Strategies for Reading Intervention in a ThreeTier Model: Tier III

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Strategies for Reading Intervention in a
Three-Tier Model Tier III

• Carolyn A. Denton, Ph.D.
• Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts
  at the University of Texas

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• How are students selected for Tier III
  instruction?
• If students have participated in Tier II
  instruction and have not made sufficient
  progress.
• Students who have received previous Tier III
  instruction and have exited may re-enter Tier
  III as needed.

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How do we group students for Tier III
instruction? One interventionist works with a
group of 3 or fewer students. These groups are
organized according to the skills targeted for
each student. When do students exit Tier
III? As a general guideline, a student is ready
to exit the intervention when he or she has
reached benchmark on the targeted skills. Can
students re-enter Tier III intervention? If an
exited student again fails to meet benchmarks, he
or she may re-enter Tier III intervention and
exit as needed.
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Compare Tier III with Tier II
Tier III differs from Tier II in order to meet
the needs of students whose core instruction and
supplemental instruction has not provided
sufficient support.

• Time in supplemental instruction (Minimum of
  two 30-minute sessions per day)
• Group size (13 or fewer)
• Duration of instruction (over a number of
  months or even years)

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Are most students who qualify for Tier III
usually receiving Section 504 or special
education services?

• The answer to this question varies from school to
  school
• Some students, but probably not all, who qualify
  for Tier III may be receiving Section 504 or
  special education services
• Each school determines the relationship of
  instruction in Tier III and instruction delivered
  through dyslexia, 504, and special education
  services

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IDEA 2004 Identification of Specific Learning
Disability

• a local education agency shall not be required
  to take into consideration whether a child has a
  severe discrepancy between achievement and
  intellectual ability
• LEA may use a process that determines if the
  child responds to scientific, research-based
  intervention as a part of the required
  evaluation procedures

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IDEA 2004 Early Intervention Services

• Up to 15 of IDEA funds can be used for
  supportive services to help students not yet
  identified with disabilities who require academic
  or behavioral supports to succeed in the general
  education environment

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• What kind of intervention is effective for
  students who have serious reading difficulties?

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Traditional models of Special Education do not
close the gap.

• In a large study in Texas, special education
  placement appeared to accelerate students rate
  of growth by an average of .04 standard
  deviations per year.
• At this rate it would take 8.3 years to move a
  childs reading scores from the 5th percentile to
  the 9th percentile.

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70
71.8
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• Torgesen et al., Journal of Learning
  Disabilities., 2001.
• 3rd 5th grade students in special education
  (LD)
• Severe reading disabilities (average pretest word
  ID score in the 2nd ile)
• Intensive intervention for 2 hours per day for 8
  weeks
• Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading,
  Spelling and Speech or an Embedded Phonics
  approach
• Both included explicit, systematic instruction in
  word-reading skills, but had different approaches
  to delivering instruction

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• Torgesen et al. (2001)
• Substantial gains in basic reading skills and
  comprehension,
• Maintained their gains for 2 years.
• Still had fluency problems.
• No significant differences between the two
  intervention groups
• 40 removed from special education

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95
90
85
Reading Standard Score
80
75
1
16
18
30
42
Months
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Simos et al., Neurology, 2002

• 8 students with severe dyslexia
• Ages 7-17
• 8 week intense phonologically- based intervention
  
• 2 hours a day up to 80 hours of instruction
• 11 in a private reading clinic
• Lindamood LIPS (phonemic awareness) and/or
  Phono-Graphix (phonics/decoding systematic,
  hands-on, high active involvement)
• Brain scan study Magnetic Source Imaging

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Demographic Information
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Neural Response to Intervention

• Does the pattern of brain activation change in
  response to intervention?

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Denton, Fletcher, Anthony, Francis, Journal of
Learning Disability, in press.

• Tier III intervention delivered to 27 students
  with severe reading difficulties
• Grades 1 (all repeating) 3
• 14 were inadequate responders to Tier I or Tier
  I II in Mathes et al. (2005)
• 13 had severe reading difficulties, but had not
  participated in Tier I II
• 11 of the 27 were served by special education 8
  LD, 1 BD, 2 OHI.

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Denton, Fletcher, Anthony, Francis, Journal of
Learning Disability, in press.

• 16 weeks of intensive Tier 3 intervention
• 5 days per week in groups of 2 students
• Taught by certified teachers or experienced
  reading clinicians
• 8 weeks of Phono-Graphix for 2 hours per day
  (decoding) followed by 8 weeks of Read Naturally
  (fluency) for 1 hour per day.

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Phono-Graphix (McGuiness et al., 1996)

• Designed to teach reading and spelling by
  teaching the nature of the written code
• Teaches that letters and letter-combinations
  are pictures of sounds
• Includes manipulation of letter and word cards
• Lots of repetition and practice
• Students read decodable text
• Full week of rigorous training

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Read Naturally (Ihnot, 1992)

• Designed to promote oral reading fluency
• Nonfiction passages at grade levels 1 through 8
• Students
• Practice oral reading of short, interesting
  passages (repeated reading)
• Read along with an audio tape recorded at a pace
  that is reasonably challenging
• Time their readings and graph their fluency rates
  (Students and teachers are aware of even small
  increments of progress.)
• Answer comprehension questions and discuss the
  passages with the teacher

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• After 8 weeks of Phono-Graphix
• Significant growth in decoding (basic skills)
• Significant growth in comprehension
• Significant growth in speed of reading nonwords
• No significant growth in fluency
• After 8 weeks of Read Naturally
• Significant growth in word and text reading
  fluency
• No significant growth in decoding
• No significant growth in comprehension

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Individual Response Varied

• 12 of the 27 students had a strong response (gain
  of at least 8 standard score points over the
  16-week period)
• Students who had previously received Tier I
  Tier II were more likely to respond well to Tier
  III than students who had received only Tier I or
  who had not participated in the previous study.
• Younger students (repeating Grade 1 Grade 2)
  were more likely to respond well than those in
  Grade 3

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Tier III Common Themes

• High intensity (very small groups)
• Very explicit and systematic
• High active student involvement
• Long duration
• Target phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency
  (but could target comprehension if there was a
  severe need)
• Whatever it takes

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Denton, Foorman, Mathes, Remedial and Special
Education, 2003

• Study of five schools with excellent reading
  outcomes despite very challenging situations
• Sustained school-wide commitment
• Whatever it takes attitude
• Sense of urgency

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Pinedale School

• When assessments show a student is not on-track
  to meet goals, a safety net of assessments
  comes into play.
• 6-8 weeks of fluency tutoring provided in the
  library by the coach, music teacher, librarian,
  and other teachers.
• All teachers tutor after school, provide targeted
  (not generic) Tier II instruction
• High school students are carefully prepared to
  tutor elementary struggling readers

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Cortez Elementary

• Principal describes a feeling of urgency and
  relentless intervention
• Classroom teachers 90 minutes of core reading
  instruction each day plus extra reading
  instruction to small groups of children who need
  support.
• If children need more extra 45-minute
  intervention from a reading intervention teacher
  each day,
• If they need more extended-day services, with
  tutoring before or after school (in addition to
  the above).
• The most severely at-risk students go to classes
  taught by the dyslexia specialist.
• The most at-risk students, and students with
  reading difficulties who move into the school get
  intensive care, a special short-term
  intervention during recess. Principal is actively
  involved in this.

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Cortez Elementary Principal

• If (there is) a very at-risk child, we adjust
  the schedule of the child. If he needs extra
  help, that next day he will have a reading
  specialist work with him. If thats not enough,
  then we have tutorials, and another teacher will
  work with him. Weve built all of these safety
  nets to protect children who are at-risk. A child
  who is very at-risk will have a schedule that is
  very different from other students.

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No Excuses Attitude Cortez Elem.

• Principal
• We (should be) able to see that we are teaching
  what the child needs to learn, and if not--why?
  And so we always are looking at ourselves. Is it
  our curriculum is it the strategies the teacher
  might not have?

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As professional educators we are responsible for
teaching children to read. If they have an awful
home life, we still have to teach them to read.
We cant have excuses, even if parents are in
jail or homeless.
Cortez Elementary Teacher
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First Steps for Implementing a 3-Tier Reading
Model

• Focus on improving the core classroom reading
  instruction (Tier I) that all students receive
• Provide high-quality intervention (Tier II) for
  struggling readers
• Participate in ongoing professional development
  to enhance classroom implementation of SBRR
  practices
• Provide highly intense Tier III intervention to
  students who do not respond appropriately after
  at least 25 weeks of Tier II.

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• Carolyn A. Denton, Ph.D.
• Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts
  at the University of Texas at Austin
• http//www.texasreading.org/