How to use RtI (Response to Intervention) when kids are NOT learning.

1. Responding When Kids Don’t Learn
Joseph Armet Archival...

2. “A team of teachers can work
conscientiously to create a guaranteed and
viable curriculum, plan wonderful lessons,
use varied instructional strategies,
monitor learning in their classrooms on an
ongoing basis, and develop valid and
reliable assessments, only to find at the
conclusion of the unit that some students
did NOT learn.”
HOW WILL YOU RESPOND?

3. Discuss with your partner the solution that you’ll propose...

4. Some solutions that have been tried:
- Adopting new curriculum programs and/or new textbooks
- Scripting lessons so that all teachers will provide the same instruction with fidelity
- Changing the structure of schools by breaking high schools into smaller schools or constantly
reconfiguring the grade levels to be served on specific campuses
- Changing schedules - moving from 50-minute periods to 90-minute periods
- Converting elementary schools from self-contained classrooms in which individual teachers provide
primary instruction to the same group of students in all core subject areas to departmentalized grade levels
in which students have a different teacher for each subject
- Creating additional levels or tracks and placing students who struggle in lower tracks
- Changing school policies such as applying stricter dress codes, requiring school uniforms, or moving to
single-sex schools
- Providing rewards - merit pay bonuses - for teachers whose students score higher on standardized tests

5. A School’s Solution
+ Must impact both the practice of individual teachers in their
classrooms and the collective practice of the school when
students struggle.
+ Must guarantee that students learn and pinpoint when they have
learned it.
+ Must collectively respond when students don’t learn and offer
enrichment and/or extend the learning of students who are
proficient.

6. Salt is to Pepper, as RTI is to PLC

7. Which statement is most accurate?
a) MTSS, PBIS, and RTI are all the same
a) MTSS, PBIS, and RTI are totally different
a) RTI encompasses MTSS and PBIS
a) MTSS encompasses RTI and PBIS
MTSS and RTI explained

8. RTI is N T:
just teaching...but ensuring that students are learning
“I taught it, and they didn’t get it, so let the
system of intervention deal with them.”
Paradigm shift:
Assessment is NOT just a way to assign grades,
but a process for addressing student needs
- improvement or enhancement

9. RTI is N T:
reactive but it is proactive
“Let’s develop a plan for students who need
help.”
Paradigm shift:
The goal is NOT to perform educational autopsy.

10. RTI is N T:
More of the same
“A student who is struggling in his/her
reading class needs additional tutorial time
in reading.”
Paradigm shift:
Look beyond the obvious. Focus on the cause
rather that the symptom.

11. RTI is N T:
Inviting students who need help to “stop in”.
“IF you need help, please come for tutorial in
the library at 3-5 PM every Wednesday.”
Paradigm shift:
Ensuring success should be systematic and
directive because students who need the most are
often the least likely to pursue it.

12. RTI is N T:
Based on seat time
“John D. Ficient will be assigned nine weeks of
academic support.”
Paradigm shift:
Intervention is focused on achieving student
proficiency, NOT on compliance. It has to be fluid
and flexible.

13. RTI is N T:
An extension of Special Education
“RTI was proposed as an alternative to the
ability-achievement discrepancy model
(IDEA, 2004).”
Paradigm shift:
Access to additional help should NOT be only for
Special Education students.

14. RTI is N T:
An individual or an isolated endeavor
“The math department needs to improve
their test scores.”
Paradigm shift:
+ RTI should be embedded in the school’s
culture of high expectations, collaboration,
and continuous improvement.
+ Academic achievement is the result of
sustained effort rather than innate ability.

15. Examples of Enrichment Activities:
- Block of time each day for
enrichment and intervention
- Participation in cocurricular
programs where students
can apply their learning
outside the traditional
classroom.
- Independent study under the
tutelage of a teacher
- Using students as tutors
- Providing internship and
mentorships

16. ...wait..

17. But the SCHEDULE won’t let us!!!
- A school’s schedule should be regarded as a tool to further priorities rather than an
impediment to change.
- School schedules should NOT be considered as a sacred document

18. In Conclusion:
RTI
: high quality classroom instruction
- No plan of intervention can compensate for consistently weak and
ineffective teaching
: continuous monitoring of student’s learning through formative assessment
- ongoing information about each student’s learning is the fuel that
drives the intervention process
: provides timely information about each student’s progress toward desired
goals
- Proactive and systematic support or enrichment programs
: a multi-tiered systems of intervention - academic and behavioral
intervention
- Time is a variable rather than a constant (competence NOT
compliance)
: collective responsibility that ensures learning
- it takes a village to educate a child

19. ...almost there
Thank you.