RTI & Math: Where Do I Start?
Posted by Catherine Conway on Tue, Aug 17, 2010 @ 09:48 AM
About a year ago, the US Department of Education published a practice guide with 8 recommendations for helping teachers use Response to Intervention (RTI) to identify and help students in need of math interventions. We've found this guide to be an invaluable resource and worth mentioning as you think about your RTI plans this fall.
So, where should you start with RTI this fall? The US Department of Education recommends universal screening to determine which students are likely to need intervention. The practice guide provides a checklist for following this recommendation.
From
Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for Elementary and Middle Schools:
Recommendation 1. Screen all students to identify those at risk for potential mathematics difficulties and provide interventions to students identified as at risk.
__ As a district or school sets up a screening system, have a team evaluate potential screening measures. The team should select measures that are efficient and reasonably reliable and that demonstrate predictive validity. Screening should occur in the beginning and middle of the year.
__ Select screening measures based on the content they cover, with an emphasis on critical instructional objectives for each grade.
__ In grades 4 through 8, use screening data in combination with state testing results.
__ Use the same screening tool across a district to enable analyzing results across schools.
Download the full list of recommendations and their corresponding checklists from the Institute of Educational Sciences website.
Photo credit: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/