development process we identified the priority of providing effective reading instruction and strong,
researched based interventions for our students with disabilities relative to our mission. We believe that
both the cultural change and changes in practice resulting from our commitment to developing a sound
Response to Intervention (RTI) approach, have been the keys to closing the district level gap and to
ensuring increased growth and achievement for this sub group. Teachers have undergone extensive staff
development; been engaged in targeted collaboration; developed an effective core approach to
instruction; adjusted instruction as a result of formative assessment; and have been provided more
support to address students' needs as part of this change.
Over the past three years we have seen the reading proficiency improve for our SWD sub group by
10.4%. Specifically, scores improved from 64.7% in 2010 to 75% in 2011 and 75.4% in 2012. We have
seen the greatest gains from students who were scoring at the lowest levels. In 2010, 11.4% of our SWD
sub group scored "Below Basic" in reading, the lowest level. This improved by 2.7% when 8.7% scored
"Below Basic" in 2011. In 2012 improvement was made again. This time we saw a 3.4% improvement
when 5.3% scored at the "Below Basic" level. Through RTI, effective practice and a changing culture
we have cut the percentage of students scoring below basic more than in half (from 11.4% to 5.3%) in
three years. We are encouraged about the opportunity to make even greater improvement by continually
improving on our RTI approach to target students’ needs.
A snapshot of our RTI process starts with supporting the students first through the strengths of the
general classroom teacher. We recognized the need for a consistent common classroom, or Tier I,
instructional approach that really targeted the skills necessary to improve reading fluency and
comprehension. Therefore, we trained the entire PK-8 group of general classroom and reading teachers
to support students with the use of Wilson's Fundations as well as a number of other research-based
reading interventions to complement our core reading instruction. For students that need a more
intensive classroom intervention, we also trained a number of teachers in the comprehensive Wilson
Reading Program. Specialists were reassigned to spend much more time assisting in the general
classroom as opposed to being pulled out to tutor small numbers of students on a frequent basis. They
also spend time training our staff in instructional nuances that can be used to support their core
instruction. All of our PK-8 classroom teachers have also been trained to use the AIMsWeb as a
benchmark assessment and progress monitoring tool. Collaborative time was established so that twice a
week teachers can evaluate student progress together and use their collective strengths to plan for
improvement. After a benchmark assessments, teachers review data and identify students not making
necessary progress. The classroom teacher then examines instructional approaches and decides which
research-based classroom interventions may be utilized. The student is then assessed, or monitored,
more frequently between benchmark assessment periods to provide the teacher critical information to
aide her efforts. If progress is not made in a manner that closes the gap by the next benchmark
assessment a more intensive intervention can be considered by the RTI team.
Teachers are encouraged by the RTI team approach because they can collectively harness their strengths
to serve students and can see how their efforts are making a difference. It encourages best practice
instruction, proper use of formative assessment, and more powerful professional collaboration. Students
are encouraged because they are given specific strategies to improve and which are suited to their needs
as opposed to what used to be most prevalent in the world of intervention, just more work for longer
periods of time. Most importantly, we are getting closer to our goal of having all students learn to read at
a high level.
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