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Dalton Gardens Elementary School's enrollment consists of 411 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Of those students, 55 percent are male. The number of classes for each grade is as follows: kindergarten - two; first grade - two; second grade - three; third grade - three; fourth grade - three; and fifth grade - two. Nineteen percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Ninety-three percent of the students are Caucasian (not Hispanic), with the remaining 7 percent being nearly equally represented by Asian, Hispanic, and African American students. Fifteen students are served in special education, and one student is an English language learner. Dalton Gardens Elementary's responsiveness-to-intervention model uses the following structure: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, and special education.
In second through fifth grades, the children are placed in skills-based groups to maximize reading instruction.
To monitor the progress of students working at a level below that of their peers, school staff use DIBELS and Read Naturally weekly. DIBELS is used for fluency monitoring - letter naming fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency, and oral reading fluency for students in first grade; nonsense word fluency and oral reading fluency for students in second grade; and oral reading fluency for students in third through fifth grades. Read Naturally is used to practice and monitor fluency and to assess comprehension.
If a student is making progress, school staff continue all interventions and continue to monitor progress. If a student is not making progress, school staff choose a course of action that could include
To monitor the progress of students working at the Tier 3 level, Dalton Gardens continues with the same measures and cut points used for progress monitoring at Tier 2: letter naming fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency, and oral reading fluency for students in first grade; nonsense word fluency and oral reading fluency for students in second grade; and oral reading fluency for students in third through fifth grades.
If a student is making progress, school staff continues all interventions and continues to monitor progress. If a student is not making progress, school staff answers the following four questions to make their decision about entitlement:
Dalton Gardens Elementary School staff continue to be challenged by:
Specific decision rules. Dalton Gardens Elementary School uses specific cut scores that are provided by the state for the Idaho Standards Achievement Tests (ISAT) and the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI). Decisions about next steps are made at the individual level. Staff members look at the students individually; a team meets every nine weeks to discuss progress, look at graphs, and decide what the next steps for an individual student should be.
What decision rules about a student's scores on the screening assessments lead to a student being placed in Tier 2 instruction? The state gives the IRI and ISAT cut scores to Dalton. During a team meeting, the team discusses the student's scores on these state assessments and determines whether the scores match the student's work in the classroom and whether there are concerns about this student. If a student continues to score below basic proficiency on both the IRI and ISAT, even after interventions, it is likely that the student will be given Tier 2 instruction, with the hope of improvement on state assessments and class work.
What decision rules are used for progress monitoring? If a student has three data points that are above the aim line, Dalton staff either continues with the interventions or increases the student's goal. If a student has three data points below the aim line, Dalton staff change the intervention by changing the targeted skill or by increasing the amount of time spent with the intervention(s). If a student continues to have data points below the aim line (again, the three data points rule is used), school staff will work with the student in a smaller group (two to three students) or will work with the student one-on-one.
The RTI process at Dalton Gardens Elementary School is child-centered. School staff members look at the students individually and plan for them individually. They recognize that all children are different and that what might work for one may not work for another. They try to do what is best for each child individually. If several students fit into a group, then that is great for school staff, but the school will provide interventions one-on-one, if needed. Dalton Gardens Elementary staff members provide early intervention and put a great amount of effort into the interventions with the goal of having students working at grade level, with the realization that some students need sustained interventions and instruction in a different setting.
Funding for NRCLD is provided by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special
Education Programs. Award No. H324U010004. Opinions expressed herein are those of the National
Research Center on Learning Disabilities and do not necessarily represent the position of the U.S.
Department of Education.
© 2007 National Research Center on Learning Disabilities
Last Updated: November 19, 2007
Contact: nrcld@ku.edu