RtIThe Role of Special Educators

If you were a struggling student in the school where you currently teach explain:

a) How would the teachers know you are struggling?b) What kind of help would you receive for reading,

math, and social difficulties?c) Who would recommend the help?d) Who would provide the help?e) For how long would you receive help?f) How would the school know when you do not need

help or need a different kind of support?

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Regular EducationSpecial Education

Slope = .97Slope = .97(SD = .14)(SD = .14)

Motivational Motivational ContractContract

Explicit Explicit InstructionInstruction

Strategy Strategy InstructionInstruction

Extra Fact Extra Fact Practice Practice

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Bobbae’s Math Performance

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RtI- Tiered Instruction and Intervention

Tier 1: BenchmarkSchool-wide (not Title I) research-supported instruction available to ALL students including standards-aligned concepts and competencies, and instruction.

Tier 2: StrategicAcademic and behavioral strategies, methodologies and practices designed for students not making expected progress in the standards-aligned system. These students are at risk for academic failure.

Tier 3: Intensive InterventionsAcademic and behavioral strategies, methodologies and practices designed for students significantly lagging behind established grade-level benchmarks in the standards aligned system. © Witzel, 2008 4

Typical approach: Step 1

• The school or teacher notes a student who has difficulty in an academic area

• A support team decides some ideas to improve instruction for the student

• Teacher reports the effectiveness of the idea• Assessment is part of the district or school-

wide plan

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Differentiated Instruction(the other DI) in tier 1

• Differentiated Instruction is an instructional concept that maximizes learning for ALL students—regardless of skill level or background. It's based on the fact that in a typical classroom, students vary in their academic abilities, learning styles, personalities, interests, background knowledge and experiences, and levels of motivation for learning. When a teacher differentiates instruction, he or she uses the best teaching practices and strategies to create different pathways that respond to the needs of diverse learners (SDE, 2010).

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Typical Approach Step 2

• If the ideas do not improve the student’s performance on assessments, then the support team develops a plan specific to the student’s needs and the class environment

• Teacher implements the plan for 20 minutes per day for 20 days with 4-5 students (Roberts et al, 2007)

• Data is examined (at least) biweekly (Vaughn & Roberts, 2007)

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Step 2 assessment• If no progress is noted, then a decision is made for

eligibility / entitlement and the student may be provided special education services

• **Usually the deciding factor has to do with the teacher not being able to provide the student the necessary instructional supports to be successful– ie., the scope of support is more than can be handled by

the general education teacher• Once eligibility is determined, then more traditional

assessments are used to learn the full picture of the student’s performance

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Typical Approach: Step 3• Intensive services are designed around the

student’s needs in the appropriate setting.• 45-60 minutes per day • May temporarily replace core curriculum

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Essential Elements of RtI

1. Strong “Tier 1” programming/screening2. Referral (identification of students)3. Problem definition (initial assessment)4. Intervention selection5. Intervention implementation (fidelity)6. Decision-making/outcome evaluation

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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

Universal Interventions•All students•Preventive, proactive

Academic Systems

1-5% 1-5%

5-10%5-10%

80-90% 80-90%

Intensive, Individual Interventions•Individual Students•Assessment-based•Intense, durable procedures

Targeted Group Interventions•Some students (at-risk)•High efficiency•Rapid response

Universal Interventions•All settings, all students•Preventive, proactive

RtI in RtI in ContextContext

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From Tilley, W. D. (in press). The evolution of school psychology to science-based practice. In A. Thomas & J. Grimes (Eds.) Best practices in school psychology (5th ed.). Silver Springs, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Who might RtI help?

• Overrepresentation and misrepresentation of English Learners and some specific populations

• Those struggling academically• Children who struggle early• Children who experience poverty and other

environmental disadvantages• Students who deserve research-based and

research-supported instruction

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Oh yeah!

Students with LD should benefit as well

It is estimated that the percent of LD (5-7) should remain the same or, in some cases, come closer to the theoretical

number

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Lesson Overview• A changing school• Collaboration and consultation

– Accommodations where needed– Task analysis– Reinforce systematic instruction

• Identification– Ruling out the teacher factor

• Tier 3– Intensive intervention– Modifications in Tier 1

A Changing School

Team developer• Lead and Support

One teacher leads and another offers assistance and support to individuals or small groups. In this role, planning must occur by both teachers, but typically one teacher plans for the lesson content, while the other does specific planning for students' individual learning or behavioral needs.

• Station TeachingStudents are divided into heterogeneous groups and work at classroom stations with each teacher. Then, in the middle of the period or the next day, the students switch to the other station. In this model, both teachers individually develop the content of their stations.

• Parallel TeachingTeachers jointly plan instruction, but each may deliver it to half the class or small groups. This type of model typically requires joint planning time to ensure that as teachers work in their separate groups, they are delivering content in the same way.

• Alternative TeachingOne teacher works with a small group of students to pre-teach, re-teach, supplement, or enrich instruction, while the other teacher instructs the large group. In this type of co-teaching, more planning time is needed to ensure that the logistics of pre-teaching or re-teaching can be completed; also, the teachers must have similar content knowledge for one teacher to take a group and re-teach or pre-teach.

• Team TeachingBoth teachers share the planning and instruction of students in a coordinated fashion. In this type of joint planning time, equal knowledge of the content, a shared philosophy, and commitment to all students in the class are critical. Many times teams may not start with this type of format, but over time they can effectively move to this type of co-teaching, if they have continuity in working together across 2-3 years.

• http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=collaboration&section=main&subsection=coteaching/types#top

Curricular Coach: Mods and Accomms

• The term “modification” is occasionally used interchangeably with the term “accommodation” (Hollenbeck, Tindal, & Almond, 1998).

• They are actually very different in concept and purpose

• A modification is considered a change in the content of the test, whereas an accommodation is considered a change in the way a test is administered.

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Modifications

• Content modifications likely change what the test measures (McDonnell et al., 1997).

• Modifications, for example, may include deleting certain items that are inappropriate for an examinee or making constructed-response questions into multiple-choice questions.

• These types of modifications are presumed to change the nature of what is being tested.

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What is an accommodation?

• Changes that can be made to the way students with disabilities are instructed and assessed.

• Accommodations can be made to instructional methods and materials, assignments and assessments, learning environment, time demands and schedules, and special communication systems.

(FL Department of Education)

• Tindal & Fuchs (2000) define accommodation as a change in presentation or response format that does not alter the construct / purpose / standard.

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Accommodations• Testing accommodations are changes in the way a test is

administered or responded to by the person tested.• Changes are intended to offset or correct for distortions in

scores that may be caused by a student’s disability (Elliott, Kratochwill, & Schulte, 1998; McDonnell et al., 1997).

• Accommodations are used to help students show what they know on assessments without being impeded by their disability. Accommodations are not intended to change the nature of the construct being measured for the examinee; rather, they are meant to make the measurement of a particular construct comparable across examinees.

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Making accommodations work• AERA (1999) adds that when a disability warrants

change in testing protocol, then accommodations may be presented. – Example is eye glasses as an accommodation on a reading

test but a modification on a driving test (Elliott, McKevit, & Kettler, 2002).

• Implementing accommodations before the testing situation will improve the student’s adaptations with the accommodations (Helwig & Tindal, 2003).

• For more on testing accommodations, go tohttp://www.wcer.wisc.edu/testacc/publications/AERApaper4-2000.htm

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Potential accommodations• Extra wait time• Procedures clarification• Minimize classroom

distractions• Homework reminders and

planners• Weekly progress report and

home checks• Increased 1:1 assistance• Peer tutoring or reciprocal

teaching• Homework from previous

week

• Classroom signals for attention

• Visual organizer• Scribe or notetaker• Guided notes• Shortened assignments• “Chunked” lesson of brief

assessed activities throughout a lesson

• Frequent praise to teach proper academic and social behaviors

Any more????

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Potential modifications

• Altered grading procedures• Alternate but related

standard during lesson• Different reading

assignments• Different questions

• Alternate assessment content and / or expectations

• Elimination of parts of assignments if they remove a standard

• Calculator during math fluency assignment

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Modifications and Accommodations are important to the success of students with special needs in inclusive settings. Educate colleagues as to the potential of differentiating instruction to help students achieve at their optimal levels.

Question: Is the use of a calculator an accommodation?

Question: Is a sheet of formulas a modification?

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Modifications and Accommodations

• What are modifications to a teacher’s instruction?– A 3rd grade teacher assigns students to read a passage on

colonial life, answer 2 inferential questions on the passage, and write how life would be in those times. How might you modify the assignment for a student with dyslexia reading at the 1st grade level?

• What are accommodations?– The same teacher decides not to modify the assignment

but instead provide accommodations. What accommodations could be applied and how?

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Difficulties with implementation• Helwig & Tindal (2003) teachers were no more than chance

able to predict who would benefit from the read-aloud accommodation during large-scale math tests

• Fuchs, Fuchs, Eaton, et al (2000) reading questions and scenarios aloud may help children with reading difficulties. In this situation, we must consider their listening comprehension and processing

• Helwig & Tindal also found that 45% of elementary school students and 57% of middle school students were incorrectly assigned accommodations during math testing. For example, during video testing, 88% of middle school teachers stated an accommodation would not help their student when in fact, it had a significant effect.

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Judging the difference

• How should accommodations be used in tier 1tier 2tier 3?

• How and when should modifications be used in tier 1tier 2tier 3?

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Who must follow section 504?• "If something is being funded by the Federal

government, shouldn't it be accessible to everyone?"

It is the stated intent of the Federal government that all of its programs and activities should be available to all citizens. Discrimination on the basis of disability is not allowed. Activities and programs provided by a Federal executive agency or anyone receiving Federal financial assistance are governed by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. (ITTATC, 2006)

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Enlarging the 504 fine print• Virtually all public school districts are covered by Section 504 because they receive some

Federal financial assistance. Most public and private colleges and universities receive some type of Federal financial assistance also.

• The main difference between Section 504 and Title II of the ADA is that one applies to the recipients of grants from the Federal government (Section 504) and the other applies only to state and local public entities (Title II).

• The law also highlights organizations that are "principally engaged in the business of providing education, health care, housing, social services, or parks and recreation."

• Each Federal agency has its own set of Section 504 regulations that apply to its own programs and to the entities that receive Federal aid from them. These regulations generally include requirements for reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities; program accessibility; effective communication with people who have hearing or vision disabilities; and accessible new construction and alterations.

• An agency does not have to provide an accommodation that would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the agency. In determining an undue hardship, the Federal agency is required to weigh the cost and type of the accommodation against the size, budget, and nature of the agency. The agency need not make an accommodation that would require significant difficulty or expense.

Instructional Coach(the other DI)

• Differentiated Instruction is an instructional concept that maximizes learning for ALL students—regardless of skill level or background. It's based on the fact that in a typical classroom, students vary in their academic abilities, learning styles, personalities, interests, background knowledge and experiences, and levels of motivation for learning. When a teacher differentiates instruction, he or she uses the best teaching practices and strategies to create different pathways that respond to the needs of diverse learners (SDE).

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What are Scientifically-Based Research Strategies?

To meet the definition of "scientifically based," research must:

employ systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment;

involve rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions;

rely on measurements or observational methods that provide valid data across evaluators and observers, and across multiple measurements and observations; and

be accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparatively rigorous, objective, and scientific review.

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The Assessor: Curriculum Sampling • Each probe is a proportional sampling of

the annual curriculum• Advantages

– May conduct skills analysis– May evaluate maintenance and generalization

of skills• Disadvantages

– Tend to be longer in duration– May not generalize to other curricular

programs– Are grade-level specific

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RANKED SCORES - ComputationTeacher: Mrs. Smith

Report through 3/17

Name Score Growth

Samantha Spain 57 +1.89Aroun Phung 56 +1.60Gary McKnight 54 +1.14Yasmine Sallee 53 +1.34Kathy Taylor 53 +1.11Jung Lee 53 +1.23Matthew Hayes 51 +1.00Emily Waters 48 +1.04Charles McBride 43 +1.12Michael Elliott 42 +0.83Jenna Clover 42 +0.78Becca Jarrett 41 +1.14David Anderson 38 +0.79Cindy Lincoln 36 +1.04Kaitlin Laird 35 +0.71Victoria Dillard 34 +0.64Vicente Gonzalez 29 +0.28Adam Qualls 26 +0.60Michael Sanders 25 +0.70Jonathan Nichols 25 +2.57Amanda Ramirez 23 +0.85Anthony Jones 19 +0.05Erica Jernigan 18 +0.23Icon 0 +0.00

From Monitoring Basic Skills Progress: Basic Math Computation (2nd ed.) (1998)

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Column A Column B

Name _______________________________ Date ________________________ Test 4 Page 1

Applications 4

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•M

(B)LK ••

•Z (A)

(C)

(D)

point

ray

line segment

line

Write the letter in each blank.

(1)

Look at this numbers.:

356.17

Which number is in the hundredths place?

(2)

(3)

Jeff wheels his wheelchair for 33 hoursa week at school and for 28 hours a weekin his neighborhood. About how manyhours does Jeff spend each week wheelinghis wheelchair?

Solve the problem by estimating the sum ordifference to the nearest ten.

(4)Write the number in each blank.

3 ten thousands, 6 hundreds, 8 ones

2 thousands, 8 hundreds, 4 tens, 6 ones

(5)

Write a number in the blank.

1 week = _____ days

(6) Vacation Plans for Summit School Students

SummerSchool

Camp

Travel

Stay home

0 2010 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Number of Students

The P.T.A. will buy a Summit SchoolT-Shirt for each student who goesto summer school. Each shirt costs$4.00. How much money will theP.T.A. spend on these T shirts?

How many students are planning totravel during the summer?

How many fewer students are planningto go to summer school than planningto stay home?

Use the bar graph to answer the questions.

(A) meters

(B) centimeters

(C) kilometers

To measure the distance of the busride from school to your house youwould use

(7)

$ .00

One page of a three-page measure for mathematics concepts and applications (24 problems total)

Measure taken from Monitoring Basic Skills Progress: Basic Math Concepts and Applications (1999)

Fluency and Progress Monitoring

• You may choose to assess your students’ growth daily and chart the changes.

• One minute probes at the end of later lessons designed to increase the speed of computation and reasoning in the current concept

• Students graph their progress in fluency• Attempt one …

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36

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L M N O

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V W X Y

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Sheet #1

Password: ARM

Computation 4

Name: Date

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47 =27 -

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Random numerals within problems (considering specifications of problem types)

Random placement of problem types on page

Sample CBM Math

Computation Probe

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General General EducationEducation

Intervention Intervention EducationEducation

Slope = .97Slope = .97(SD = .14)(SD = .14)

PALSPALS CBI PracticeCBI Practice CRA with CRA with fractions fractions and factsand facts

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We are highly needed

Intervention Central: Samples

• http://interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/interventions/rdngcompr/txtlkbk.php

• http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/interventions/math/math_increm_rehearsal.php

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Additional Web Resources for Research-based Interventions

• http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/rileytillmant/rileytillman.html This website has a link to an Evidence Based Intervention Manual on the left hand side of the home page. The manual contains specific information on how to implement research based academic and behavioral interventions. It was developed as a class project at East Carolina University under Dr. Chris Riley-Tillman.

• http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/programsandpractices.asp Of particular help on this site is the document “Strategies to Improve Access to the General Education Curriculum”

• http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/universal_design.asp This site has a lot of information about Universal Design to improve learning of all students. Some of the strategies might be used with an individual student.

• http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/default.asp This site has content specific information.

• http://research.nichcy.org/subject.asp?SublD_x10x (There is a small “L” after Sub) This site has twenty-one research articles on Teaching Methods. Some can be adapted for individual students.

• http://serge.ccsso.org This site has resources for teachers in general education working with students with disabilities. Some of these can be used as interventions.

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Additional Web Resources for Research-based Interventions • http://www.promisingpractices.net/

This site contains information about practices and programs that help with behavioral and emotional skill development. Although most of the programs are for groups of students, some may be adapted to individual students.

• http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/ This site contains programs that are considered effective violence prevention program. Although most of the programs are for groups of students, some may be adapted to individual students.

• http://childtrends.org/lifecourse/programs_ages.htm This site contains information about practices and programs that help with behavioral and emotional skill development. Although most of the programs are for groups of students, some may be adapted to individual students.

• http://www.unl.edu/csi/study.shtml This website from the University of Nebraska allows access to some empirically-based cognitive strategies. Strategies are targeted at promoting a child's awareness of their cognition during learning. There is a related review about self-regulation and self-monitoring on the site as well.

• http://www.autismnetwork.org/modules/behavior This website from the University of Oregon of activity-based interventions (ABI) is appropriate for young children with disabilities. There are interventions in the following broad areas academic, behavior, communication, environmental, sensory and social skills. Some specific links included are contingency management, stress management, discrete trial, toilet training etc.

• http://www.circleofinclusion.org This is the University of Kansas Circle of Inclusions Project site. This site also has lots of academic learning strategies.

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Additional Web Resources for Research-based Interventions

• http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/front_strategies.html On website is information about some of the best researched and the most widely implemented methods of helping all students to learn more successfully. The information includes a description of how the teaching and learning strategies work, where they have been applied, results, and where to find further information from experts in the field, books, websites, and other resources.

• http://www.clas.uiuc.edu/ This site from the CLAS Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, has research-based motor and language skills interventions.

• http://www.free-reading.net This site is the Free Reading website. Free Reading is a high-quality, open-source free reading intervention program for grades k-3.

• http://www.centeroninstruction.org This is the website for the Center on Instruction which contains collection of scientifically based research and information on K-12 instruction in reading, math, science, special education, and English language learning. Part of the Comprehensive Center network, the Center on Instruction is one of five content centers serving as resources for the 16 regional U.S. Department of Education Comprehensive Centers.

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Additional Web Resources for Research-based Interventions

• http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/index.html On March 13, 2008, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel presented its Final Report to the President of the United States and the Secretary of Education. Copies of these ground-breaking reports, rich with information for parents, teachers, policy makers, the research community, and others, can be accessed at this website.

• http://www.ed.gov/inits/Math/silver.html Results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are found on this website. Teachers, principals, parents, policy makers, and others wishing to improve mathematics education in the middle grades can learn much from TIMSS by: reviewing some major TIMSS findings related to grades 7 and 8; considering these findings in light of other relevant research on mathematics curriculum content, classroom instruction, and student achievement; and then pondering the lessons from TIMSS and related research about what must be done to ensure that US students have access to better mathematics education that will prepare them for the challenges of today and tomorrow.

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For Progress Monitoring and Computer-based Instruction Sites

• http://www.mhdigitallearning.com

Yearly Progress Pro• http://www.oci-sems.com/

Otter Creek Institute• http://www.studentprogress.org

National Center on Student Progress Monitoring• http://www.renlearn.com

Accelerated Math; Renaissance Math Place• http://www.aimsweb.com/

Progress Monitoring and RtI System

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