The following was brought on by 2 separate roll-outs of RTI solutions by software companies in anticipation of PA establishing statewide RTI guidelines.
If you need a comprehensive description of RTI in PA then www.pattan.net is a good reference site. It breaks the system down into manageable pieces and also has the 42 page “brief” of RTI implementation guides for PA.
If you are a little ADHD like me then here’s the short version:
The discrepancy model has become a “wait to fail” model and has not proven effective at closing the achievement gap. Too many kids are being thrown into special ed classes due to reading or other scholastic issues. We need to fix this by identifying struggling students early (universal screening) and improve their achievement by using lessons matched to their instructional needs (flexible grouping and differentiated instruction).
RTI is usually administered in a 3 tiered model. Tier one is in the general education classroom, 80-85% of students fall under this category. Tier two is made up of students with marked difficulties who have not responded to tier 1. These students require an additional 30 minutes per day of small group instruction and more frequent progress monitoring. About 15-20% of students fall under this category. The final tier consists of intensive interventions provided in addition to core instruction with the goal of increasing an individual student’s rate of progress. This is the last step before special ed is prescribed.
Each tier holds fewer students and increases progressively in intensity. The team approach is crucial to the success of the program. Administrators need to be actively involved and monitor their educators to retain the fidelity of the program. This team also decides if a student is responding to the intervention and if they should be moved between tiers.
The bottom line: RTI is a fancy name for a common sense approach to education. Evaluate students to see where they are struggling in order to give them ability aligned lessons and prevent them from just being thrown into special ed.
This whole concept makes perfect sense in the education software industry. The foundation is already laid. Software makes it possible to quickly and accurately screen all students. Many programs can then prescribe the appropriate lessons or intervention needed. This addresses the most critical and problematic issue with RTI: That it be implemented by highly-trained professionals.
An electronic solution standardizes the process and frees educators to educate. It is still imperative that they monitor progress and contribute to the reporting, but the process becomes much less subjective. In addition software makes graphical reporting a quick and easy process to share with administrators or parents.
We have begun to work with two RTI software solutions. One through the American Education Corporation (amered.com) and the other through AutoSkill (autoskill.com). These two solutions share a degree of similarity but apply their solutions quite differently.
A+nywhere Learning System has introduced a system called Learning Link. It is an easy to use universal screener. It is administered via the web and for a small per student fee allows all students in a school or district to be benchmark tested. The test itself is short, 30-35 questions, however each question tests on a range of knowledge to determine not only comprehension but also some of the higher level thinking skills. The questions use flash animation and some require the student to manipulate the graphics to achieve the desired outcome. All results are quickly provided to the administrators. Math is Quantiled and reading results are Lexiled.
Learning Link is designed to compete with the Pierson, NWBA, MAP and Scantron type tests but takes it one step further: It prescribes the necessary lessons to fill in the knowledge gaps and bring the student back to skill level. This creates a “no brainer” situation for schools already using the A+ Learning System. Teachers apply the test and import the results to A+ to automatically create a detailed, individualized lesson plan for each student. Even if a school is not using A+, the simplicity of the testing process and cost make it an extremely strong contender as a universal screener.
AutoSkill has already earned the reputation as the leading remedial software provider on the market. Their Academy of Math and Academy of Reading programs have won numerous awards. Because of their foundation in these areas AutoSkill have added their own RTI solution. Unlike A+, AutoSkill focuses primarily on tiers 2 and 3 where they can apply their expertise in remediation.
The AutoSkill RTI module tests students reading fluency with 3 reading passages, and their comprehension with a cloze test. These oral fluency benchmark tests (ORF’s) have become the default method for many districts to determine the percentage of students are likely to meet, or not meet, established standards on state and/or local standardized achievement tests.
In the past however, the tests required the teacher to grade them on the spot. AutoSkill’s RTI module records the student so that they can be re-played as many times as necessary and so that they can be graded at the leisure of the teacher. These recordings are also powerful proof of a student’s gains after intervention.
AutoSkill has retained the expertise of Dr. James McCook, a respected RTI author and consultant for school systems across the nation. Because of this, the depth of their tracking, reporting and progress monitoring is extremely detailed. The module is a start to finish turn key solution for districts with high numbers of at risk students. Because of this, the RTI Package for the Academy of READING was Honored as 2009 Best in Tech by “Scholastic Administr@tor” and the 2009 SIIA CODiE Award for “Best k-12 Instructional Solution.”
It should be noted though that The Academy of READING is prerequisite for customers implementing the Response to Intervention and/or Oral Reading Fluency modules.
Like I said, there are some glaring differences between these two solutions. What you and your district consider RTI to be will be the differentiating factor. Many schools will be satisfied to choose a universal screening test and allow educators to build curriculum around the prescriptions. Other districts will find that they need to implement a full blown RTI solution because of the severity of their achievement gaps or reading deficiencies. Both companies offer solutions that will complement your RTI implementation when PA rolls it out to the rest of the state.
I’ve seen many weblogs and I can certainly state that this one is my favorite.
Last week i downloaded Rock Band 2 Torrent from http://www.games-iso.com and, despite the fact its a really OLD game, its simply the best NINTENDO DS game ever made in my opinion!
I really liked your blog.Really looking forward to read more. Really Great
Why have you taken out my post? It was very useful information and i promise atleast 1 person found it helpful unlike the rest of the comments on this site. I’ll post it again. Fed up with obtaining low numbers of useless traffic to your website? Well i wish to share with you a fresh underground tactic that makes me personally $900 per day on 100% AUTOPILOT. I could truthfully be here all day and going into detail but why dont you simply check their site out? There is a excellent video that explains everything. So if your seriously interested in producing easy hard cash this is the website for you. Auto Traffic Avalanche
Recently after upgrading to GEN D3, I have been faced with an annoying (but not critical) bug were the X and O buttons swap. On the XMB it is normal where X is to confirm and O is to cancel, but as soon as the game launches, they swap and I don’t know why.
This is a really good read for me, Must admit that you are one of the best bloggers I ever saw.Thanks for posting this informative article.
Saved your site. Appreciation for discussing. Surely well worth time clear of my personal tests.
I love your web page! did you create this yourself or did you outsource it? Im in search of a blog design thats similar so thats the only cause I’m asking. Either way keep up the great work I was impressed with your content genuinely..
Pussssyyy I am thirteen and I can drink higher then this girl
Just killing some in between class time on Digg and I found your article . Not normally what I prefer to read about, but it was absolutely worth my time. Thanks.
Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.
You write very detailed,Pay tribute to you.Couldn’t be written any better. Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
My English is not good, but to see the article you write a good feel of your
Yes, I do imagine that I couldn’t use to last longer than expected.
I just wanted to comment your blog and say that I really enjoyed reading your blog post here. It was very informative and I also digg the way you write! Keep it up and I’ll be back to read more soon mate
I have 2, I have not been on this page for so long… but t’was another lovely experience 2 c it’s such a vital subject & ignored by many.
Wow, I found this site on yahoo searching for something completely different- now I’m gonna need to go through the archives XD So much for my spare time today, but this was a truly great find.
nice links,, really wordpress theme building is very simple, but we need to revise all the tags, since there are 100 of tags which are useful in building successful wordpress theme,,,
useless seriously, this almost doenst work ur arms. lol
Very useful informations about these subject. I have found them with googling and you seems number one of these subjects ! . . .
I’m impressed!!! Really informative blog post here my friend. I just wanted to comment & say keep up the quality work. I’ve bookmarked your blog just now and I’ll be back to read more in the future my friend! Also nice colors on the layout, it’s really easy on the eyes.
Thank you for this valuable information, I hope it is okay that I bookmarked your website for further references.
awesome review and tutorial. Today there are thousands of wordpress themes but not many of its authors are coming up with tutorial. Great job and thanks for the review.
I have been to your site several times now, and this time I am adding it to my bookmarks Your discussions are always relevant, unlike the same-old stuff on other sites (which are coming off my bookmarks!) Rock on!
By far the most concise and up to date information I found on this topic. Sure glad that I navigated to your page by accident. I’ll be subscribing to your feed so that I can get the latest updates. Appreciate all the information here
Well, this is my primary check out for your webpage! We’re a group of volunteers and commencing a brand new initiative in a community in the identical niche. Your weblog offered us useful data to work on. You have done a marvellous occupation!
Well, this is my primary check out for your webpage! We’re a group of volunteers and commencing a brand new initiative in a community in the identical niche. Your weblog offered us useful data to work on. You have done a marvellous occupation!
You have a great article here, really helpful. Very well written I will be bookmarking this website and subscribing to your feed so i can regularly read articles of this quality.
Hey admin, thank you very much for providing this blog post. I found it superior. Cheers, Taj!
Printing and Mailing is a great way of marketing all around even in this internet savvy world. I recently started a new business and got great response from postcard mailing services.
I’ve bookmarked, Dugg, and I joined the RSS subscription. Thanks!
Deeply informative post. Thanks 4 taking d time to share your view with every1.
The best game is BlazBlue: Continuum Shift ,I am looking for more game likes this..any suggestions?. I own a Xbox 360 Console.