Title: How Do We Define Multi-Tiered
1How Do We Define Multi-Tiered Interventions
Under RTI? Jim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
2Essential Elements of Any Academic or Behavioral
Intervention (Treatment) Strategy
- Method of delivery (Who or what delivers the
treatment?)Examples include teachers,
paraprofessionals, parents, volunteers,
computers. - Treatment component (What makes the intervention
effective?)Examples include activation of prior
knowledge to help the student to make meaningful
connections between known and new material
guide practice (e.g., Paired Reading) to increase
reading fluency periodic review of material to
aid student retention. As an example of a
research-based commercial program, Read Naturally
combines teacher modeling, repeated reading and
progress monitoring to remediate fluency
problems.
3Interventions, Accommodations Modifications
Sorting Them Out
- Interventions. An academic intervention is a
strategy used to teach a new skill, build fluency
in a skill, or encourage a child to apply an
existing skill to new situations or settings.
An intervention is said to be research-based
when it has been demonstrated to be effective in
one or more articles published in peerreviewed
scientific journals. Interventions might be based
on commercial programs such as Read Naturally.
The school may also develop and implement an
intervention that is based on guidelines provided
in research articlessuch as Paired Reading
(Topping, 1987).
4Interventions, Accommodations Modifications
Sorting Them Out
- Accommodations. An accommodation is intended to
help the student to fully access the
general-education curriculum without changing the
instructional content. An accommodation for
students who are slow readers, for example, may
include having them supplement their silent
reading of a novel by listening to the book on
tape. An accommodation is intended to remove
barriers to learning while still expecting that
students will master the same instructional
content as their typical peers. Informal
accommodations may be used at the classroom level
or be incorporated into a more intensive,
individualized intervention plan.
5Interventions, Accommodations Modifications
Sorting Them Out
- Modifications. A modification changes the
expectations of what a student is expected to
know or dotypically by lowering the academic
expectations against which the student is to be
evaluated. Examples of modifications are
reducing the number of multiple-choice items in a
test from five to four or shortening a spelling
list. Under RTI, modifications are generally not
included in a students intervention plan,
because the working assumption is that the
student can be successful in the curriculum with
appropriate interventions and accommodations
alone.
6Interventions Essential Elements (Witt et al.,
2004)
- The absence of any of these essential elements
constitute a fatal flaw to the students
intervention - Clear problem definition(s)
- Baseline data
- Goal(s) for improvement
- Plan to monitor student progress
Source Witt, J. C., VanDerHeyden, A. M.,
Gilbertson, D. (2004). Troubleshooting behavioral
interventions. A systematic process for finding
and eliminating problems. School Psychology
Review, 33, 363-383..
7Increasing the Intensity of an Intervention Key
Dimensions
- Interventions can move up the RTI Tiers through
being intensified across several dimensions,
including - Type of intervention strategy or materials used
- Student-teacher ratio
- Length of intervention sessions
- Frequency of intervention sessions
- Duration of the intervention period (e.g.,
extending an intervention from 5 weeks to 10
weeks) - Motivation strategies
Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools. Routledge New
York. Kratochwill, T. R., Clements, M. A.,
Kalymon, K. M. (2007). Response to intervention
Conceptual and methodological issues in
implementation. In Jimerson, S. R., Burns, M. K.,
VanDerHeyden, A. M. (Eds.), Handbook of
response to intervention The science and
practice of assessment and intervention. New
York Springer.
8Research-Based Elements of Effective Academic
Interventions
- Correctly targeted The intervention is
appropriately matched to the students academic
or behavioral needs. - Explicit instruction Student skills have been
broken down into manageable and deliberately
sequenced steps and providing overt strategies
for students to learn and practice new skills
p.1153 - Appropriate level of challenge The student
experiences adequate success with the
instructional task. - High opportunity to respond The student
actively responds at a rate frequent enough to
promote effective learning. - Feedback The student receives prompt
performance feedback about the work completed.
Source Burns, M. K., VanDerHeyden, A. M.,
Boice, C. H. (2008). Best practices in intensive
academic interventions. In A. Thomas J. Grimes
(Eds.), Best practices in school psychology V
(pp.1151-1162). Bethesda, MD National
Association of School Psychologists.
9Secondary Students Should Interventions Be
Off-Level or Focus on Grade-Level Academics?
- There is a lack of consensus about how to
address the academic needs of students with
deficits in basic skills in secondary grades
(Espin Tindal, 1998). - Should the student be placed in remedial
instruction at a point of instructional match
to address those basic-skill deficits?
(Instruction is adjusted down to the student) - Or is time better spent providing the student
with compensatory strategies to learn grade-level
content and work around those basic-skill
deficits? (Student is brought up to current
instruction)
Source Espin, C. A., Tindal, G. (1998).
Curriculum-based measurement for secondary
students. In M. R. Shinn (Ed.) Advanced
applications of curriculum-based measurement. New
York Guilford Press.
10RTI Pyramid of Interventions
11Teachers Voice Behavior Management Strategies
12Tier I Instruction/Interventions
- Tier I instruction/interventions
- Are universalavailable to all students.
- Can be delivered within classrooms or throughout
the school. - Are likely to be put into place by the teacher at
the first sign that a student is struggling. - All children have access to Tier 1
instruction/interventions. Teachers have the
capability to use those strategies without
requiring outside assistance. - Tier 1 instruction/interventions encompass
- The schools core curriculum and all published or
teacher-made materials used to deliver that
curriculum. - Teacher use of whole-group teaching
management strategies. - Teacher use of individualized strategies with
specific students. - Tier I instruction/interventions attempt to
answer the question Are routine classroom
instructional strategies sufficient to help the
student to achieve academic success?
13Examples of Evidence-Based Tier I Management
Strategies (Fairbanks, Sugai, Guardino,
Lathrop, 2007)
- Consistently acknowledging appropriate behavior
in class - Providing students with frequent and varied
opportunities to respond during instructional
activities - Reducing transition time between instructional
activities to a minimum - Giving students immediate and direct corrective
feedback when they commit an academic error or
engage in inappropriate behavior
Source Fairbanks, S., Sugai, G., Guardino, S.,
Lathrop, M. (2007). Response to intervention
Examining classroom behavior support in second
grade. Exceptional Children, 73, p. 290.
14Tier 1 What Are the Recommended Elements of
Core Curriculum? More Research Needed
- In essence, we now have a good beginning on the
evaluation of Tier 2 and 3 interventions, but no
idea about what it will take to get the core
curriculum to work at Tier 1. A complicating
issue with this potential line of research is
that many schools use multiple materials as their
core program. p. 640
Source Kovelski, J. F. (2007). Response to
intervention Considerations for research and
systems change. School Psychology Review, 36,
638-646.
15Schools Need to Review Tier 1 (Classroom)
Interventions to Ensure That They Are Supported
By Research
- There is a lack of agreement about what is meant
by scientifically validated classroom (Tier I)
interventions. Districts should establish a
vetting processcriteria for judging whether a
particular instructional or intervention approach
should be considered empirically based.
Source Fuchs, D., Deshler, D. D. (2007). What
we need to know about responsiveness to
intervention (and shouldnt be afraid to ask)..
Learning Disabilities Research Practice,
22(2),129136.
16RTI Pyramid of Interventions
17Tier 2 Supplemental (Group-Based) Interventions
- Tier 2 interventions are typically delivered in
small-group format. About 15 of students in the
typical school will require Tier 2/supplemental
intervention support. - Group size for Tier 2 interventions is limited
to 4-7 students. Students placed in Tier 2
interventions should have a shared profile of
intervention need. - The reading progress of students in Tier 2
interventions are monitored at least 1-2 times
per month.
Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools. Routledge New
York.
18Group-Based Tier II Services How Much Time
Should Be Allocated?
- Emerging guidelines drawn largely from reading
research suggest that standard protocol
interventions should consist of at least three to
five 30-minute sessions per week, in a group size
not to exceed 6-7 students. Standard protocol
interventions should also supplement, rather than
replace, core instruction taking place in the
classroom.
Sources Burns, Al Otaiba, S. Torgesen, J.
(2007). Effects from intensive standardized
kindergarten and first-grade interventions for
the prevention of reading difficulties. In S. R.
Jimerson, M. K. Burns, A. M. VanDerHeyden
(Eds.), Response to intervention The science and
practice of assessment and intervention (pp.
212-222). National Reading Panel. (2000).
Teaching children to read An evidence-based
assessment of the scientific research literature
on reading and its implications for reading
instruction. Bethesda, MD National Institute of
Child Health Human Development, National
Institutes of Health.
19Tier 2 Exploring Use of Non-Instructional
Personnel
- To expand their intervention capacity, schools
may want to explore using people other than
teachers to assist with some RTI interventions,
including - peer or older student tutors
- adult volunteers
- graduate students
- paraprofessionals
- Of course, any person serving as a tutor would
need to be trained appropriately and their
tutoring activities overseen by a certified
educator. (Burns Gibbons, 2008).
Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools. Routledge New
York.
20Tier II Standard Protocol Treatments Strengths
Limits in Secondary Settings
- Research indicates that students do well in
targeted small-group interventions (4-7 students)
when the intervention treatment is closely
matched to those students academic needs (Burns
Gibbons, 2008). - However, in secondary schools
- students are sometimes grouped for remediation by
convenience rather than by presenting need.
Teachers instruct across a broad range of student
skills, diluting the positive impact of the
intervention. - students often present with a unique profile of
concerns that does not lend itself to placement
in a group intervention.
Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools Procedures to
assure scientific-based practices. New York
Routledge.
21Caution About Secondary Tier 2 Standard-Protocol
Interventions Avoid the Homework Help Trap
- Tier 2 group-based or standard-protocol
interventions are an efficient method to deliver
targeted academic support to students (Burns
Gibbons, 2008). - However, students should be matched to specific
research-based interventions that address their
specific needs. - RTI intervention support in secondary schools
should not take the form of unfocused homework
help.
22RTI Pyramid of Interventions
23Tier 3 Intensive Individualized Interventions
- Tier 3 interventions are the most intensive
offered in a school setting. - Students qualify for Tier 3 interventions
because - they are found to have a large skill gap when
compared to their class or grade peers and/or - They did not respond to interventions provided
previously at Tiers 1 2. -
- Tier 3 interventions are provided daily for
sessions of 30 minutes. The student-teacher ratio
is flexible but should allow the student to
receive intensive, individualized instruction. - The reading progress of students in Tier 3
interventions is monitored at least weekly.
Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools. Routledge New
York.
24The Problem-Solving Model Multi-Disciplinary
Teams
- A school consultative process (the
problem-solving model) with roots in applied
behavior analysis was developed (e.g., Bergan,
1995) that includes 4 steps - Problem Identification
- Problem Analysis
- Plan Implementation
- Problem Evaluation
- Originally designed for individual consultation
with teachers, the problem-solving model was
later adapted in various forms to
multi-disciplinary team settings.
Source Bergan, J. R. (1995). Evolution of a
problem-solving model of consultation. Journal of
Educational and Psychological Consultation, 6(2),
111-123.
25Tier 3 Targets Intervention, Curriculum, and
Environment
- For a tier 3 intervention to be effective and
robust, it must focus on the specific needs of
the student. It should also address the reason
that the student is experiencing difficulty.
Rather than considering a student problem to be
the result of inalterable student
characteristics, teams are compelled to focus on
change that can be made to the intervention,
curriculum or environment that would result in
positive student outcome. The hypothesis and
intervention should focus on those variables that
are alterable within the school setting. These
alterable variables include learning goals and
objectives (what is to be learned), materials,
time, student-to-teacher ratio, activities, and
motivational strategies. p. 95
Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools. Routledge New
York.
26Tier 3 Scripting Interventions to Promote Better
Compliance
- Interventions should be written up in a
scripted format to ensure that - Teachers have sufficient information about the
intervention to implement it correctly and - External observers can view the teacher
implementing the intervention strategy andusing
the script as a checklistverify that each step
of the intervention was implemented correctly
(treatment integrity).
Source Burns, M. K., Gibbons, K. A. (2008).
Implementing response-to-intervention in
elementary and secondary schools. Routledge New
York.
27Intervention Script Builder Form
28Advancing Through RTI Flexibility in the Tiers
- For purposes of efficiency, students should be
placed in small-group instruction at Tier 2. - However, group interventions may not always be
possible because due to scheduling or other
issuesno group is available. (For example,
students with RTI behavioral referrals may not
have a group intervention available.) - In such a case, the student will go directly to
the problem-solving process (Tier 3)typically
through a referral to the school RTI Team. - Nonetheless, the school must still document the
same minimum number of interventions attempted
for every student in RTI, whether or not a
student first received interventions in a group
setting.
29Team Activity Building Multi-Tier Capacity
- At your tables
- Discuss the task of building a continuum of
interventions that span Tiers 1-3 in your middle
or high school (in basic skills, content areas,
and behavior). - What are enabling factors that should help you to
build or improve your multi-tier pyramid of
interventions? - What are challenges or areas needing improvement
to allow you to construct your multi-tier
pyramid of interventions?
- Intensifying Interventions. Interventions can be
intensified across several dimensions - Student-teacher ratio
- Length of intervention sessions
- Frequency of intervention sessions
- Duration of the intervention period (e.g.,
extending an intervention from 5 weeks to 10
weeks) - Type of intervention strategy or materials used
- Motivation strategies
30Evaluating Intervention Follow-Through
(Treatment Integrity)
31Why Monitor Intervention Follow-Through?
- If the RTI Team does not monitor the quality of
the intervention follow-through, it will not know
how to explain a students failure to respond to
intervention. - Do qualities within the student explain the lack
of academic or behavioral progress? - Did problems with implementing the intervention
prevent the student from making progress?
32What Are Potential Barriers to Assessing
Intervention Follow-Through?
- Direct observation of interventions is the gold
standard for evaluating the quality of their
implementation. However - Teachers being observed may feel that they are
being evaluated for global job performance - Non-administrative staff may be uncomfortable
observing a fellow educator to evaluate
intervention follow-through - It can be difficult for staff to find time to
observe and evaluate interventions as they are
being carried out
33Supplemental Ideas to Collect Information About
Classroom Implementation of Interventions
- Assign a case manager from the RTI Intervention
Team to check in with the teacher within a week
of the initial meeting to see how the
intervention is going. - Have the teacher use a data tool to collect
information about the students response to
intervention (e.g., Daily Behavior Report Card)
or about the implementation of the intervention
itself (e.g. Teacher Intervention Evaluation Log) - Include a scripted question at the RTI
Intervention Team Follow-Up Meeting that
explicitly asks the referring teacher or
instructional team to provide details about the
implementation of the intervention. - Review any work products or records that are
generated by an intervention (e.g., student
self-rating forms academic work teacher log of
number of times that an intervention strategy was
used). These work products or records can serve
as indirect indicators of intervention
follow-through.
34Intervention Script Builder
35Building Teacher Capacity to Deliver Tier 1
Interventions An 8-Step Checklist Jim
Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
36What Are Appropriate Content-Area Tier 1
Universal Interventions for Secondary Schools?
- High schools need to determine what constitutes
high-quality universal instruction across content
areas. In addition, high school teachers need
professional development in, for example,
differentiated instructional techniques that will
help ensure student access to instruction
interventions that are effectively implemented.
Source Duffy, H. (August 2007). Meeting the
needs of significantly struggling learners in
high school. Washington, DC National High School
Center. Retrieved from http//www.betterhighschool
s.org/pubs/ p. 9
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48Team Activity Building Tier 1 Capacity
- At your tables
- Consider the eight steps to building Tier 1
teacher capacity to deliver effective classroom
interventions. - Discuss the strengths and challenges that your
school or district presents in promoting Tier 1
interventions. - Be prepared to share your discussion with the
larger group!
49End
50What Works Clearinghousehttp//ies.ed.gov/ncee/ww
c/
51Intervention Centralhttp//www.interventioncentra
l.org
52Building Positive Relationships With
StudentsJim Wrightwww.interventioncentral.org
53Avoiding the Reprimand Trap
- When working with students who display
challenging behaviors, instructors can easily
fall into the reprimand trap. In this
sequence - The student misbehaves.
- The teacher approaches the student to reprimand
and redirect. (But the teacher tends not to give
the student attention for positive behaviors,
such as paying attention and doing school work.) - As the misbehave-reprimand pattern becomes
ingrained, both student and teacher experience a
strained relationship and negative feelings.
54Sample Ideas to Improve Relationships With
Students The Two-By-Ten Intervention (Mendler,
2000)
- Make a commitment to spend 2 minutes per day for
10 consecutive days in building a relationship
with the studentby talking about topics of
interest to the student. Avoid discussing
problems with the students behaviors or
schoolwork during these times.
Source Mendler, A. N. (2000). Motivating
students who dont care. Bloomington, IN
National Educational Service.
55Sample Ideas to Improve Relationships With
Students The Three-to-One Intervention (Sprick,
Borgmeier, Nolet, 2002)
- Give positive attention or praise to problem
students at least three times more frequently
than you reprimand them. Give the student the
attention or praise during moments when that
student is acting appropriately. Keep track of
how frequently you give positive attention and
reprimands to the student.
Source Sprick, R. S., Borgmeier, C., Nolet, V.
(2002). Prevention and management of behavior
problems in secondary schools. In M. A. Shinn, H.
M. Walker G. Stoner (Eds.), Interventions for
academic and behavior problems II Preventive and
remedial approaches (pp.373-401). Bethesda, MD
National Association of School Psychologists.