Systematic Response to Intervention (RTI)
The Independence Student Achievement Pyramid of Intervention
Overview
Response to Intervention (RTI): The Independence Student Achievement Pyramid of Intervention is the
process of aligning appropriate assessment with purposeful instruction for all students. At
Independence, Response to Intervention is based in the general education classroom where teachers
routinely implement a strong and rigorous standards-based learning environment. The tiered approach
to providing layers of intervention for students needing support requires a school-wide understanding of
the Common Core, assessment practices, and instructional pedagogy.
Independence’s RTI process includes several key components:
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A 3-Tier delivery model designed to provide support matched to student need through the
implementation of standards-based classrooms.
Evidence-based instruction and implementation of Common Core curriculum.
Evidence-based interventions utilized with increasing levels of intensity based on progress
monitoring. The use of a variety of ongoing assessment data to determine which students are
not meeting success academically and/or behaviorally.
PLC Teams serve as the driving force for instructional decision making.
Purposeful allocation of instructional resources based on student assessment data. All students
participate in general education learning.
Students requiring interventions to meet individual learning expectations will receive support through a
systematic and purposeful process. The number of students requiring interventions will decrease as the
level of intensity of the intervention increases.
Tier 1: Standards-Based Classroom Learning:
Standards-based classroom learning describes effective instruction that should be happening in all
classrooms for all students.
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As Independence moves towards full implementation of the Common Core, it is recognized that
the curriculum is the foundation for the learning that occurs in each classroom for all students.
Standards-based learning environments, implemented with fidelity, are necessary to ensure all
students have access to quality instruction. Implementation and access to college prep
curriculum will ensure that 80-100% of students are successful in the general education classes.
Instruction and learning focus on and include evidence-based instruction that is differentiated
according to students’ various needs.
Tier 1 is not limited to instruction in the academic content areas, but also includes all
developmental domains such as behavioral and social development.
Teachers utilize common formative assessment results and analysis of student work to guide
and adjust instruction. PLC teams have created common formative assessments and a common
protocol for analyzing and recording student progress.
Tier 1 represents effective, strategic, and expert instruction that is available in all classrooms.
The use of effective questioning skills is critical to responding to student performance.
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Focused attention on content knowledge of teachers will be required to support appropriate
teacher questioning and feedback skills.
Rigorous instruction is emphasized and all students are placed in a college-prep program.
Vertical (across grade level) instructional conversations will support and challenge all teachers to
provide instruction where students demonstrate depth of understanding, including such
cognitive processes as explanation, interpretation, application, analysis of perspectives,
empathy and self-knowledge. Alignment of instruction and assessment based on the state
standard and Common Core will ensure student access to an appropriate rigorous instructional
program.
Tier 2: Standards-Based Classroom Learning
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Tier 2 becomes the answer to the question “What are we prepared to do when they do not
learn?”
Using universal screening data, summative assessment data, and Tier 1 formative assessment
data, teachers and instructional leaders should determine concepts, content areas, and /or
specific skills needing support.
Students are then placed in academic support classes starting with Summer Bridge prior to
freshman year, and Academic Performance and Career Choices during the school year.
All students who need Tier 2 intervention (in addition to Tier 1 instruction) should be identified
through the universal screening and formative assessments protocol, as well as monitoring by
counselors.
Tier 2 interventions are in place for students who are not being sufficiently successful or
adequately challenged with Tier 1 interventions alone.
Tier 2 interventions are pre-planned, developed, and supported at the school level, thereby
becoming “standard intervention protocols” that are proactively in place for students who need
them.
Tier 2 interventions are not a substitution for Tier 1 instruction, but are layered in addition to
the Tier 1 instruction that is provided.
Independence will determine concepts and content areas that are likely to have been mastered
by highly able students and, through strategies such as pretesting and curriculum compacting,
be prepared to provide access to accelerated classes.
Tier 2 interventions are made available to all students who are struggling at any stage in the
academic process. Students who have maintained proficiency can then be promoted out of Tier
2. The process is flexible and consistently changing.
Progress monitoring by counselors will be used for identified students involved in Tier 2 to
measure the effectiveness of the intervention. Attention to transfer of learning to the Tier 1
core classroom will be considered.
The collaboration between the counselor, intervention teacher, and Tier 1 classroom teacher(s)
will be frequent and focused on progress monitoring data as well as PLC data.
Specific academic interventions such as Literacy for those who are struggling with reading,
Algebra Lab for those who are struggling with algebra, and CAHSEE classes for those students
who have not passed the exam, will be implemented to increase the probability that these high
risk students will have the necessary skills to be successful.
Systematic Tier II Counseling Interventions:
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Counselors identify struggling incoming freshmen based on junior-high teacher
recommendations and CST tests scores and place these students into our Summer Bridge
Program where students earn 10 units of elective credit during the summer prior to the
freshman year.
Prior to each semester, counselors carefully monitor transcripts. 9GR students are identified at
the end of the summer following the freshman year. At-risk juniors and seniors are also
identified as at-risk Tier II.
Counselors meet with at-risk students in the fall which includes 9GR students with less than 45
units, juniors with less than 100 units, and seniors with less than 160 units. The junior counselor
will complete 1802 forms while meeting with students and parent contact will be made. For
seniors, students below 160 credits and/or those who have not passed the CAHSEE will be given
additional support. Again, students will conference with counselor and parent contact will be
made. Special emphasis will be placed on getting students back on-track by referring to
Bakersfield Adult School, Vista West Continuation, zero period, and APEX for credit recovery.
Letters are then mailed out to parents informing of at-risk status.
Progress reports are mailed out five weeks into each quarter, and counselors use those to
monitor student grades and conference with students who have three or more failing grades.
We will set up a teacher/parent conference with teachers and students when a student has five
or more failing grades no more than twice a year, and teachers will be asked to complete the
Academic Improvement Plan form prior to the conference.
Letters for at-risk juniors will again be mailed out in January to inform parents and students of
possible non-grad status.
At-risk senior letters will be sent out in September, January, and April to warn parents about
possible non-grad status.
Teachers will be sent a red-line list form to complete for seniors who are in danger of failing any
class: after third quarter, after fourth-quarter progress reports, and once final grades are in. A
teacher will be required to provide the list if he/she has failing seniors and will also be required
to call the parent to notify of failing status.
Tier 3: Specially Designed Learning
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Tier 3 at Independence is a unique individual, diagnostic, data driven instructional problem
solving process where the question about a student expands to include the why as well as the
what. This is the point where specialists (school psychologists, counselors, teachers, speech
language pathologists, etc.) often participate in the problem solving process if they have not
already been involved in Tiers 1 and 2.
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Problem solving at this stage is more in-depth and intensive and usually requires gathering and
analyzing additional information about the student, his/her performance strengths and
weaknesses, background information, etc.
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Counselors will gather data and complete the screening referral process for Special Education.
Whereas Tier 2’s supplemental activities will have been programs designed to strengthen
targeted skills for a range of students, the Tier 3 process employs specialized screening to
discover the reason(s) for an individual student’s difficulties. This knowledge guides the design
of individualized interventions that attempt to best fit the student.
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Many students will be satisfactorily helped by the careful analysis and interventions of the Tier 3
process. Their cases will revert to Tier 2 or Tier 1 with the benefit of key discoveries that have
enabled the student to experience success. These may be in academics or in behavior, and often
in both.
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At this point, students may be placed within the Special Education system to get additional
academic support or referred to Vista West Continuation School, Bakersfield Adult School, or
Discovery for credit recovery and support.