Resources

RtI Focus Newsletter Vol 1 Issue 2

May 13, 2009

4 May 2009

Volume 1, Issue 2

Response to Intervention (RtI)

Universal Screening

Universal screening is a type of assessment that is characterized by the administration of quick, low-cost, repeatable testing of age-appropriate skills to all students.

To determine the effectiveness of curriculum and instruction and to determine students' level of proficiency in essential areas, schools administer screenings to all students, usually three times a year. Screening data are organized in a format that allows for the inspection of both group performance and individual student performance on specific skills.

First, universal screening shows how functional the core curriculum and instruction are in the school. In a multi-tiered model of school support, about 80% of all students in the school should be showing adequate progress using a particular curricular element or program. If more than 20% of the students are not making acceptable gains in an area, the school must improve the core curriculum and/or the manner in which the curriculum is delivered to the students.

Secondly, universal screening identifies those students who are not making acceptable progress in the core curriculum. Provided that 80% or more are making the adequate progress in the foundational curriculum, students who are not making adequate progress require additional intervention, either in small groups or on an individual basis.

Examples of Universal Screeners

Oral Reading Fluency curriculum-based measurement (CBM)
Maze test (for comprehension) CBM
Spelling CBM
Letter naming fluency, letter sound fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency CBMs
Math: computation, facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, mixed) CBMs
Early Numeracy CBMs including oral counting, number identification, quantity discrimination, missing numbers

At this time, Knoxville CUSD 202 uses a MAZE test for first through 8th grades with an Oral Reading Fluency follow up on students whose scores are low. Kindergartners are screened using letter naming fluency, letter sound fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency and nonsense word fluency. Kindergartners were also screened using early numeracy CBMs.

Is There a Difference Between Elementary and Secondary?

The high school level is distinguished from the elementary setting in that we already have eight to nine years of information to assess student needs. At the elementary level, predicting who is "at-risk" for failing to acquire reading or mathematics skills is the important standard because we want to intervene and prevent failure. At the high school level, staff will likely have an extensive record of students' performance and know their achievement. Screening seems to shift to a question of how to serve those most in need regarding scheduling and interventions as well as who is likely to need the school's most intense level of interventions (e.g., tertiary-level interventions).

These students may by identified in a number of ways. A secondary RtI team may integrate student data on drop outs or other low-performing students from the last three years and see what profile emerges. Often, failure in one or more academic classes is a useful predictor for judging students as "at-risk".

In addition to integrating data on past performance, various ideas have been implemented for universal screening at the secondary level. Often a screening assessment that measures basic skills expected to have been mastered by the eighth grade will be administered to incoming ninth grade students. This coupled with the aforementioned data as well as additional data including teacher reports, parent reports, ISAT scores, and Explore test scores is useful in focusing on specific skill deficits. the Explore test (an ACT product) can inform students and school staff of student skill weaknesses and can provide information toward a projected ACT score.

Secondary and elementary have other differences also. The elementary schedule tends to be more flexible than the secondary. At the secondary level, time within students' schedules must be arranged for Tier 2 and/or 3 interventions, but students must still meet requirements to pass classes including time in class! Interventions always "in addition to" not "instead of, " should help students succeed academically, but graduation requirements still must be satisfied to get the diploma. Creative use of time to schedule interventions and still stay on track to graduate in four years will be important.

More about High School RtI

Literacy is a focus in elementary RtI, and it is a focus in secondary RtI also. Because literacy is a key to academic success in secondary settings, difficulty in this area bodes ill for students learning academic subjects. By focusing on proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, educators can help students access content, thereby avoiding more global school failure.

What works for elementary students may not work for high school students. Unique learner and setting characteristics must be considered in designing appropriate assessment and instructional approaches at secondary levels.

Connections must be made between content mastery and content literacy. Academic achievement with literacy roots as a school-wide mission fostered by a systematic approach to addressing student needs (aka RtI) will be necessary for success for all students.

Problems for secondary will be similar to elementary, but secondary will have its own unique issues also. Some problems will be finding interventions that are geared toward more mature but struggling readers, scheduling, flexible movement across teirs within a semester course schedule, maintaining credits and a 4-year timeline for graduation.

Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.

John F. Kennedy