Supporting Teachers Within RTI: The Role of the School Psychologist

Jon PotterLisa BatesOrRTI Project

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OSPA/WSASP ConferenceFall 2010

Objectives• Develop awareness about the

potential role of the school psychologist in a RTI model within the domains of:

– Assessment/Evaluation– Consultation

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Core Principles of RTI All children can be taught effectively Focus on prevention and early intervention Provide services using a tiered model Use a problem-solving method to make

decisions Use research-based interventions Monitor student progress to inform instruction Use data to make decisions Use assessment for different purposes:

Screening Skill diagnostics Progress monitoring

3NASDSE, 2006

Essential Components of an RTI Model

High quality instruction and intervention materials

System for collecting data

Data-based decision making using a problem-solving method

4NASDSE, 2006

The Role of School Psychologists

• Assessment/Evaluation• Consultation/Coaching

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How much time do you send on these activities currently?

• Assessment/Evaluation?• Consultation/Coaching?

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Assessment/Evaluation

ICEL• Instruction: How content is taught• Curriculum: What content is taught• Environment: Accommodations,

modifications, & other environmental considerations

• Learner: Things specific to the student

What to Assess

ICEL

RIOT• Review: existing information• Interview: parents, teachers, student• Observe: student during instruction• Test: student skills

LEAST TO MOST INTRUSIVE

DIRECT TO INDIRECT

How to Assess

Goal: Convergent Data from Multiple Sources

Curriculum

RIOT

InstructionRIOT

LearnerRIOT

Environme

ntRIOT

Multiple Sources and Domains

Why a student is struggling

The Role of School Psychologists: Assessment

1. Assisting in the collection and analysis of academic screening, progress, and diagnostic data

2. Ensuring high quality instruction and intervention programs by assessing instructional contexts

3. Conducting Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA) and developing Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP)

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R TOI ELIC

The Role of School Psychologists: Assessment

1. Assisting in the collection and analysis of academic screening, progress, and diagnostic data

2. Ensuring high quality instruction and intervention programs by assessing instructional contexts

3. Conducting Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA) and developing Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP)

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R TOI ELIC

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Assisting in the collection and analysis of academic screening

and progress data• Screening – Given to all students

regularly to determine who receives extra support

• Progress Monitoring – Given to those students who are receiving extra support

• Diagnostic – Given to a smaller number of students for whom more information is needed to create an intervention matched to the student’s needs

• The major purpose for administering diagnostic tests is to provide information that is useful in planning more effective instruction.

Additional Diagnostic Data

• Diagnostic tests should only be given when there is a clear expectation that they will provide new information about a child’s difficulties learning to read that can be used to provide more focused, or more powerful instruction.

Diagnostic Assessment Questions

“Why is the student not performing at the expected level?”

(Defining the Problem)

“What is the student’s instructional need?”

(Designing an Intervention)

VocabularyReading Comprehension

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics(Alphabetic Principle)

Oral ReadingFluency & Accuracy

Assessing enabling skills

Diagnostic Assessments• Quick Phonics Screener (Jan

Hasbrouck)• Digging Deeper (Wendy Robinson)• CORE Multiple Measures• Error Analysis• Curriculum-Based Evaluation

Procedures (Ken Howell)

Digging Deeper Questionshttp://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/educators/idm/Day5_10/Digging_Questions_k8.pdf

Core Multiple Measures

Error Analysis

Assisting in the collection and analysis of academic progress

data• Assessment activities before referral is made to remediate a problem

(screening, progress monitoring, diagnostic data)

• Linked to comprehensive evaluation– Student has a disability (screening & progress monitoring data)– Impacts their education (screening & progress monitoring data)– Needs specially designed instruction

• Linked to IEP development– Develop goals (screening, diagnostic, and progress monitoring data)– Monitor progress on goals (screening, diagnostic, and progress monitoring

data)

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Assisting in the collection and analysis of academic progress

data• Makes your job easier!!!!!!

• How do these assessment activities (screening, progress monitoring, & diagnostic assessment) compare to what you are currently doing in the area of assessment?

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The Role of School Psychologists: Assessment

1. Assisting in the collection and analysis of academic screening, progress, and diagnostic data

2. Ensuring high quality instruction and intervention programs by assessing instructional contexts

3. Conducting Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA) and developing Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP)

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R TOI ELIC

2. Ensuring high quality instruction and intervention programs by assessing

instructional contexts

Observing the critical components of effective teaching

Focus on teacher behaviors shown to improve student outcomes

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Brophy & Good, 1986;Gunter, Hummell, & Conroy, 1998

RIOT ICELObserving Instruction

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ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT

MASTERY

OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN

Instructional Delivery Features to Examine

• Instructor provides multiple opportunities for students to practice instructional tasks

• Students are successful completing activities at a high criterion level of performance

• Students are engaged in lesson during teacher led-instruction

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• Provides more than one opportunity to practice each new skill

• Provides opportunities for practice after each step in instruction

• Elicits group responses when feasible• Provides extra practice based on

accuracy of student responses

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Multiple Opportunities to Practice

Assess opportunities to respond

What is an Opportunity to Respond (OTR)?

Need to operationally define, for example:

“An instructional question, statement or gesture made by the teacher that seeks an academic response (i.e. “What sound,” “Sound it out,”, “point to the /a/ sound”, etc.) OTR’s can include behavior related statements or directives as long as they have an academic component (i.e. “write the answer in your workbook”).”

Be clear!

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How many times it takes to learn something new

• Accelerated Learner• Everybody else• Truly disabled student

Jo Robinson (2008)

4-14 times14-250 times

250-350 times

Opportunities to Respond

Instructional Delivery Features to Examine

• Instructor provides multiple opportunities for students to practice instructional tasks

• Students are successful completing activities at a high criterion level of performance

• Students are engaged in lesson during teacher led-instruction

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Students are successful completing activities at a high criterion level

of performance

• The group of students demonstrate a high percentage of accurate responses

• Individual students demonstrate a high percentage of accurate responses

• Holds same standard of accuracy for high performers and low performers

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Students Are Successful• Levels of Mastery:

– 90% First time correct on new material

– 95% Subsequent responding (after first time)

First Time Correct = How many errors are students making the first time they answer the new tasks?

Correct Academic Responding (CAR):

90% 1st Time Responding; 95% Subsequent Responding

Successful Student Engagement Ensures that students are not practicing errors

Practice to automaticity/mastery Provides practice at a high level of success to build

accuracy and fluency

How do you measure CAR????

37Brophy & Good, 1986,

Lyon, 1998

CAR = # of correct student respond # of opportunities to respond

Adapted from Martin & Tobin, 2006

Error Correction:Should occur after ALL errors

Prevent students from learning misrules

Positively correlated withStudent AchievementRatings of Teacher Effectiveness

38Adapted from Martin & Tobin, 2006

Error Correction

• Does the teacher correct errors?• Does the teacher provide

opportunities for the students to respond again to that item?

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Students are successful completing activities at a high criterion level of

performance

• The group of students demonstrate a high percentage of accurate responses

• Individual students demonstrate a high percentage of accurate responses

• Holds same standard of accuracy for high performers and low performers

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Holds same standard of accuracy for high performers and low performers

• Teachers hold the same expectations for low achievers and high achievers– No excuses!!!!

Instructional Delivery Features to Examine

• Instructor provides multiple opportunities for students to practice instructional tasks

• Students are successful completing activities at a high criterion level of performance

• Students are engaged in lesson during teacher led-instruction

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Students are engaged in lesson during teacher led-instruction

• Teacher gains student attention before initiating instruction

• Paces lesson to maintain attention• Maintains close proximity to students• Transitions quickly between tasks• Intervenes with off-task students to

maintain their focus

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Instructional Pacing:8-12 Opportunities to Respond per Minute

Opportunity to learn Provides mass trial practice to build fluency and achieve

mastery Provides opportunity to monitor student performance

Positively correlated with: Student On-Task Behavior Student Academic Achievement

44Adapted from Martin & Tobin, 2006

Pacing = # of opportunities to respond # of minutes observed

Tools for Measuring Effective Teaching: Data

Instructional Variable

Observation Data

Recommended Criteria

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Pacing # of opportunities to respond 8-12 OTRs per minute # of minutes observed for most intensive

instruction

Student Accuracy # of correct responses 90% or above # of opportunities to respond

• How does this compare to your current practices in the area of instructional observation/assessment?

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Consultation/Coaching

The Role of School Psychologists

Consultation/CoachingSchool/District Leadership TeamSchool Data TeamsIndividual Teachers

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School/District Leadership Team

• Provide input on district-wide decisions around:1. Curriculum/Interventions2. Assessments

• Screening• Progress monitoring• Diagnostic

3. Decision rules49

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School Data Teams

Schoolwide Data Team

Monthly RTI

Team

Individual Problem Solving Team

IEP Team

Schoolwide Data Team

• Evaluate effectiveness of Tier I (Core) programming for ALL students

• Determine areas of need and provide support for implementation of Core

• Fidelity to Core Instruction– Develop and implement fidelity

monitoring systems

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68%

17%

15%

Evaluate effectiveness of Core programming for ALL students

Grade Level Data Team• Use screening, progress

monitoring, and diagnostic data to place students in interventions

• Determining progress monitoring tools and appropriate student goals

• Develop and help implement progress monitoring

• Evaluate effectiveness of interventions

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10

20

30

40

Dec.S cores

F eb.S cores

J an.S cores

Marc hS cores

AprilS cores

MayS cores

J uneS cores

60

50

Aimline

Examining Adequate Progress: 4 Points Below the Goal Line

Ora

l Rea

ding

Flu

ency

Add 15 minutes to intervention

Reduce group size to 3 students

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10

20

30

40

Dec.S cores

F eb.S cores

J an.S cores

Marc hS cores

AprilS cores

MayS cores

J uneS cores

60

50

Aimline

Examining Intervention Cohort Data

Amy

Chase

Mary

Isaiah

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10

20

30

40

Dec.S cores

F eb.S cores

J an.S cores

Marc hS cores

AprilS cores

MayS cores

J uneS cores

60

50

Aimline

Examining Intervention Cohort Data

AmyChase

MaryIsaiah

Individual Problem Solving Team

• Coordinate additional data collection– Diagnostic testing, record reviews,

parent/teacher interviews, student observations

• Create individualized interventions through problem-solving

• Evaluate effectiveness of individualized interventions

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The Problem Solving Model

1. Define the Problem: • What is the problem and

why is it happening?2. Design Intervention:

• What are we going to do about the problem?

3. Implement and Monitor: • Are we doing what we

intended to do?4. Evaluate Effectiveness:

• Did our plan work?

IEP Team• Evaluate student needs using

diagnostic assessments• Evaluate student progress data• Assist in developing IEP services• Attend annual IEP meetings

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Instructional Consultation with

Individual Teachers• Consultation can occur at any level in

the system – Tier 1– Tier 2– Tier 3

• Focus on observable teaching behaviors– What can WE change? (alterable

variables)

Alterable Variables

How do we know what to change when students are not making adequate

progress?

Follow the data

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What do we change?: TTSD Example

TimeGroup Size

Different program

Individual Problem-solving

Time/Engagement

Alterable Variables Chart

63http://oregonreadingfirst.uoregon.edu/downloads/Alt_Var_Chart_2.pdf

Time

64http://oregonreadingfirst.uoregon.edu/downloads/Alt_Var_Chart_2.pdf

Group Size

66http://oregonreadingfirst.uoregon.edu/downloads/Alt_Var_Chart_2.pdf

Different Program

68http://oregonreadingfirst.uoregon.edu/downloads/Alt_Var_Chart_2.pdf

Fidelity

70http://oregonreadingfirst.uoregon.edu/downloads/Alt_Var_Chart_2.pdf

Communication/ Meetings

Big IdeasUse the skills you already have

Focus on evaluating instructional environments

Use data to guide your practice

If something isn’t working, change it

Build capacity71

Questions/Comments

Jon Potter jpotter@ttsd.k12.or.us Lisa Bates lbates@ttsd.k12.or.us

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