Selma Elementary
Prevention Manual – Response to Intervention
Breanna Dailey, M.A.
Ball State University
School Psychology Program
Fall 2014
1
Table of Contents
Introduction
3
Needs Assessment
4
Justification
8
Prevention Manual
10
Stage One: Review of Needs Assessment and plan of action
Stage Two: Implementing Tier 1 practices
Stage Three: Implementing Tier 2 practices
Stage Four: Co-teaching as modified RTI
Stage Five: Full RTI
Evaluation of Prevention Program
16
Additional Resources
18
References
20
Appendix A: Evidence-Based Instructional Practices Worksheet
21
Appendix B: Tier 1 Grade Check Sheet
22
Appendix C: Intervention Competency Sheet
23
2
Introduction
I chose Response To Intervention (RTI) as the topic for my prevention manual project for
several reasons. First, working with students in Muncie Public Schools last year, I understood
what RTI looks like in schools and how the RTI process can benefit students. Second, and more
importantly, schools are required to implement RTI in the state of Indiana (Indiana Department
of Education, 2010). While RTI was mandated several years ago, schools still either don’t have
RTI or have tried to implement RTI and did not have all of the resources or knowledge necessary
to fully and correctly implement it. At the time that the needs assessment was started, RTI was
not being used at Selma Elementary. Therefore, this manual will focus on developing an
understanding of RTI and how it can be implemented.
RTI is described by Brown-Chidsey & Steege (2010) as “systematic and data-based
activities (4)” in the form of three tiers. While every student in the school receives tier one, it is
only affective for about 85% of the population. This tier is the general education curriculum that
consists of scientifically-based instruction. The second tier consists of small group intervention
which supplements tier one services. These scientifically-based interventions have regular
progress monitoring. Tier two is comprised of about 10% of the student population. Finally, tier
three is comprised of the 5% of students who have not responded to the first two tiers. These
students require intensive one-on-one intervention. The main components of RTI are therefore
effective instruction, assessment, and using assessment data to inform decisions.
3
Needs Assessment
School Needs
In order to select an area of need, I first talked to a School Psychologist who had worked
at those schools before, and the Special Education Director that oversees that district. Selma
Elementary is in the Liberty-Perry School District which is under Greater Randolph Interlocal
Cooperative (GRIC). Both of them mentioned that different members of the school wanted to go
toward RTI, yet there was some concern. The Special Education Director also mentioned that she
is working with some of the other districts within GRIC to have RTI. Additionally, this school’s
population is mostly rural with some students coming from Muncie as this school has a good
reputation and the high school is rated a “Four Star School”. In my opinion, most people believe
that if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it. So if the school was performing well, why make the
big push toward RTI? I also looked into their ISTEP grades in order to get a better picture of
current student success.
3rd grade
82
4th grade
76
5th grade
73
English/Language
Arts
Math
85
71
87
Science
78
68
http://www.movoto.com/schools/selma-in/selma-elementary-school-180588001045/
This data is from 2012. Typically, we would expect to see 85% of students passing ISTEP. The
grade level and section that were not in this 85% or better range are highlighted in red. This
indicates a need to, not only implement RTI, but also to improve upon the practices for general
education or Tier One. I chose RTI to not only look at what it can provide to the school, but also
analyze its strengths and weaknesses in how it could be implemented.
4
Administrative Attitudes
Before conducting this need assessment, I first had an informal interview with the
principal. During this interview, I learned that the feelings toward RTI in the school was mixed,
although the principal would consider moving toward RTI if everyone would be on board.
Currently, he reported that there is Tier 2 support for all elementary grades except third grade.
Teacher Attitudes
In order to address teacher attitudes and obtain background information about how the
school currently functions, a semi-structured interview was used. Semi-structured interviews
ensure that every teacher gets asked the same set questions while also providing the flexibility to
follow-up on different responses. The lead teacher for each grade either met face-to-face with
me, or in one case the questions were emailed. Additionally, teachers who taught the co-teaching
classrooms were interviewed with an unstructured set of questions. Questions used for the semistructured interview were as follows:

How do you choose material(s) for your classroom?
o Specifically, do you look at research, boxed curriculum, what other teachers do,
or something else?

What does reading instruction look like in your class?
o

Differentiated instruction? Daily 5?
Do you do benchmarks? Do you progress monitor?
o When?
o What system?
o How do you use these in planning instruction?
5

Do you know what RTI (Response-to-Intervention) is?
o What do you think about RTI – likes, dislikes?
o Strengths and weaknesses about RTI.
o Would it be beneficial here at Selma Elementary?
o What would have to happen in order to make it work?

How do you think the current system your grade and specifically your class could be
improved?
o More aides, different materials, etc.
Teachers reported that they have many resources and instructional materials, however not all
teachers know if their materials are scientifically-based. Furthermore, most teachers did not
appear to know how to find out if a material was scientifically-based.
All of the grade levels use benchmarking once a month where data is collected using SRI,
Acuity, MClass, TRC, DIBELS, and Study Island. Several grades reported that students who are
high achievers do not always get benchmarking. Teachers reported having a chart where students
can graph their progress. Some teachers do this as a group activity, while some do it individually
with the student. Additionally, they use Daily 5 or a modified Daily 5 where students are broken
down into groups by ability. Each group works on something different and can focus on specific
skill deficits.
The same potential barriers to the implementation of RTI were reported by each grade. These
barriers are having the space to pull students to do interventions, a scheduled block of time to
perform these interventions, and appropriately trained personnel to carry out these interventions.
There are Title 1 aids that pull each student to take benchmarking data; however, this does not
6
have much time for interventions. Additionally, aids are sometimes pulled as substitutes. Some
teachers had misgivings about RTI as they worried that there would be a lot of paperwork and
students who need Tier 3 would have to wait to get to it.
Throughout this process, I also learned that in grades 4 and 5, some classes are loaded with
students who are mainstreamed into the classroom. In these classrooms, a special education
teacher co-teaches English instruction with the general education teacher. This year, the coteaching does not appear to be meeting the expectations of the teachers. During the co-teaching,
the special education teacher will pull students who are struggling, or work in a small group if
needed. The special education teacher has a conflict and can only be there half of the time.
During the other half of the time, a paraprofessional helps with crowd control but is not
adequately trained to help with much else.
Program Evaluation
It appears that, currently, it would be extremely difficult to implement RTI due to space
and personnel shortages. However, different aspects of RTI can be implemented: learning how to
identify appropriate scientifically-based instructional materials, turning the Daily 5 groups into
intervention groups, and fine-tuning the co-teaching classes so that interventions may be
implemented during this time.
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Justification
The purpose of this prevention manual is early intervention. RTI is a system of services
that targets the beginning of a student’s educational career (elementary school) which is critical
to their school success. For example, a student who does not do well with reading in first grade
may do well enough to be passed on to the next school year. This child may be barely passing or
meeting the requirements needed to continue on through school. If this student received the early
intervention services they needed and was identified as needing to work on something specific
such as site words, their grades and confidence may have improved. It is very difficult to correct
reading problems in middle or high school. Therefore, RTI is a way to catch these students who
fall through the cracks or “wait-to-fail” and receive special education.
In my opinion, the best way to implement RTI at Selma Elementary is to implement it in
pieces. This strategy is supported by Brown-Chidsey & Steege (2010) as not all of the pieces can
be put into place immediately. Additionally, any changes now can prepare Selma Elementary for
the future when they have the resources to fully implement RTI. This manual uses several pieces
or steps in order to build up to full implementation. Each step includes instruction, a rough
timeline for implementation, and evaluation procedures. The stages for implementation are as
follows: Review of Needs Assessment and Plan of Action, Implementing Tier 1 practices,
Implementing Tier 2 practices, Co-teaching as modified RTI, and Full RTI.
In the beginning, it is necessary to review what needs we are trying to meet and create
objectives to ensure when the needs are met. It is also important to, not only identify an
appropriate timeline for the plan of action, but also who is responsible for each step.
Due to a discrepancy in how many students are expected to be passing ISTEP versus how
many are actually passing ISTEP, it is important that we modify the general education strategies
8
by implementing Tier 1 practices. Specifically, learning how to find and implement
scientifically-based instructional methods will be important. Additionally, since Tier 1 practices
affect the whole student body this will be useful for all.
Once effective instruction is ensured, it is important to focus on interventions for students
who are still not performing at the level that they are expected. This will involve identifying
which students need Tier 2, as well as how to work Tier 2 instruction into Daily 5. This will
impact the second-most amount of students, and therefore appears to be an appropriate step after
implementation of Tier 1 practices.
Next it is important to strengthen the classes with co-teaching as well as use them to
implement Tier 3 services as needed. Since these classes are special cases and may be the best
hope to implement Tier 3 services, they appear to be a logical next step. The co-teachers will
learn to work together to best meet the needs of the classroom as well as how to identify when
they may need to make a change.
The last stage may be implemented immediately after stage four or it may be a few years.
This stage will identify if the school has everything necessary to establish RTI throughout the
whole school. It will also identify ways to actually make these changes.
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Prevention Manual
Objectives
The objectives of this manual are to implement as many aspects of RTI as possible into the
school system, specifically Tier 1 and Tier 2 practices. Data can be collected on how many
interventions are run after the implementation of this manual and whether students are making
gains on ISTEP and decreases in behavioral referrals. RTI has been shown to improve school
systems (Brown-Chidsey & Steege, 2010) and is therefore expected to improve Selma
Elementary. Other professionals who wish to continue this program or start a similar program
may remember the importance of teacher buy-in. This is important as they will be the people
implementing the program. Having adequate consultation and completing a needs assessment to
fully understand how the group feels about the change before hand can improve implementation
later on.
Stage One: Review of Needs Assessment and Plan of Action
For the needs assessment, I first started with assessing whether there is a need for RTI. I
found that RTI is needed because student achievement as seen by the ISTEP scores is lower than
expected, and RTI is required by law.
It appears that, currently, it would be extremely difficult to implement RTI due to space
and personnel shortages. However, this manual provides direction for implementing each tier, as
well as a plan for implementing full RTI. These stages can either be one at a time in order to
allow for through understanding and competency, or can be combined to maximize efficiency
and time. Each stage will consist of at least three steps: In-service Training, Implementation, and
Evaluation.
10
Stage 1 was the needs assessment, where needs were uncovered. Stage 2 is implementing
Tier 1 practices, specifically finding and utilizing research-based practices. Stage 3 is
implementing Tier 2 practices by using Daily 5 as small-group interventions. Stage 4 is using coteaching as a way to implement Tier 3 practices of specific interventions. Stage 5 is how to fully
implement RTI into the school.
Stage Two: Implementing Tier 1 practices
The in-service training is meant for all teachers; however it can be administered in small
groups of teachers. For example, it could be given by grade level. The presentation is titled Inservice Stage Two on the flashdrive or Implementing Tier 1 practices on the slides. This
presentation focuses on developing an understanding of Tier 1 practices as well as how to use
screening data to identify problems and finding research-based instructional practices. The
comments in the note section may be used as a guide for the speaker of the presentation. It is
recommended that the speaker be someone who has a through understanding of the entire
process. It is recommended that the powerpoint be made available to the teachers by printing out
the slides.
Before implementing the Tier 1 practices, the teachers should fill out the form titled
Evidence-based instructional practices worksheet over the course of a week to identify what
methods the teachers are using and whether they are evidence based. This form would be useful
to identify where the teachers are succeeding and struggling. The week after filling out the
worksheet would be ideal for the first week of officially implementing these Tier 1 practices. It
should be clear when these practices will be expected. Additionally, there should be clear
11
expectations to keep up the good work with the screenings and ensure that they are upholding the
practices outlined in the powerpoint.
In order to ensure effective Tier 1 practices, evaluation is necessary. First, the teachers
should fill out the self-report check sheet after a month of implementing these practices. All of
the practices should be evidence-based. Second, each grade should fill out the Tier 1 Grade
Check Sheet. This sheet may be cut in half to save paper. Each teacher should fill it out to
facilitate discussion during grade-level meetings about screening data.
Stage Three: Implementing Tier 2 practices
This in-service training is also meant for all teachers in either big groups or small groups.
The presentation is titled In-service Stage Three on the flashdrive or Implementing Tier 2
practices on the slides. This presentation focuses on developing an understanding of Tier 2
practices as well as how to find and use effect interventions. The comments in the note section
may be used as a guide for the speaker of the presentation. It is recommended that the speaker be
someone who has a thorough understanding of the entire process. It is recommended that the
powerpoint be made available to the teachers by printing out the slides.
Tier 2 specifically refers to interventions which have many key terms that are required.
1. Benchmarks – Assessment three times a year in fall, winter, and spring to show
rates of growth.
2. Baseline – Using progress monitoring to take at least 3 points to get a trend line
(Brown-Chidsey & Steege, 2010).
3. Trend line – Line that is created by taking the average of the baseline data points
to show expected rates of growth.
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4. Aim lines – Shows the expected or anticipated growth. This can be used along
with the trend line to inform the decision-making process.
5. Four-point rule – If there are four consecutive points above or below the line, then
the intervention or goal line needs to be altered.
How to find interventions?
It is important to start with finding out what the problem is. For literacy we would look at
the 5 pillars. For example, it could be a problem with site words or fluency. The problem can be
identified using the screening data from Tier 1. Once the problem is identified, an evidence
based intervention can be found at one of the following:

What Works Clearinghouse - http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc

Intervention Central - www.interventioncentral.com

Michigan State University - www.msu.edu/course/cep/886/

Book
o Rathvon, N. (2008). Effective school interventions: Evidence based strategies for
improving student outcomes (2nd ed). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
How to graph an intervention?
First, we must establish a baseline by taking three data points to help predict how the
student will perform on the intervention. From these three points, we can create a trend line to
show how the student will likely perform and compare it to his actual performance. It is
important that the baseline data points be stable or somewhat close together. For example, if you
have two scores that are close together and one score that is extremely low, there may be a
different reason for that score to be low and the student should not be punished.
13
Next we need to establish a realistic and ambitious goal. If a student is far below the
others in the class and is a slow learner, they may not catch up to their peers with just an
intervention. Therefore, we need to look at what we should be expecting the student to achieve.
We can do this by finding the guidelines for benchmarks such as those in the Fuchs & Fuchs
(2003) article. Then these goals are applied to the graph and the student has a manageable goal
that they may be able to reach. In addition to being able to graph using Microsoft Excel, online
graphing tools are:

Chart Dog: http://www.interventioncentral.org/teacher-resources/graph-maker-freeonline

CBM Focus: www.cbmfocus.com
Before implementing the Tier 2 practices, the teachers should discuss which students
need interventions with their grade level lead teacher. They should also fill out the Intervention
Competency Check Sheet in order to see where they are at on intervention knowledge. The
teachers should also consider consulting with intervention specialists and the school psychologist
if they have any questions or did not rate themselves very highly on the check sheet. Next,
permission needs to be attained from the parents of children in interventions as it is outside of the
general educational curriculum.
In order to ensure effective Tier 2 practices, evaluation is necessary. First, the teachers
should fill out the self-report check sheet after a month of implementing these interventions.
They are also encouraged to consult with intervention specialists and the school psychologist in
order to better understand how to move forward. Second, each grade should fill out the
Intervention Competency Sheet. This sheet may be cut in half to save paper. Each teacher should
fill it out to facilitate discussion during grade-level meetings about screening data.
14
Stage Four: Co-teaching as modified RTI
This in-service training for this section was created by the Indiana Department of
Education on effective co-teaching. The link is here: http://www.doe.in.gov/specialed/virtualprofessional-development. Go down to powerpoint 11 and it will guide you through effective coteaching. I especially want to highlight the slides on what co-teaching is and is not, as well as
different structures that you can do co-teaching. I believe that working together to come up with
plans and step in the room with equal footing will be a huge benefit to the students.
Additionally, co-teaching can be used so that while there are small groups (stations) so
that interventions can be performed. They can also be performed during the alternative method
where a small group is working with the special education teacher. This will require a lot of
cooperation and time to pull this together, however, it can really help the students and school.
Before implementing these changes, there is a self assessment titled “How are we
doing?” This assessment will be helpful both before and after implementing the co-teaching in
order to keep track of what is happening and what needs to be worked on.
Stage Five: Full RTI
In order to fully implement RTI, Steps Two and Three (for Tier 1 and 2) will need to be
fully implemented. In addition, we will need to implement Tier 3 as well as a system that
connects all of the Tiers. This will require:
1.
Adequate funding to allow for individuals trained in interventions to be hired
2. Space for these individuals to conduct interventions
3. A comprehensive and dynamic team to facilitate the transition to full RTI
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4. A grade level team with the ability to meet and discuss which students should and
should not be placed in which tiers.
The first team discussed is called a problem-solving team. The goal of the problem-solving team
is to assist teachers in helping students who are not successful in Tiers 1 and 2. This team can
consist of a representative of each grade and specialists or just teachers. The second team is a
grade level team consisting of all of the teachers for that grade. This team will allow teachers to
feel comfortable and participate while understanding grade-level expectations. These teams will
need to work together to establish a set of guidelines for choosing which students should fall
under which tier.
In-service training should be led by the problem-solving team and should include
materials as to why full implementation of RTI is different than the partial implementation.
Additionally, they should come up with evaluations in order to help the teachers to understand
their strengths and weaknesses as well as what they can do better as a system.
Evaluation of Prevention Program
Effectiveness of Program
As discussed above, Brown-Chidsey & Steege (2010) have found that RTI is an effective model,
especially when all of the parts are used: early intervention, data-based decision making, and
evidence-based interventions. RTI, itself, was based in research that proves it to be effective and
therefore will likely be effective if implemented correctly.
Recommendations
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Implementation of this manual will be best if there is fidelity. Fidelity is ensuring that the
process is being adhered to appropriately and correctly. As such, it is important to find
individuals who not only want to be a part of the problem-solving team, but also understand the
details or RTI and can make the best decisions based upon the research-based principals of the
intervention.
Limitations
One limitation of this prevention manual is that it does not go very in depth with each tier. For
those who wish to utilize this manual, they will have to research and learn more about RTI. A
second limitation is that this manual is very specific to one school. In order to implement RTI at
a different school, a needs assessment for that school is encouraged.
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Included Recommended Reading
1. Blumberg Center at Indiana State University. Indiana’s Vision of Response to
Intervention. Retrieved from
https://myccs.ccs.k12.in.us/sre/downloads/cms_block_file/71378/file/83058.
2. Co-teaching models between general and special education teachers.
3. McMillon, D. (Moderator). Data-Based decision making: An RTI action network national
online forum. [Online forum]. National Center for Learning Disabilities, Inc.
4. Effective Educational Practices (2006). Active supervision: Professional development
structured assessment.
5. Indiana Department of Education. (2010). Response to instruction (RtI): Foundations for
implementation. Retrieved from
http://ces.shcsc.k12.in.us/Pages/ProfessionalDevelopment/RtI/Response%20to%20Instru
ction%20RtI%20Foundations%20for%20Implementation%5B1%5D.pdf.
6. Response to intervention (RTI): Data driven decision making – the 3Ds.
7. Response to Intervention: Eagle Elementary School (2009). Brownsburg Community
School Corporation Elementary RtL Program Summary. Brownsburg, IN.
8. The Council For Exceptional Children (2001). How are we doing? TEACHING
Exceptional Children.
Additional Recommended Reading:
1. McDougal, J. L.; LeBlanc, M.; & Hintze, J. (2010). Graphing student academic data for
universal screening and progress monitoring. Helping Children at Home and School III.
18
2. Murawski, W. M. (2008). Five keys to co-teaching in inclusive classrooms. The School
Administrator. Retrieved from http://www.indianaieprc.org/images/IndianaIEPsupp
/incpractices/Admin-and-Coteaching-5-KeyS.pdf.
3. RTI Action Network: Program of the National Center of Learning Disabilities. Myths
about response to intervention (RTI) implementation. Retrieved from http://www
.rtinetwork.org/learn/what/mythsaboutrti.
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References
Brown-Chidsey, R. & Steege, M. W. (2010). Response to Intervention: Principles and Strategies
for Effective Practice-Second Edition. New York, NY. The Guilford Press.
Burns, M. K.; Riley-Tillman, T. C.; & VanderHeyden, A. M. (2012). RTI Applications:
Academic and Behavioral Interventions – Volume One. New York: NY. The Guilford
Press.
Fuchs, L. S. & Fuchs, D. (1993). Formative evaluation of academic progress: How much growth
can we expect? School Psychology Review, 22(1), 27-48.
Indiana Department of Education. (2010). Response to instruction (RtI): Foundations for
implementation. Retrieved from
http://ces.shcsc.k12.in.us/Pages/ProfessionalDevelopment/RtI/Response%20to%20Instruction%2
0RtI%20Foundations%20for%20Implementation%5B1%5D.pdf.
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Appendix A: Evidence-based instructional practices worksheet
Date
Subject
Method Used
Is it
research
based?
(Yes/No)
Name of researchers
OR alternative method
and researchers.
21
Appendix B: Tier 1 Grade Check Sheet
Grade Level: ________
Date: __________
Teacher: ______________________________
Language Arts Screening Assessments Given: ________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Expected Goal: ________________
Actual Average : ____________________________
Math Arts Screening Assessments Given: ____________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Expected Goal: ________________
Actual Average : ____________________________
Tier 1 Grade Check Sheet
Grade Level: ________
Date: __________
Teacher: ______________________________
Language Arts Screening Assessments Given: ________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Expected Goal: ________________
Actual Average : ____________________________
Math Arts Screening Assessments Given: ____________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Expected Goal: ________________
Actual Average : ____________________________
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Appendix C: Intervention Competency Sheet
What grade would you give yourself for the following:
A
B
C
D
F
B
C
D
F
1. Ability to find the right intervention
2. Ability to implement the intervention the same way
every time
3. Ability to collect the data
4. Ability to graph the data
5. Ability to interpret the data
6. Knowing when to change the intervention
7. Understanding of why evidence-based interventions
are important
Intervention Competency Sheet
What grade would you give yourself for the following:
A
1. Ability to find the right intervention
2. Ability to implement the intervention the same way
every time
3. Ability to collect the data
4. Ability to graph the data
5. Ability to interpret the data
6. Knowing when to change the intervention
7. Understanding of why evidence-based interventions
are important
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