingent on the effort that their child makes in school. There is no question that the protective factors offered by parents who are positively involved in their children s schooling directly promote academic success and support the mission of RTI. Schools must, however, also recognize that, for a variety of reasons, not all parents find it easy to be involved in their child s education. Schools can most fully engage the power of parent participation by expecting that teachers will contact parents when a student begins to experience difficulties in school, inviting parents to attend RTI Problem-Solving Team meetings, taking care that staff adopt respectful language and tone when speaking with parents about their children, and treating parents at all times as respected colleagues in the RTI process. 7. How can RTI information assist schools in identifying students who need special education services? When a student is being considered for possible special education services, the school must first answer a fundamental question: Are that student s academic problems primarily a result of educational factors such as a mismatch between student and instruction--or do they stem instead from a chronic, within-child condition such as a learning disability? The RTI model provides evidence that helps schools to rule out instructional explanations for underperformance by clearly defining a student s problems, matching those problems to evidence-based interventions, verifying that all interventions are fully carried out as designed, and collecting formative assessment data to judge whether the student has made adequate progress in moving from baseline to goal levels. In other words, when a general-education student is ultimately found to be a non-responder to appropriate evidence-based interventions, that failure to respond can be viewed as one diagnostic marker serving as partial evidence for a possible underlying learning disability or other special education condition. 8. Why must schools use evidence-based interventions in RTI? Schools have limited resources and time to put effective interventions in place for struggling students. That is simply a reality of our public education system. Therefore, the RTI model requires that schools be able to justify the intervention strategies that they select by showing that they are evidence-based i.e., that there is sufficient research to support these strategies. Most researchers agree that evidence-based interventions are those whose effectiveness has been demonstrated through well-crafted studies that use rigorous research methodologies. Ideally, too, these studies should have been published in reputable research journals that have a blind peer-review process to ensure that only studies of the highest quality are published. 9. Is RTI required by law? RTI was first introduced to public schools across the nation with the reauthorization by Congress in 2004 of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA 2004). This federal legislation encourages the spread of RTI in public education by directing states to allow any of their schools to adopt an RTI model if they so choose and by explicitly preventing states from mandating the continuing use of a test score discrepancy formula in diagnosing learning disabilities. However, IDEIA 2004 also lets states decide whether to require that their schools adopt RTI and if so what the particulars of each state s RTI model might look like. At present, then, the U.S. Department of Education strongly supports schools efforts to restructure their student support according to RTI guidelines. However, schools should contact their state education departments for guidance in determining whether RTI is mandated statewide and for specifics about what RTI model(s) their state supports. Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 4

5 Setting Individual Student RTI Academic Goals Using Research Norms To set a goal for student academic performance, four elements are needed: 1. The student s baseline academic performance. Prior to starting the intervention, the teacher calculates baseline performance by assessing the target student several times with the academic measure that will be used to measure that student s progress once the intervention begins. 2. Estimate of typical peer performance. The teacher has a reliable estimate of expected or typical peer performance on the academic measure that will be used to measure the target student s progress. 3. Estimate of expected weekly progress. The teacher selects a rate of weekly academic progress that the target student is expected to attain if the intervention is successful. 4. Number of weeks for the intervention trial. The teacher decides on how many weeks the RTI intervention will last, as the cumulative, final academic goal can be calculated only when the entire timespan of the intervention is known. If your school has access to progress-monitoring materials and research or proprietary norms for student performance and growth from a single source (e.g., AimsWeb.com; easycbm.com), you can calculate an academic performance goal. In the steps below, it is assumed that the student has mild academic delays that allow him or her to benefit from a supplemental intervention that addresses skills appropriate to the student s current grade level. How to set a goal: 1. The teacher collects at least 3 baseline observations from the target student using alternate forms of the progress-monitoring measure (e.g., CBM oral reading fluency passages). The median baseline observation is selected to serve as the student s starting (baseline) performance. 2. The teacher subtracts the student s baseline from the estimate of typical peer performance for that grade level supplied by the research norms to calculate the academic performance gap that is to be closed during the intervention. 3. The teacher decides how many instructional weeks the intervention will be in place (e.g., 8 weeks). 4. The teacher selects grade-appropriate norms for academic growth per week supplied by the research norms. 5. The teacher multiplies the grade norm for weekly growth (selected in step 4) by a figure between 1.5 and 2.0 (Shapiro, 2008).( Because the original weekly growth rate represents a typical rate student improvement, the target student s weekly growth estimate should be adjusted upward to accelerate learning and close the gap separating that student from peers. Multiplying the original weekly growth rate by an amount ranging between1.5 and 2.0 accomplishes this adjustment.) 6. The teacher next multiplies the weekly growth figure by the total number of weeks that the intervention will be in place. This figure represents the minimum academic growth expected during the intervention. Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 5

6 7. The teacher adds the expected academic growth calculated in the previous step to the student baseline calculated in step 1. This figure represents the final student goal if the intervention is successful. Example: In December, Mrs. Chandler, a 4 th -grade teacher, collected three baseline assessments of a student, Randy, in oral reading fluency using 4 th -grade passages. She found that Randy s median reading rate in these materials was 70 words per minute. Mrs. Chandler consulted research norms in oral reading fluency (Tindal, Hasbrouck & Jones, 2005) and decided that a reasonable minimum reading rate for students by winter of grade 4 (25 th percentile) is 87 words per minute. Randy would need to increase his reading rate by 17 words per minute to close this academic achievement gap with peers. The reading intervention planned for Randy would last 8 instructional weeks. Mrs. Chandler consulted the research norms and noted that a typical rate of growth in reading fluency for a 4 th -grade student is 0.9 additional words per week. Mrs. Chandlers adjusted the 0.9 word growth rate for Randy upward by multiplying it by 1.5 because she realized that he needed to accelerate his learning to catch up with peers. When adjusted upward, the weekly growth rate for Randy increased from 0.9 to 1.35 additional words per minute. Multiplying the expected weekly progress of 1.35 additional words times the 8 weeks of the intervention, Mrs. Chandler found that Randy should acquire at least 11 additional words of reading fluency by the conclusion of the intervention. She added the 11 words per minute to Randy s baseline of 70 words per minute and was able to predict that if the 8-week intervention was successful Randy would be able to read approximately 81 words per minute. Because Randy would not be expected to fully close the gap with peers in 8 weeks, Mrs. Chandler regarded her intervention goal of 81 words per minute as an intermediate rather than a final goal. However, if the intervention was successful and the student continued to add 1.35 words per week to his reading fluency, he could be expected to reach an acceptable level of fluency before the end of the current school year. Recommendations for using this approach: Research norms for student performance and academic growth are the gold standard in goal-setting, as they provide fixed, external standards for proficiency that are not influenced by variable levels of student skill in local classrooms. When setting academic goals for struggling students, schools should use research norms whenever they are available. In particular, research norms should be used for highstakes RTI cases that may be referred at some point to the Special Education Eligibility Team. References Shapiro, E. S. (2008). Best practices in setting progress-monitoring monitoring goals for academic skill improvement. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V (pp. 141-157). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists. Tindal, G., Hasbrouck, J., & Jones, C. (2005).Oral reading fluency: 90 years of measurement [Technical report #33]. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon. Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 6

How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 1 7 RTI Classroom Progress-Monitoring Worksheet: Guidelines Academic and behavioral interventions under RTI are incomplete without data being collected to document whether those interventions are actually benefiting students. Indeed, an RTI intervention can be viewed as fatally flawed (Witt, VanDerHeyden & Gilbertson, 2004) if it lacks any one of these data elements: (1) clear definition of the presenting student problem(s), (2) calculation of the student s starting point, or baseline performance, in the identified area of concern; (3) setting of a specific goal for student improvement; or (4) selection of a method to monitor the student s progress formatively during the intervention to judge whether the intervention is successful in helping the student to attain the goal. Clearly defining the student problem and collecting data are essential to implementing any school-based intervention. As general-education teachers are often the first responders who provide classroom interventions under RTI, they need to know how to set up a data collection plan that includes baseline, goal, and progress-monitoring. Instructors, however, can find the task of data collection to be daunting unless they are provided with a step-by-step tutorial in how to do so. How to Use the RTI Classroom Progress-Monitoring Worksheet As teachers adopt the role of RTI classroom first responder interventionist, they are likely to need assistance at least initially with the multi-step process of setting up and implementing data collection, as well as interpreting the resulting data. A form designed to walk teachers through the data-collection process-- RTI Classroom Progress-Monitoring Worksheet appears on pages 3-4 of this handout. The Worksheet includes a seven-step wizard form to help teachers in structuring their progress-monitoring. Here are the essential steps from the Worksheet that teachers should follow to ensure that their data collection is adequate to the task of measuring the impact of their classroom interventions: A. Identify the student problem. The teacher defines the student problem in clear, specific terms that allow the instructor to select an appropriate source of classroom assessment to measure and monitor the problem. B. Decide on a data collection method. The teacher chooses a method for collecting data that can be managed in the classroom setting and that will provide useful information about the student problem. Examples of data collection methods are curriculumbased measurement (e.g., oral reading fluency; correct writing sequences), behavior-frequency counts, and direct behavior report cards. When selecting a data collection method, the teacher also decides how frequently that data will be collected during intervention progress-monitoring. In some cases, the method of data collection being used will dictate monitoring frequency. For example, if homework completion and accuracy is being tracked, the frequency of data collection will be equal to the frequency of homework assignments. In other cases, the level of severity of the student problem will dictate monitoring frequency. Students on Tier 2 (standard-protocol) interventions should be monitored 1-2 times per month, for example, while students on Tier 3 (intensive problem-solving protocol) interventions should be monitored at least weekly (Burns & Gibbons, 2008). C. Collect data to calculate baseline. The teacher should collect 3-5 data-points prior to starting the intervention to calculate the student s baseline, or starting point, in the skill or behavior that is being targeted for intervention. The student s baseline performance serves as an initial marker against which to compare his or her outcome performance at the end of the intervention. (Also,--because baseline data points are collected prior to the start of the intervention--they collectively can serve as an indication of the trend, or rate of improvement, if the student s program remains unchanged and no additional interventions are attempted.). In calculating baseline, the teacher has the option of selecting the median, or middle, data-point, or calculating the mean baseline performance. D. Determine the timespan of the intervention. The length of time reserved for the intervention should be sufficient to allow enough data to be collected to clearly demonstrate whether that intervention was successful. For example, it is recommended that a highstakes intervention last at least 8 instructional weeks (e.g., Burns & Gibbons, 2008). Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 7

How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 2 8 E. Set an intervention goal. The teacher calculates a goal for the student that, if attained by the end of the intervention period, will indicate that the intervention was successful. F. Decide how student progress is to be summarized. A decision that the teacher must make prior to the end of the intervention period is how he or she will summarize the actual progress-monitoring data. Because of the variability present in most data, the instructor will probably not elect simply to use the final data point as the best estimate of student progress. Better choices are to select several (e.g. 3) of the final data points and either select the median value or calculate a mean value. For charted data with trendline, the teacher may calculate the student s final performance level as the value of the trendline at the point at which it intercepts the intervention end-date. G. Evaluate the intervention outcome. At the conclusion of the intervention, the teacher directly compares the actual student progress (summarized in the previous step) with the goal originally set. If actual student progress meets or exceeds the goal, the intervention is judged to be successful. References Burns, M. K., & Gibbons, K. A. (2008). Implementing response-to-intervention in elementary and secondary schools. Routledge: New York. Witt, J. C., VanDerHeyden, A. M., & Gilbertson, D. (2004). Troubleshooting behavioral interventions. A systematic process for finding and eliminating problems. School Psychology Review, 33, 363-383. Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 8

How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 3 RTI Classroom Progress-Monitoring Worksheet 9 PROGRESS-MONITORING BASELINE SET-UP Student: Teacher: Classroom or Course: A. Identify the Student Problem: Describe in clear, specific terms the student academic or behavioral problem: B. Select a Data Collection Method: Choose a method of data collection to measure whether the classroom intervention actually improves the identified student problem (e.g., curriculum-based measurement, etc.). How frequently will this data be collected?: times per C. Collect Data to Calculate Baseline: What method from the choices below will be used to estimate the student s baseline (starting) performance? (NOTE: Generally, at least 3-5 baseline data points are recommended.) From a total of observations, select the median value. Other: From a total of observations, calculate the mean value. Baseline 1. Date: / / Obsv: 2. Date: / / Obsv: Baseline Performance: Based on the method selected above, it is calculated that the student s baseline performance is: D. Determine Intervention Timespan: The intervention will last instructional weeks and end on / /. E. Set a Performance Goal: What goal is the student expected to achieve if the intervention is successful? At the end of the intervention, it is predicted that the student will reach this performance goal: F. Decide How Student Progress is to Be Summarized: Select a method for summarizing student progress ( outcome ) attained when the intervention ends. Student progress at the end of the intervention is to be summarized by: Selecting the median value from the final data-points (e.g.,3). Computing the mean value from the final data-points (e.g.,3). [For time-series graphs]: Calculating the value on the graph trend line at the point that it intercepts the intervention end date. Progress-Monitoring 1. Date: / / Obsv: 2. Date: / / Obsv: 3. Date: / / Obsv: 3. Date: / / Obsv: 4. Date: / / Obsv: 5. Date: / / Obsv: G. Evaluate the Intervention Outcome: At the end of the intervention, compare student progress to goal. If actual progress meets or exceeds goal, the intervention is judged successful. The student s ACTUAL Progress (Step F) is: The PERFORMANCE GOAL for improvement (Step E) is: 5. Date: / / Obsv: 6. Date: / / Obsv: 7. Date: / / Obsv: 8. Date: / / Obsv: 4. Date: / / Obsv: 9. Date: / / Obsv: Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 9

How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 4 10 Student: Grade: Teacher: School Year: Progress-Monitoring (Cont.) 10. Date: / / Obsv: 11. Date: / / Obsv: 12. Date: / / Obsv: 13. Date: / / Obsv: 14. Date: / / Obsv: 15. Date: / / Obsv: 16. Date: / / Obsv: 17. Date: / / Obsv: 18. Date: / / Obsv: 19. Date: / / Obsv: 20. Date: / / Obsv: 21. Date: / / Obsv: 22. Date: / / Obsv: 23. Date: / / Obsv: 24. Date: / / Obsv: 25. Date: / / Obsv: 26. Date: / / Obsv: 27. Date: / / Obsv: 28. Date: / / Obsv: 29. Date: / / Obsv: Progress-Monitoring (Cont.) 30. Date: / / Obsv: 31. Date: / / Obsv: 32. Date: / / Obsv: 33. Date: / / Obsv: 34. Date: / / Obsv: 35. Date: / / Obsv: 36. Date: / / Obsv: 37. Date: / / Obsv: 38. Date: / / Obsv: 39. Date: / / Obsv: 40. Date: / / Obsv: 41. Date: / / Obsv: 42. Date: / / Obsv: 43. Date: / / Obsv: 44. Date: / / Obsv: 45. Date: / / Obsv: 46. Date: / / Obsv: 47. Date: / / Obsv: 48. Date: / / Obsv: 49. Date: / / Obsv: Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 10

RTI Classroom Progress-Monitoring Worksheet Student: Brian Jones Teacher: Mrs. Braniff Classroom or Course: Gr 3 11 PROGRESS-MONITORING BASELINE SET-UP A. Identify the Student Problem: Describe in clear, specific terms the student academic or behavioral problem: Need to Become Fluent in Multiplication Facts: 0 to 9 B. Select a Data Collection Method: Choose a method of data collection to measure whether the classroom intervention actually improves the identified student problem (e.g., curriculum-based measurement, etc.). Curriculum-Based Measurement: 2-Minute Timed Math Computation Probes How frequently will this data be collected?: 1 times per Week C. Collect Data to Calculate Baseline: What method from the choices below will be used to estimate the student s baseline (starting) performance? (NOTE: Generally, at least 3-5 baseline data points are recommended.) From a total of 3 observations, select the median value. From a total of observations, calculate the mean value. Baseline 1. Date: _11_/_14_/2011 Obsv: _31 2. Date: _11_/_17_/2011 Obsv: _28 Other: Baseline Performance: Based on the method selected above, it is calculated that the student s baseline performance is: 31 Correct Digits in 2 minutes D. Determine Intervention Timespan: The intervention will last 6 instructional weeks and end on _1_/_13_/2012 E. Set a Performance Goal: What goal is the student expected to achieve if the intervention is successful? At the end of the intervention, it is predicted that the student will reach this performance goal: 40 Correct Digits in 2 minutes F. Decide How Student Progress is to Be Summarized: Select a method for summarizing student progress ( outcome ) attained when the intervention ends. Student progress at the end of the intervention is to be summarized by: Selecting the median value from the final data-points (e.g.,3). Computing the mean value from the final 2 data-points (e.g.,3). [For time-series graphs]: Calculating the value on the graph trend line at the point that it intercepts the intervention end date. Progress-Monitoring 1. Date: _12_/_02_/2011 Obsv: _29 2. Date: _12_/_09_/2011 Obsv: _34 3. Date: _12_/_16_/2011 Obsv: _35 3. Date: _11_/_21_/2011 Obsv: _34 4. Date: / / Obsv: 5. Date: / / Obsv: G. Evaluate the Intervention Outcome: At the end of the intervention, compare student progress to goal. If actual progress meets or exceeds goal, the intervention is judged successful. The student s ACTUAL Progress (Step F) is: The PERFORMANCE GOAL for improvement (Step E) is: 5. Date: _01_/_06_/2012 Obsv: _41 6. Date: _01_/_13_/2012 Obsv: _43 7. Date: / / Obsv: 8. Date: / / Obsv: 42 40 4. Date: _12_/_22_/2011 Obsv: _39 9. Date: / / Obsv: Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 11

12 How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 1 Interventionist, Consultant, Data Analyst: Descriptions of Shared RTI Roles Most schools must rely on the capacity of their existing staff as they implement Response to Intervention. Certainly, each group of educators in a school system teachers, support staff, administrators, paraprofessionals possess unique abilities that enrich the RTI initiative. However, RTI also requires that staff move away from compartmentalized job descriptions to begin to adopt a shared set of more general RTI skills. Educators holding a variety of positions should be prepared to serve as needed as RTI interventionists, consultants, and data analysts. Below are specific look-fors that define each of the roles. School leaders may find this listing of skills useful as they plan RTI professional development for staff and clarify RTI job performance expectations. Interventionist The interventionist is a teacher or other educator who is directly responsible for implementing an intervention for an individual student or small group. The role requires clear definition of the student problem(s), selection of evidence-based intervention strategies or programs, use of data to determine if the intervention is effective, and measurement of how the intervention is carried out to ensure that it is implemented with integrity. Interventionist Look Fors : The interventionist 1. Defines the student academic or behavioral concern in clear, specific, measurable terms. Present? NOTES 2. Selects interventions that are evidence-based (i.e., intervention practices or programs that have been demonstrated to be effective in one or more highquality studies in reputable peer reviewed journals). 3. Selects interventions that logically match the presenting student problem(s) (e.g., distinguishing between acquisition, fluency, and generalization problems and selecting appropriate interventions for each). 4. Delivers the intervention with a high level of integrity (i.e., ensuring that the intervention is implemented with the appropriate frequency, session length, steps of the intervention, student-teacher group size, etc.). 5. Ensures that any accommodations included as part of a general-education student s RTI intervention plan (e.g., preferential seating, breaking a longer assignment into smaller chunks) do not substantially lower the academic standards against which the student is to be evaluated and are not likely to reduce Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 12

13 How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 2 the student s rate of learning. 6. Knows which elements of the intervention are critical (must be implemented precisely as designed) and those that are negotiable (the interventionist has some degree of flexibility in how those elements are implemented). 7. Completes required documentation of the intervention (e.g., writing down all necessary details of the intervention plan before implementing, maintaining a contact log to record each intervention session, etc.). 8. Collects baseline data on student performance prior to the intervention, sets a predicted goal for student improvement to be attained by the intervention checkup date, and allots an adequate minimum period for the intervention (e.g., 4-8 instructional weeks) to adequately judge its impact. 9. Collects regular progress-monitoring data during the intervention to determine if the student is making adequate progress (Tier 1 monitoring frequency is at discretion of the interventionist; Tier 2 monitoring occurs at least 1-2 times per month; Tier 3 monitoring occurs at least weekly). 10. Applies decision rules at the checkup date to evaluate whether the intervention is successful and to determine the appropriate next intervention steps. Consultant The consultant provides support to teachers (or other interventionists), helping them to structure and implement an intervention to maximize its chances for success. The consultant establishes a collegial relationship with teachers, uses a structured problem-solving model to match students to those intervention ideas most likely to be effective, and focuses on student factors that are alterable as the focus of interventions. Consultant Look Fors : The consultant 1. Has knowledge within his or her area(s) of expertise of a range of intervention ideas that are evidencebased. 2. Fosters collegial relationships to promote teachers willingness to access consultation services. For example, the consultant uses safe language in consultation that avoids the appearance of judging teachers skills or job performance concentrating instead on objective data and actual student performance. 3. Focuses during the consultation meeting on those Present? NOTES Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 13

14 How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 3 factors that are alterable in a school setting (e.g., instructional materials, instructional strategies, motivating strategies). 4. Ensures that a range of possible factors are considered to increase the probability of finding the correct explanation of a student s academic, behavioral, or other problems. A helpful acronym to promote investigation of multiple possible explanations of student problems in schools is ICEL: instruction (factors related to instructional delivery); curriculum (degree of student master of curriculum goals); environment (non-instructional factors in the learning environment such as presence of peers that can help or impede learning); learner (factors residing primarily within the learner such as high levels of inattention across all classes or a low sense of selfefficacy regarding a specific subject-- that can significantly influence learning ). 5. Follows a structured problem-solving process during consultation meetings. The initial consultation meeting includes these steps: (a) problem identification, (b) problem analysis, and(c) development of an intervention plan. The follow-up consultation meeting includes (d) an evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention plan. 6. Helps teachers to define student academic and behavioral problems in clear, specific, measureable terms. 7. Ensures that interventions developed in consultation meetings are scripted in step-by-step format with sufficient detail to promote teachers high-quality implementation. 8. Assists teachers in measuring student baseline performance and in computing goals for student progress. 9. Develops a plan with teacher input to measure the integrity with which the intervention is implemented using a mix of direct and indirect means (e.g., sampling of student work products produced during the intervention; teacher self-ratings of intervention integrity; direct observation of intervention implementation). NOTE: The teacher is also strongly encouraged to notify the consultant immediately if any part of the intervention cannot be carried out as designed. Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 14

15 How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 4 10. Schedules a follow-up meeting with the teacher (e.g., 4-8 instructional weeks after the initial consultation meeting) to determine whether the intervention plan is successful and to decide on the next step(s) to be taken. Data Analyst The data analyst assists the teacher or school to collect information from a variety of sources to better understand a student problem, creates time-series graphs as visual displays to show student progress, finds the best methods for estimating peer performance and setting goals for rate of student progress, and can apply methods of data analysis to progress-monitoring data to determine if the student has made adequate growth with the intervention. Data Analyst Look Fors : The data analyst Present? NOTES 1. Ensures that background information is drawn from varied data sources to more fully understand a presenting student academic or behavioral problem. A helpful acronym to promote collection of multiple kinds of data in schools is RIOT: review of student records; interviews; observations of the student, testing. 2. Can judge when sufficient data have been collected from multiple sources to allow the teacher or school to analyze the student problem ( data saturation point). 3. Uses time-series (progress-monitoring) graphs to convert baseline and progress-monitoring numeric data for a single student into visual displays of data points that are easy to interpret. 4. Selects the most appropriate method to estimate typical or expected peer performance in a particular academic or other targeted skill. The data analyst selects from among these possible options: research norms/performance benchmarks/product norms, schoolwide norms, classroom or small group norms, expert opinion. 5. Calculates predicted rate of student progress during the intervention using the most appropriate method. The data analyst selects from among these possible choices: research growth norms, product growth norms, average rates of student progress calculated from schoolwide screenings repeated several times during the school year, expert opinion. 6. Helps teachers to sift through multiple types of available classroom data and determine the relative value for each in providing clear, objective, low- Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 15

16 How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 5 inference information about the presenting student problem(s). 7. Assists in developing plans for teachers to measure student progress during interventions using classroom data that is feasible to collect (e.g., direct observation; student work products; teacher ratings; student self-ratings; grades and other archival information). 8. Observes the general principle that methods of student assessment and progress-monitoring should have technical adequacy (validity and reliability) sufficient for the task. The data analyst understands that interventions at earlier tiers such as Tier 1 with lower stakes can use less-rigorous, classroom-friendly data, while high-stakes interventions at higher tiers such as Tier 3 will require data sources with more rigorous technical adequacy. 9. Uses a range of methods to analyze student baseline and progress-monitoring data formatively to determine whether the intervention is successful. Some examples of data-analysis tools are visual analysis of charted data across intervention phases, trend lines, and percentage of non-overlapping data points. 10. Applies standard data-based decision rules adopted by the school or district to determine whether a student is making adequate progress with the existing intervention, requires an intervention change, or should be referred to a higher Tier for additional intervention support. Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 16

17 How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 1 Evaluating a Student s Non-Responder Status: An RTI Checklist This checklist summarizes important RTI elements to support intervention, assessment, and data analysis. A school must ensure that all of these elements are in place in the general-education setting before that school can have decide with confidence whether a particular student is a non-responder to intervention. Interventions: Evidence-Based & Implemented With Integrity Tier 1: Classroom Interventions. The classroom teacher is the first responder for students with academic delays. Classroom efforts to instruct and individually support the student should be documented. Adequately RTI Element Documented? YES NO YES NO Tier 1: High-Quality Core Instruction. The student received highquality core instruction in the area of academic concern. High quality is defined as at least 80% of students in the classroom or grade level performing at or above gradewide academic screening benchmarks through classroom instructional support alone (Christ, 2008). Tier 1: Classroom Intervention. The classroom teacher gave additional individualized academic support to the student beyond that provided in core instruction. The teacher documented those strategies on a Tier 1 intervention plan. Intervention ideas contained in the plan meet the district s criteria as evidence-based. Student academic baseline and goals were calculated, and progress-monitoring data were collected to measure the impact of the plan. The classroom intervention was attempted for a period sufficiently long (e.g., 4-8 instructional weeks) to fully assess its effectiveness. If this element is incomplete, missing, or undocumented Inadequate or incorrectly focused core instruction may be an explanation for the student s academic delays. An absence of individualized classroom support or a poorly focused classroom intervention plan may contribute to the student s academic delays. Tiers 2 & 3: Supplemental Interventions. Interventions at Tiers 2 & 3 supplement core instruction and specifically target the student s academic deficits. Adequately Documented? RTI Element If this element is incomplete, missing, or YES NO Tier 2 & 3 Interventions: Minimum Number & Length. The student s cumulative RTI information indicates that an adequate effort in the general-education setting has been made to provide supplemental interventions at Tiers 2 & 3. The term sufficient effort includes the expectation that within the student s general education setting: A minimum number of separate Tier 2/3 intervention trials (e.g., three) were attempted. Each intervention trial lasted a minimum period of time (e.g., 6-8 instructional weeks). undocumented A foundation assumption of RTI is that a generaleducation student with academic difficulties is typical and simply needs targeted instructional support to be successful. Therefore, strong evidence (i.e., several documented, good-faith intervention attempts) is needed before the school can move beyond the assumption that the student is typical to consider whether there are possible within-child factors such as a learning disability that best explain the student s academic Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 17

18 How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 2 YES NO YES NO Tier 2 & 3 Interventions: Essential Elements. Each Tier 2/3 intervention plan shows evidence that: Instructional programs or practices used in the intervention meet the district s criteria of evidence-based. The intervention was selected because it logically addressed the area(s) of academic deficit for the target student (e.g., an intervention to address reading fluency was chosen for a student whose primary deficit was in reading fluency). If the intervention was group-based, all students enrolled in the Tier 2/3 intervention group have a shared intervention need that could reasonably be addressed through the group instruction provided. The student-teacher ratio in the group-based intervention provided adequate student support. NOTE: For Tier 2, group sizes should be capped at 7 students. Tier 3 interventions may be delivered in smaller groups (e.g., 3 students or fewer) or individually. The intervention provided contact time adequate to the student academic deficit. NOTE: Tier 2 interventions should take place a minimum of 3-5 times per week in sessions of 30 minutes or more; Tier 3 interventions should take place daily in sessions of 30 minutes or more (Burns & Gibbons, 2008). Tier 1, 2, & 3 Interventions: Intervention Integrity. Data were collected to verify that the intervention was carried out with integrity. Relevant intervention-integrity data include information about: Frequency and length of intervention sessions. Ratings by the interventionist or an independent observer about whether all steps of the intervention were conducted correctly. difficulties. Supplemental intervention programs are compromised if they are not based on research, are too large, or include students with very discrepant intervention needs. Schools cannot have confidence in the impact of such potentially compromised supplemental intervention programs. Without interventionintegrity data, it is impossible to discern whether academic underperformance is due to the student s non-response to intervention or due to an intervention that was poorly or inconsistently carried out. Academic Screenings: General Outcome Measures and Skill-Based Measures Peer Norms: The school selected efficient measures to be used to screen all students at a grade level in targeted academic areas. Adequately Documented? YES NO RTI Element Selection of Academic Screening Measures. The school has selected appropriate grade-level screening measures for the academic skill area(s) in which the target student struggles (Hosp, Hosp & Howell, 2007). The selected screening measure(s): Have technical adequacy as grade-level screeners and have been researched and shown to predict future student success in the academic skill(s) targeted. Are general enough to give useful information for at least a full school year of the developing academic skill (e.g., General Outcome Measure or Skill-Based Mastery Measure). Include research norms, proprietary norms developed as part of a reputable commercial assessment product, or benchmarks to guide the school in evaluating the risk level If this element is incomplete, missing, or undocumented Academic screening measures provide a shared standard for assessing student academic risk. If appropriate gradewide academic screening measure(s) are not in place, the school cannot efficiently identify struggling students who need additional intervention support or calculate the relative probability of academic success for each student. Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 18

19 How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 3 YES NO for each student screened. Local Norms Collected via Gradewide Academic Screenings at Least 3 Times Per Year. All students at each grade level are administered the relevant academic screening measures at least three times per school year. The results are compiled to provide local norms of academic performance. In the absence of regularly updated local screening norms, the school cannot easily judge whether a particular student s skills are substantially delayed from those of peers in the same educational setting. Dual Discrepancy Cut-Offs: Academic Skill Level and Student Rate of Improvement Establishment of Guidelines for Determining Dual Discrepancy: The school has developed definitions for severely discrepant academic performance and student growth. Adequately RTI Element Documented? YES NO YES NO Cut-point Established to Define Severely Discrepant Academic Performance. Using local norms, research norms, proprietary norms developed as part of a reputable commercial assessment product, or benchmarks, the school sets a cut-point below which a student s academic performance is defined as severely discrepant from that of peers in the enrolled grade. For example, a school conducts a winter screening in Oral Reading Fluency for 3 rd grade and finds based on local norms that 10 percent of students in that grade read 40 words correctly read per minute (wcpm) or less. The school therefore sets 40 wcpm as the winter screening cut-point for reading fluency at 3 rd grade, defining any student whose performance falls below that level as severely discrepant in the skill. Cut-Off Criterion Selected to Define Discrepant Slope. The school has selected a formula for determining when a student s rate of improvement (slope) is severely discrepant from that of peers. Here are two options for generating slope cut-off values: Slope Cut-Off Option 1 (for use with external and local norm slopes): The student s slope is divided by the comparison peer slope (derived from external or local norms). If the quotient falls below 1.0, the student s rate of improvement is less than that of the comparison peer slope. A quotient greater than 1.0 indicates that the student s rate of improvement exceeds that of the comparison peer slope. The school can set a fixed cut-off value (e.g., 0.75 or below) as a threshold for defining a student slope as discrepant from the comparison peer slope. If this element is incomplete, missing, or undocumented The RTI model uses a dual discrepancy approach to identify a student as a nonresponder to academic intervention (Fuchs, 2003)-- to include (1) a severe discrepancy in academic performance and (2) a discrepancy in rate of student growth during intervention. Demonstration that the student continues to lag severely behind peers in academic skills despite intensive intervention is a key requirement in certifying RTI non-responder status. A clear formula is needed for determining whether a student slope reaches the threshold of discrepancy to ensure consistency across all student cases. Slope Cut-Off Option 2 (for use with local screening data only): To derive a slope cut-off value from local norms, the school uses data collected during its schoolwide academic screening. Because each student included in the screening will have three screening data points on a given measure Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 19

20 How RTI Works Series 2010 Jim Wright www.interventioncentral.org 4 e.g., in oral reading fluency-- by the end of the year, the school can use those successive data points to generate slopes for each student. Once slopes for each student have been calculated, the school can compute a mean and standard deviation for the entire collection of student slopes at a grade level. Any student found to have a slope that is at least one standard deviation below the mean slope would be considered to be discrepant (Burns & Gibbons, 2008). Data Collection Intervention Outcome Data: Student baseline level and goals were calculated for each intervention, and a sufficient number of data points were collected during progress-monitoring to judge accurately whether the intervention was successful. Adequately Documented? YES NO YES NO YES NO RTI Element Use of Both Off-Level and Enrolled Grade-Level Benchmarks & Progress-Monitoring Measures to Assess Student Skills and Growth. For students with substantial skill deficits (e.g., a 3-year delay in reading fluency), any Tier 2/3 intervention is likely to be offlevel to match the student s actual skills. Here are data-collection guidelines for off-level interventions (Shapiro, 2008):: Benchmarks and progress-monitoring should generally match the intervention level. So if a 5 th -grade student receives a supplemental reading fluency intervention using grade 2 texts, the school would use grade 2 reading fluency benchmarks and progress-monitoring measures to track student growth and to determine when the student has reached mastery at this off-level intervention point. It is also recommended that the school occasionally (e.g., once per month) assess an off-level student using benchmarks and progress-monitoring measures from his or her enrolled grade level as a means to assess the student s abilities relative to same-grade peers. Student Baseline Calculated. For each Tier 2/3 intervention being reviewed, the school calculated the student s baseline level, or starting point, in the academic skill before starting the intervention (Witt, VanDerHeyden, & Gilbertson, 2004).. Baseline was calculated in either of the following ways: If no previous Tier 2/3 interventions had been attempted, baseline was calculated by assessing the student on at least three separate dates in close proximity using the appropriate the General Outcome Measure or Skill-Based Measure (e.g., CBM Oral Reading Fluency). The median value from this baseline assessment compromises the calculation of baseline. If a previous Tier 2/3 intervention has been attempted, baseline can be assessed by taking the three most recent data points from that progress-monitoring data series and selecting the median value from the three points as a calculation of baseline. Student Goal Calculated. For each Tier 2/3 intervention being reviewed, the school calculated a predicted goal for student If this element is incomplete, missing, or undocumented If an off-level student is tracked using only unrealistically difficult progress-monitoring measures from his or her enrolled-grade level, any actual evidence of student progress may be masked by the challenging nature of the assessment materials. This intervention-assessment mismatch could lead the school erroneously to judge the student a nonresponder to an off-level intervention when in fact the student is actually making substantial academic progress. Without information about baseline student performance prior to an intervention, it is difficult to estimate the actual progress that the student made during the intervention. Lack of baseline data therefore comprises a fatal flaw (Witt, VanDerHeyden, & Gilbertson, 2004) that invalidates any RTI intervention. If no clear goal for student progress is established prior Jim Wright, Presenter www.interventioncentral.org 20