Wausau East High School:
Creating an Effective and Practical
Response to Intervention
Program
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Wausau, WI; population: 39,106
Number of Students at East: 1050
Demographics:
2.5% American Indian
 4% Hispanic
 5%African American
 18% Asian
 71% White
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International Baccalaureate School
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High performing students and system
which met student needs
Evolving student population
System not meeting changing needs
Teachers struggling to meet needs of all
students
Budget restraints
Frustrations began to build
Needed to do something…but what?
Began exploring options
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East HS Common Intellectual Mission:
21st Century College and Career Ready
Gather
 Analyze
 Synthesize
 Understand
 Create
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Focus of year-long, staff training and collaboration
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Academic Enrichment Program
Identified students at-risk of not graduating
and/or not being successful at East
 Involved 9th- 12th grade
 Small class size (8/teacher)
 Worked with students on homework
 Success in making connections with some
students
 Gut feeling’ identification- Struggle to find
‘right’ students
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Supportive building administration
Research and Design Committee
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Teachers, administrators, counselors‘problem solving’ committee
Caring staff
Realization that things needed to
change
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Stronger impact on ALL students
Efficient use of existing data
Effective System to identify at-risk
students earlier
Time, money, resources…..
Began to research what was out there
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Other schools
Staff Development
Books
Conferences
Online Resources
Needed a plan to pull
everything together…
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Team from East attended workshop: WI
RTI Framework: A Systems Approach to
RTI
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Regular Education Teachers (English, Science,
Math, Social Studies), SPED, School Counselor
& Psychologist, Assistant Principal
Met helpful DPI staff (Jill Koenitzer)
Introduced to the Early Warning System
Began to identify biggest struggles
Began to develop a plan
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LOTS of questions!
 Where
do we begin?
 Could be identify what was/was not
working?
 Could we get people to change?
 Who was going to be involved?
 Where would we find the time?
 How could we use the information from
the conference effectively?
More questions than answers…
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Created East RTI Committee
Involved in Early Warning System
(EWS)
Academic Enrichment program changes
Resource Center changes
Stronger communication between all
parties
Hard and honest look at data-
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Participants: Kelly Rohr(English), Hope
Cameron(Social Studies), Julia McMahon(Math),
Darlene Beattie(Science), Lou Livingston(SPED),
Manee Vongpakte(Counselor), Joe Svitak(AP),
Chris Budnik(AP), Rich Ament(School Psych),
Sara Boetcher(District RTI Coordinator)
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Meeting Time: 2X/Month (Collab Time)
Administrative Support: VITAL
Staff Buy-In: Communication was crucial
Early Warning System: Putting it in place
http://www.betterhighschools.org/EWS_imp.asp
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Worked with DPI
Pulled data togetherFocus on one grade- 9th
Educate staff on EWS
How do we use the data?
1st year discoveries
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Resource CentersUse of commons, LMC
 RC assignments
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Academic EnrichmentUse of DataCoordinatorStaff Buy-In VITAL
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Full-time Math RC teacher
Full-time English RC teacher
Assigned students to RC
 EWS students
 D/F students (Progress Report/Quarter
grade)
 Teacher request- Intervention Forms
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Stronger teacher involvement
 RC Binder
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Communication
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Developed Curriculum Guide
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Student, teacher and parent expectations
Identified specific skills necessary for success
Academic Seminar (2015/2016)?
Focus on 9th and 10th graders
Use data to identify students
Goal setting
Self advocacy
Communication
Scheduling
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EWS
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At-risk identification
Quarterly results
Semester results
Results drive meetings
Lexile Testing
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School SLO
All freshmen tested (Fall, Winter, Spring)
Teacher use of scores
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Planned for .8 position (.2 AE)
Scheduled in English RC
AE connection
Monitor EWS students
Coordinate RCs
Staff Development
Schedule EWS students
And…and…and…
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VITAL!
Tier 1 Instruction and Support
Disciplinary Literacy
 Formative Assessments
 Academic Vocabulary
 Lexile Use
 Differentiation
 RC Expectations
 Student Motivation
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Patience
Results
(Collab time)
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Tier 1 Intervention Form
Tier 2 Academic Intervention Plan
RTI Background Form
Tier 2 Teacher Response Form
Articles
Training Opportunities
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Staff Buy-in
Administrative Support
System Change- TIME
Data Retreat
Literacy Coach
Additional Training
LOTS TO DO
Next Steps…
Kelly Rohr
Chris Budnik
Wausau East High School
Wausau, WI 54403
krohr@wausauschools.org
cbudnik@wausauschools.org
(715)261-0652