| RTI Practices | Caveats and Concerns | School Examples | Resources |
Rosewood Elementary School's enrollment consists of 549 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Each grade level comprises four or five classes. Of the total students, 165 (30 percent) are receiving free or reduced lunch, 14 are English language learners (ELL), and 69 (including 16 gifted) are served in special education. Rosewood Elementary's responsiveness-to-intervention model uses the following structure: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, and special education.
The goal of Tier 1 instruction is to maximize the learning for all students using a strong research-based core curriculum to ensure that students meet grade-level standards. The general education teacher uses Harcourt Trophies for reading instruction during an uninterrupted two-hour block each day. Instruction is with the whole class and also with small groups of seven to 10 students each. The general education teacher assesses the students with DIBELS (kindergartners and first-graders) and the Harcourt Holistic assessment (first-graders through fifth-graders).
In general, students in all tiers receive two hours of reading instruction each day, although the length of time spent with reading instruction varies depending on the needs of the student. In Tier 2, group size decreases and instruction is more targeted and specific. Students in Tier 3 may receive extra instructional time to address individual needs, and the staff member who provides the instruction varies. Staff members involved in Tier 3 instruction include the general education teacher, reading coach, student support specialist, elementary specialist, school psychologist, exceptional student education (ESE) teacher, and speech-language pathologist. Instruction takes place in the general education classroom.
Students involved in Tier 2 instruction are those students not reaching grade-level reading standards. The goal of Tier 2 instruction is to diagnose academic concerns and systematically apply research-based small-group instruction to enable student performance to reach or exceed grade-level standards. The academic improvement plan team, which includes the general education teacher, the reading coach, and the elementary specialist, are all involved with the instruction, which takes place in the general education classroom. Instructional materials include the Harcourt Trophies Intervention Program with American Federation of Teacher's Educational Research & Dissemination "Five-Step Plan," Earobics, Road to the Code, Great Leaps, and Quick Reads. Tier 2 instruction is conducted for two hours in both whole and small-group instruction. Small-group size ranges from five to seven students. This instruction occurs during the same time frame as Tier 1; however, small-group instruction is more targeted and specific.
Screening assessments for Tier 2 include DIBELS (kindergarten and first grade) and Harcourt Oral Reading Fluency (second through fifth grade). Diagnostic assessments for Tier 2 instruction include Fox in a Box (kindergarten through second grade) and Diagnostic Assessment of Reading (third through fifth grade). School staff monitor student progress using Harcourt Holistic assessments (first through fifth grades) and specific assessments for individual interventions.
Professional development related to Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction is offered through district workshops scheduled for early-release Wednesdays every two weeks and through Professional Learning Communities. District workshops cover the five components of balanced reading. The Professional Learning Communities at Rosewood include the following: kindergarten—interactive writing; first grade—fluency; second grade—comprehension (author's purpose and comparison and contrast benchmarks); third grade—expository text strategies for references and research strand; fourth grade—reading comprehension (main idea); and fifth grade—comprehension targeting reference and research and main idea.
Instruction in Tier 3 is focused on those students who do not respond to Tier 2 instruction, with the goal of providing intensive, individualized or small-group, research-based instruction and intervention to eliminate the discrepancies between student performance and grade-level expectations. Staff members involved in Tier 3 instruction include the general education teacher, reading coach, student support specialist, elementary specialist, school psychologist, ESE teacher, and speech-language pathologist. Instruction takes place in the general education classroom for two hours a day with additional extra time as needed to address individual student needs. Tier 3 instruction is usually done one-on-one; small-group instruction consists of groups of five students or fewer. Instructional materials include the Harcourt Trophies Intervention Program with American Federation of Teacher's Educational Research & Dissemination "Five-Step Plan," Earobics, Road to the Code, Great Leaps, and Quick Reads. Individual interventions are used to address specific areas of concern. School staff monitor progress weekly using DIBELS, AIMSweb Oral Reading Fluency, or AIMSweb MAZE.
Professional development is extensive, as described in Tiers 1 and 2, and also includes Student Support Team staff development on problem solving and progress monitoring.
Tier 4 (special education) instruction provides sustained intensive support through a targeted curriculum for eligible students who need it to progress toward grade-level expectations. The general education teacher and the ESE teacher share responsibilities for instruction, which takes place in the general education classroom and in the ESE classroom. Instructional materials include the Harcourt Intervention Program and Wilson Reading; these are used on an individual basis or in small groups of no more than five students. Instructional blocks of time are two hours in length plus any additional time that is needed to implement instruction and interventions. Assessments include those used in other tiers plus progress monitoring using AIMSweb Oral Reading Fluency and Maze. Professional development includes all the general education offerings plus training on specific curricula and progress monitoring. Also included in the professional development activities are the following Professional Learning Communities: Behavior Management Techniques and Strategies to Enhance Academic Performance.
A student should move from Tier 1 to Tier 2 if screening assessments indicate that the student is not meeting benchmark(s), the student's classroom grades are below average, or the classroom teacher formally requests assistance. A student should leave Tier 2 and return to Tier 1 if she or he is meeting benchmarks and course work is on grade level. Tier 2 instruction generally lasts for nine weeks. However, a student may move to Tier 3 sooner if progress is not being made. This unresponsiveness is indicated by a lack of progress toward intervention goals such as three consecutive data points below the aim line.
A student should move to Tier 3 if the student shows inadequate progress with Tier 2 interventions (three data points below the aim line) but should return to Tier 2 from Tier 3 if the student has mastered the goals and can maintain the rate of progress with Tier 2 support. A student should continue with Tier 3 instruction when progress predicts grade-level performance within a year and if inadequate progress indicates a need to modify or redesign the intervention.
Special education (Tier 4) should be considered when the targeted goal is not met or the student's trend line is below the aim line after implementing two or more interventions. Special education (Tier 4) also should be considered when a positive response in Tier 3 requires an intensity of resources not available in general education. State regulations continue to require ability-achievement discrepancy for eligibility. Response to intervention data are used as evidence of educational need and for educational programming.
Need to shift from "eligibility" to "solving the problem." Rosewood staff members have learned that they need to continue the shift from making the child eligible to solving the child's learning problem. They believe that this may be best accomplished one teacher at a time.
Importance of instructor coaching. They have also learned that coaching is the key to faithful implementation of interventions and to teachers feeling supported.
Development of a bank of evidence-based activities. Rosewood needs to develop a "bank" of evidence-based activities to ensure quality interventions.
Finding manpower and resources. Rosewood needs to think "outside the box" to find the necessary manpower and resources to carry out interventions and progress monitoring.
Quest for accommodations for standardized testing vs. the model. Rosewood believes that the desire to obtain accommodations for standardized testing works against this model.
The processes used at Rosewood Elementary are the result of years of researching, learning, searching, and experimenting, and staff still do not think that they have all the answers. RTI is a learning process, and staff members believe they are doing a better job of helping students, but they know they still have a great deal to learn.
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