How to RTI:
Creating the Systems and Structures of
Response to Intervention
Prepared by
Liz Angoff, PhD
Response to Intervention Coordinator
Oakland Unified School District
elizabeth.angoff@ousd.k12.ca.us
There is no way
a single teacher has
all the time,
all the knowledge,
and all the skills
to meet all the needs
of every child
in his or her class(es).
Buffman, Mattos, & Webber 2009
As a community we do and we can.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Step 1
Understanding RTI
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
The right response begins with the right questions
•Who are my students? What do they need to learn?
– What do they like? What are their talents? What skills are they coming in
with?
– What don’t they like? What is difficult for them? What skills are they
lacking? What have they forgotten over the summer?
•Why are some struggling? What other skills do they need to learn?
– Even with the best curriculum and the best teacher, some students will
struggle.
– Often, students struggle predictably: we know some students will need
repetition, different presentations, or certain skill reinforcement.
– Some student present more complex puzzles – we will need to dig deeper
to learn how to help them.
•Did it work? Is there another way to teach them?
– We keep track of student progress to determine if our extra help helped
them.
– If the student still struggles, we get more information and we try again.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
Response to Intervention is a systematic,
intentional way of asking these questions.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School District
The RTI
Framework
<5%
<15%
>80%
June 2011
• RTI is thought of as a 3-tiered system of
intervention:
– Tier 1 (>80%): what we do for all students
within the core classroom
– Tier 2 (<15%): what we do for some
students who need additional supports to
be successful in school or the community
– Tier 3 (<5%): what we do for individual
students who need specific supports to be
successful in school or the community
• When students need additional support
beyond Tier 3, Special Education may be
considered
• This framework may be applied to
academic, behavioral or other
community needs
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
The RTI Framework
• Tiers of support, or intervention, build on each other
– Students with higher needs still need the supports within
the classroom
– Tiers 2 and 3 are not “place” to “send” students but rather
ways of increasing and specializing support based on
student needs
• Most of our current research on intervention focuses
on reading and behavior; other areas are emerging
• Our end goal is student success within the classroom,
supporting as many students as possible through Tier 1
instruction and intervention
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
The RTI Framework
• Tier 1 may look like:
– Screening measures for all students
– Professional Learning Communities
analyzing student learning
– Workshop time to target specific skill needs
in small groups
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
The RTI Framework
• Tier 2 may look like:
– Diagnostic assessment to determine specific
skill needs
– Coordination of Services or Student Study
Team to design appropriate supports for a
student
– Smaller groups and more time focused on a
specific skill
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
The RTI Framework
• Tier 3 may look like:
– Additional diagnostic assessment and
consultation with a specialist to determine
individual student needs
– Student Study Team meeting to ensure all
student needs are being addressed
– Even smaller group and even more time
focused on specific skill needs
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
The RTI Pyramid
TIER 3
Intensify!
TIER 2
Why are some
still struggling? What other skills do
they need?
TIER 1
Who are our students? What do they need to learn?
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
What is RTI?
A formal definition
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a data-driven, multitiered approach to the early identification and support of
students with learning and behavioral needs. The RTI process
begins with high-quality instruction, universal screening and
discrete data analysis of all children in the general education
classroom. Struggling learners are provided with
interventions at increasing levels of intensity, specific to their
skill needs, in order to accelerate their rate of learning. When
students continue to struggle despite interventions, a team of
educators come together in a problem solving process to
identify the specific needs of the most at-risk students. RTI is
not a program but a process: a way to identify who is at-risk
and, more importantly, why.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Step 2
Understanding RTI
Identifying what we already have
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Use what you have
To get what you want
You likely have many of the “RTI” elements in place already; connecting
the dots and systematizing these elements is key to creating successful
intervention systems.
To identify your site’s strengths and needs, choose one of the
following:
•Use this presentation to assess your site’s current capacity for:
– Data: Screening, Diagnostic and Progress Monitoring systems
– Problem solving: PLCs, COST and SST
– Intervention: Core and More
•Use the RTI Rubric at www.ousd.k12.ca.us/RTI under Library of Links
•Use a more formal inventory such as the Self Assessment of Problem
solving Implementation (SAPSI) from www.floridarti.usf.edu
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Step 3
Understanding RTI
Identifying what we already have
Creating systems
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
The Big 3
Response to Intervention can be thought of as having three main
components:
DATA is the driving force behind RTI. The tools we use to assess and
monitor student learning must tell us not only who is struggling, but
why.
PROBLEM SOLVING is a collaborative process to determine how to
improve learning for the whole classroom, small groups with similar
difficulties, and individual students.
INTERVENTION refers to the action taken when a students is not
learning for any reason. The intervention should be research-verified
and specifically address the skill need of the student, with the goal of
helping them to successfully access the general classroom and
curriculum.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Data Systems
Universal Screening
Diagnostic Assessment
Progress Monitoring
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Collecting Useful Data
Why CST and Benchmark scores are not enough
• We collect data on our students constantly through formal
and informal measures – all of these forms of data are
important for understanding who our students are and how
they are changing throughout the year
• State tests (CST) provide summative information once each
year – they can tell us who is struggling, but not why
• Benchmark scores provide summative information at
regular intervals based on broad standards – success or
failure on a given standard may be due to a number of
factors; we still don’t know why a student struggles
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Collecting Useful Data
Painting a whole picture
To be truly responsive, we need to know more about what students can and
cannot do. These measures help us identify their specific skill needs.
Universal Screening: A general measure given to all students targeting basic
skills in an academic area or behavior. These assessments are quick and easily
administered. They are often described as “taking a temperature”. These are
different that CST or Benchmark tests because they address specific
underlying skills.
Diagnostic Assessment: A targeted measure given to some students to
identify a specific skill deficit. The results of these assessments may be linked
directly to targeted interventions.
Progress Monitoring: A quick measure given to students receiving
intervention designed to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction and
determine if students are learning the intended skill.
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Collecting Useful Data
Examples of Measures
Academic (Reading)
• Universal Screening
– DIBELS
– AIMSweb
– CORE Literacy Library
• Diagnostic Assessment
– CORE Phonics Survey or BPST
– Qualitative Reading Inventory
– Diagnostic Reading Assessment
• Progress Monitoring
– DIBELS
– AIMSweb
– Easycbm.com
June 2011
Behavior
• Universal Screening
– Student Risk Screening Scale
– Discipline referrals or other
behavioral data kept on all
students
• Diagnostic Assessment
– Please ask your School
Psychologist or Mental Health
professional for diagnostic
measures in this area
• Progress Monitoring
– Goal-focused daily/weekly
contracts
– Check-in, check-out systems
– Regular observations
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Problem Solving
Systems
Professional Learning Communities
Coordination of Services Team
Student Study Team
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Problem Solving
As a community we can
• Problem Solving teams exist at every tier: for all
students, for small groups of students with
similar difficulties, and for individual students
needing specialized support.
• These teams identify who is not learning and ask:
– Why are they not learning?
– What do they need to learn?
– How can we best help them to learn it?
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Problem Solving
Tier 1: Professional Learning Communities
• A PLC is a group of educators committed to working collaboratively
in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research in
order to achieve better results for the students they serve. (Richard
and Rebecca DuFour).
• PLCs emphasize student learning, closely examining student data
and performance to determine who is responding to instruction
and strategically intervene when students are not responding.
• A PLC looks at learning for ALL students and examines how to
maximize student learning in the classroom using Tier 1
intervention.
• For more information and resources: www.ousd.k12.ca.us/RTI
under the Problem Solving tab
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Problem Solving
Tiers 2 & 3: Coordination of Services Team
•COST is a team of school support staff, along with the principal, that
meets regularly to review referrals for struggling students. Referrals
are then handed over to the appropriate support staff member such as
the intervention teacher, nurse or psychologist for intervention.
•This team often focuses on many students at once and may organize a
single intervention for common difficulties (Tier 2 intervention).
•The COST keeps track of the effectiveness of the interventions which
is then communicated to the teachers, parent, or other provider.
•For more information on COST: www.ousd.k12.ca.us/RTI - under the
Problem Solving tab
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Problem Solving
Tiers 2 & 3: Student Success Team
• An SST is a school site team that includes the parents,
student, teachers and principal, as well as any other
needed support staff
• The SST focuses on one student and his or her development
as a successful student and community member
• The results of an SST may include referral to a Tier 2
intervention or a more individualized, Tier 3 intervention
• SSTs serve as one way to document data on a student’s skill
development over time; action items may include progress
monitoring of one of the specific areas of concern
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Intervention
Systems
Core + More
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Intervention
What do we do about it?
Interventions must be:
•Research-verified and implemented with fidelity
•Implemented by a trained staff member
•Aligned with specific skill needs of the student
•Monitored over time
•Flexible and responsive
Interventions should be:
•Part of Core instruction and regular classroom practice
•Focused on student need, not on assigning students to a
specific “tier” – tiers may look different in different schools
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Intervention
Helpful systems and structures
• Master schedules create a guaranteed time for intervention to
ensure all students have access
• Flexible groupings mean that students are able enter and exit
interventions depending on their progress; for example, one school
has an intervention class that changes every 6 weeks based on
progress monitoring data
• Staff professional development around identifying the need and
providing intervention for commonly seen difficulties is critical to
building capacity for supporting all students
• Professional Learning Communities and other problem solving
teams allow for data-based decision making that helps us separate
the lack of will from the lack of skill: students struggle to keep up
with classroom work for many reasons – a student who is struggling
because they are not engaged is different from the student who is
struggling because they lack a specific skill
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Interventions
Will vs Skill
• The intervention must match the need: academic failure
and behavioral difficulties are symptoms; we need to figure
out the cause
– Screening, diagnostic and progress monitoring measures help us
identify specific skills students have or do not have
– Problem solving teams help us determine the larger context of
the learner and the learning environment
• If there is a lack of skill, we must intervene in a way that
helps the student learn that skill
• If there is a lack of will, we must intervene in a way that
helps the student become more motivated to learn
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Intervention
What doesn’t work
• Common current
interventions:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
June 2011
• These are not effective
when:
Up to each teacher
Summer school
Remedial classes
Special Education
Retention
Detention
Nothing
– They are not matched to
a specific skill
– The student progress is
not monitored
– The student is isolated
from regular instruction
– There is no plan to
change the way we
teach
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Intervention
What does work
• We know a lot about how learning breaks down,
especially in the area of reading; therefore, we can
predict and prepare for where we will have to
intervene, even within the Core program
• Research-verified interventions help us be specific
about our goals; the more specific the goal, the more
likely the progress
• Guaranteed access for all students to interventions as
needed, and guaranteed exit from interventions as
students progress
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Intervention
What does work
• Visit the OUSD RTI website for a continually
expanding list of intervention resources:
www.ousd.k12.ca.us/RTI
• Florida Center for Reading Research: www.fcrr.org
• CORE Literacy Library: www.corelearn.com
• Words Their Way: www.pearsonhighered.com
• SIPPS: Systematic Instruction in Phoneme
Awareness, Phonics and Sightwords:
www.devstu.org
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Step 4
Understanding RTI
Identifying what we already have
Creating systems
Continue to evaluate practices
and systems for fidelity and
effectiveness
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Ongoing Evaluation
• Experience tells us that RTI takes about 3-5
years to implement completely
• Set S.M.A.R.T. goals and examine them
regularly during PLC, Leadership Team or
other staff meeting time
• Be patient – even the best “best practice” will
need tweaking to truly meet the needs of your
community
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Just Do It
You can start RTI’ing today
• Use data meetings, PLCs and/or SST to determine
the CAUSE of the difficulty
• Connect specific difficulty with appropriate
intervention – look at supplementary materials to
core curriculum, community resources, support
staff
• Ensure the student will have access to that
intervention
• Monitor student’s response to that intervention
• Be specific and patient: success in one area does not
guarantee success in all areas
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Additional Resources
1.
OUSD RTI Website: www.ousd.k12.ca.us/RTI
2.
National Center on Response to Intervention:
www.rti4success.org
3.
Curriculum Based Measurements for screening and progress
monitoring: www.easycbm.com
4.
Intervention Central to create your own progress monitoring:
www.interventioncentral.com
5.
DIBELS screening and progress monitoring tools:
www.dibels.uoregon.edu
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District
Contact Information
Liz Angoff, PhD
School Psychologist, RTI Liaison
Programs for Exceptional Children
Marcus Foster Site
2850 West Street
Oakland, CA 94608
elizabeth.angoff@ousd.k12.ca.us
(510) 874-3755
www.ousd.k12.ca.us/RTI
June 2011
Liz Angoff, PhD, Oakland Unified School
District