RTI at Work™ Plan Book - Austin Buffum

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when applied across all grades and subjects. Instead, we recommend that the defining characteristic of Tier 2 is the learning outcomes being targeted. Supplemental help should primarily focus on providing targeted students with the additional time and support needed to master the specific skills, knowledge, and behaviors that were identified at Tier 1 to be absolutely essential for a student’s future success. Classroom teacher teams should be actively involved at Tier 2, as these outcomes directly relate to their areas of expertise. Because supplemental interventions are focused on very specific learning targets, placement into Tier 2 interventions must be timely, targeted, flexible, and aligned to classroom assessments.

      Equally important, for students who do master essential curriculum during core instruction, Tier 2 time can be used to extend their learning.

      To be clear, there is an important difference between enrichment and extension. Extension is when students are stretched beyond essential grade-level curriculum or levels of proficiency. We define enrichment as students having access to the subjects that specials or electives teachers traditionally teach, such as music, art, drama, applied technology, and physical education. We strongly believe that this curriculum is essential for all students (Buffum et al., 2018). Tier 2 time should be used for extension, not enrichment.

      If a school provides students access to essential grade-level curriculum and effective initial teaching during Tier 1 core instruction, and targeted supplemental academic and behavioral help in meeting these standards at Tier 2, then most students should be succeeding. But there will inevitably be students who enter a school year lacking the foundational skills needed to learn at high levels. These universal skills of learning include the ability to:

      1. Decode and comprehend grade-level text

      2. Write effectively

      3. Apply number sense

      4. Comprehend the English language (or the school’s primary language)

      5. Consistently demonstrate social and academic behaviors

      6. Overcome complications due to health or home

      These foundational skills are much more than a student needing help in a specific learning target, but instead represent a series of skills that enable a student to comprehend instruction, access information, demonstrate understanding, and behave appropriately in a school setting. If a student is significantly behind in one of these universal skills, he or she will struggle in virtually every grade level, course, and subject. Not coincidentally, a school’s most at-risk youth are behind in more than one area. For students who need intensive remediation in foundational skills, the school must have a plan to provide this level of assistance without denying these students access to grade-level essential curriculum. This is the purpose of Tier 3.

      Because students develop universal skills over time, schools must provide intensive interventions for targeted students as part of their instructional day and by highly trained staff in a student’s targeted area (or areas) of need.

      Finally, RTI is considered a multitiered system of supports because some students are going to need all three tiers to learn at high levels. Students are not moved from tier to tier. Instead, the tiers are cumulative. All students need effective initial teaching on grade-level essential standards at Tier 1. In addition, some students need additional time and support in meeting grade-level essential standards at Tier 2. And in addition to Tier 1 and Tier 2, some students need intensive help in learning essential outcomes from previous years. Students in need of Tier 3 intensive help in remedial skills will most likely struggle with new essential grade-level curriculum the first time it is taught. This means these students will need effective Tier 2 interventions, too.

       Questions for Reflection

      As a team, use the following question for reflections about your efforts with RTI at Work.

      ▶ At your school, do all students have access to grade-level essential curriculum and coursework? What changes are necessary to ensure students do not miss essential curriculum to receive interventions?

      ▶ At your school, when students have not mastered grade-level essential curriculum by the end of a unit of study, is there systematic help to provide them? What systems are in place to ensure students receive this help without missing new Tier 1 essential instruction? What changes are necessary?

      ▶ At your school, can students receive intensive Tier 3 remediation in prior-year essential curriculum? What processes ensure students receive this help without missing Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions?

       The Foundation: Being a Professional Learning Community

      An individual teacher working in his or her own classroom cannot effectively provide all three levels of RTI support. Instead, it requires schoolwide, collaborative efforts in which the entire staff takes collective responsibility for student learning. To make this point as clear and explicit as possible: being a professional learning community is an essential prerequisite to successful RTI implementation. Specifically, we advocate for the Professional Learning Community at Work (PLC at Work) framework, originally developed by Richard DuFour and Robert Eaker (1998).

      Structuring a school as a PLC creates the foundation required to build a highly effective system of interventions. This foundation is grounded in the three big ideas of the PLC at Work process: (1) a focus on learning, (2) a collaborative culture, and (3) a results orientation (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, Many, & Mattos, 2016).

       A Focus on Learning

      A PLC school’s core mission is not simply to ensure that all students are taught but also that they actually learn. As Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas Many, and Mike Mattos (2016) state in the PLC handbook Learning by Doing:

      The first (and the biggest) of the big ideas is based on the premise that the fundamental purpose of the school is to ensure that all students learn at high levels (grade level or higher). This focus on and commitment to the learning of each student are the very essence of a learning community. (p. 11)

      This seismic shift from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning requires far more than rewriting a school’s mission statement or creating a catchy “learning for all” motto to put on the school’s letterhead. This commitment to ensuring student learning unites and focuses the collaborative efforts of the staff and serves as the organization’s “north star” when making decisions. The school’s policies, practices, and procedures are guided by the question, Will this help more students learn at higher levels?

      Creating consensus and commitment to becoming a learning-focused school or district is an essential prerequisite to successful RTI implementation. Likewise, any school already committed to the PLC process would heartily embrace RTI as an essential tool in achieving its commitment to guarantee every student’s success.

       A Collaborative Culture

      The second big idea is a commitment to creating a collaborative culture. Because no teacher can possibly possess all the knowledge, skills, time, and resources needed to ensure high levels of learning for all his or her students, educators at a PLC school work collaboratively and take collective responsibility for student success. Instead of allowing individual teachers to work in isolation, teacher teams become the fundamental structure of the school. Collaboration does not happen by invitation or chance; instead, frequent team time is embedded into the contractual day.

      Creating collaborative teacher teams will not improve student learning unless their efforts focus on the right work. To this end, four critical questions guide teacher collaboration in the PLC at Work process:

      1. What knowledge, skills, and dispositions should every student acquire as a result of this unit, this course, or this grade level?

      2. How will we know when each student has acquired the essential knowledge and skills?

      3.

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