Essential Features of Tier One
In Tier One of the three-tier model, all of the students at a grade level are assessed to determine which ones have not developed the benchmark skills that are requisite for that grade and time of year. The Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) approach (Good & Kaminski, 2002) has been widely advanced as a model procedure for this screening function, because it precisely identifies which students in the primary grades have not acquired the essential early reading skills that are necessary for success at the next level of instruction. The task of the school at this point is to upgrade its efforts at whole-group instruction to intervene effectively with the deficient students. This process is not the same as providing a fundamentally sound instructional program for all students, although such a program is clearly implicit in these school reform efforts. Rather, the challenge at Tier One is to further differentiate an already effective curriculum for students who are lacking the necessary precursor skills for success at the current level.
Because of the substantial effort required to adapt the instructional program for struggling students, it is reasonable to believe that problem-solving teaming should be introduced at this stage to support efforts to differentiate instruction. Schmoker (1999) has articulated a related process that may well serve as a model for effective teaming at this stage. In Schmoker's process, teams of grade-level teachers work from district-wide data (e.g., results of standardized group tests) to identify students not meeting various standards, set goals for the entire group, and brainstorm class-wide instructional plans that are intended to close the gap. Using this process as a framework, the following steps for Tier One teaming can be envisioned:
- Procedures are put in place for assessing the entire grade level on a set of critical skills that are directly linked to state standards (e.g., DIBELS) and are assessed on a regular basis (e.g., quarterly).
- The resulting data are managed in such a way that user-friendly data summaries are produced.
- A team consisting of all teachers at a grade level, other support personnel (e.g., remedial specialists, school psychologists, etc.), and the school principal meet on a quarterly basis to review the data summaries.
- Students categorized as deficient according to pre-set cut scores are identified, and measurable goals are set for the entire group of students for the next check point. For example, the team may project that there will be an increase from 50% to 75% of students demonstrating proficiency on the benchmark by the next quarter.
- The team brainstorms a set of instructional changes that are intended to address the needs of the deficient students in the context of continual progress for the entire group. It should be noted that these changes should be consistent with the procedures in place in a school that has established a foundational instructional program that is scientifically based and is producing positive outcomes for large percentages of students. In schools that have not adopted such building-wide effective practices, these brainstormed ideas may serve as initial attempts to move toward more effective class-wide and school-wide practices.
- The team strategizes what supports need to be in place during the intervening quarter so that the brainstormed strategies can be implemented with sufficient fidelity in each classroom. For example, teachers might schedule time to observe each other in implementing the new strategy; or a specialist might model the strategy in the classroom.
- Teachers implement the new strategies.
- The team reconvenes at the end of the quarter to review the progress of all students.
In Tier One, the focus is on making large-scale changes to the instruction for entire groups of students, with a particular focus on how these changes are affecting the deficient students. Specialists are available for instructional design and transitory supports, but do not provide remedial services. The principal is actively involved in supervising and supporting the process, in order to monitor the effects of the process on the overall mission of the school to achieve its adequate yearly progress (AYP) targets that are required by NCLB.
In a school that uses this teaming process at Tier One within an already established effective foundational instructional program, three benefits can be imagined:
- The ability of teachers to differentiate for and succeed with larger numbers of students should improve
- A set of non-responders to effective, supported instruction should be identified for further intervention in Tier Two and
- Limited remedial resources can be reserved for students with more significant or intractable problems in Tiers Two and Three.
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