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Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 1

Running Head: RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION IN INTERMEDIATE GRADES

Literature ReviewMisti Rohde

Southwestern CollegeAugust 1, 2012

Submitted to Dr. Teresa San Martin


Abstract

Response to Intervention, or RTI, has become very popular over the past several

years. It is a systemic approach to aid students who are having difficulty learning. RTI seeks to

prevent academic failure by providing early intervention, frequent progress monitoring, and

increasingly intensive interventions for students who continue to have difficulty learning. This

paper is a study of how to use RTI across grade levels in order to help students in the most

effective ways. It includes the methods of analysis and data collection. It concludes with the

projected results of the study.


Reflection and Focus

Response to intervention is a multi-level intervention program that involves frequent

progress monitoring of students and fluid groupings by ability in reading, math, or writing. It is

evidence based and the structure has been proven to be effective to improve student achievement

when implemented correctly and with fidelity.

I currently work at Anderson Elementary with an estimated population of 550. The

school is 95% free and reduced lunch and has a diverse population of students. We have failed

to make the Annual Yearly Progress measure for three consecutive years and it was ultimately

this fact that led me to my study.

When I started thinking about how to help the students that I work with I realized that in

order to better do this I need to be a better teacher. I started really examining that potential of

RTI—we are supposed to be delving in through MTSS, and I realized that I still have many

questions about how to really make it work.

I don’t clearly understand how to provide instructions for groups that are small enough to

be productive and intense without the support staff that is necessary. Finding support staff that is

competent is also a challenge considering that USD 259 doesn’t provide any type of training for

these employees to help them facilitate the groups they may be working with. Overall, I feel that

this is a topic that I need to find more information about so that I can better help my students. I

would use specific intervention methods in reading and document improvement from the

different groups to see what methods are most effective.

The actions that I chose for this study are to utilize the fourth and fifth grade staff to help

keep data regarding student achievement in reading. We will take baseline data using the

AIMSWeb Reading Curriculum Based Measure in order to have fluency data. We will also


utilize the Quick Phonics Screener in order to identify phonetic gaps that may exist. The staff

and I will then utilize progress monitoring to be able to design interventions on a weekly basis

that are appropriate for student needs. My goal is to be able to help students much more quickly

by using accurate data and to be able to reduce the number of students in Tier 2 and Tier 3

groups.

Literature Review

When I started thinking about how to help the students that I work with I realized that in

order to better do this I need to be a better teacher. I started really examining that potential of

RTI—Kansas uses the MTSS model, and I realized that I still have many questions about how to

really make it work. There are many aspects of RTI that look great on paper, but when districts

try to implement the structure it is a very challenging thing to do.

I began to research different ways to implement RTI through several different resources.

I first searched for articles on ERIC, Google Scholar, and EBSCOhost using just the generic term

Response-to-Intervention and discovered that there were well over 500 articles that were

available and referenced RTI in some way. I chose to do a sort and look further into how

districts have implemented RTI with fidelity and what some of the problems were that they

faced. I also wanted to search about how schools have been able to provide instruction for

groups that are small enough to be productive and intense with or without the support staff that is

necessary. I also did a keyword search for appropriate assessments to use to make intervention

groupings.

Response to intervention (RTI) is a three tiered intervention program that intends to help

as many students as possible reach proficiency without the use of special education (Russell &


Dimino, 2006). It involves frequent progress monitoring of students and fluid groupings by

ability in reading, math, or writing. RTI is evidence based and the structure has been proven to

be effective to improve student achievement when implemented correctly and with fidelity. The

goal of RTI is not only to provide support in core subject areas to at-risk children who may fail

in school, but to provide support to all children at the level at which they are performing. As

Fuchs and Fuchs note, there is a great deal of hype around RTI and many educators believe that

this structure is popular now and will soon go away, but with the success schools are seeing

Fuchs and Fuchs do not believe it is leaving anytime soon. RTI is a dynamic way to assess

student needs and group them accordingly to ensure the most success possible. It relies on a four

step process to group students, the first being problem identification. If the assessments are

never individualized for each child then the gaps in education can never be accurately found,

therefore it is important to assess the problem and then to analyze the data for each child

(Strangeman, Hitchcock, Hall & Meo, 2006). The next steps require that there be a course of

action decided upon and groups of students constructed based on need and performance level.

Implementation of RTI with fidelity is one of the largest barriers to success. The staff in

the school building or even district must be willing to commit themselves to the process and the

structure or it will fail. A two year old school in North Carolina that served 955 students was

selected to be a case study for analyzing the RTI structure. It was required that all teachers be

aggressive about their implementation of their intervention program. The Assistant principal

saw this as a way to get rid of all of the old ideas that everyone on staff was frustrated with and

begin responding instantly to student data instead of waiting for a nine week period to be over

(White, Polly & Audette, 2012). The staff implemented the structure after a summer full of work

for them. The school saw great success and 15 of the staff members were interviewed about the


process. The following items were considered topics that are important to implementation:

communication school wide, staff buy-in, principal support, and start with a targeted focus and

implement at a manageable pace (White, Polly & Audette, 2012).

It is important to communicate with staff about the expectations and to provide

appropriate professional development that allows teachers to learn how to teach subjects or grade

levels that they may not be familiar with (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2005). Teachers who are not given the

correct professional development and also the time to learn how to use the information often give

up and don’t implement with fidelity. Even one teacher can become a weak link to the school

and so in order to keep from having frustrated teachers, school principals must be willing to

provide team time during the week to give teachers the time to analyze data and discuss students

as they move them from group to group (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2005).

Fidelity must also address the screening process for identifying students and placing them

into the appropriate tier of instruction and progress monitoring schedule (National Research

Center on Learning Disabilities, 2006). Tier 1 is the general education tier where every child

receives the core material and pull-out situations are rare, as the child needs to be exposed to the

same information as the whole class. Tier 2 is an additional time period that a child who is

moderately struggling with the reading material. During this time the child works in a small

group on the skill where the deficit lies. Tier 3 is a longer period of time where a child who has

failed to respond to prior interventions is instructed. These children are often below grade level

in reading and require a much smaller group with 3 children being ideal (Dunn, 2010). The

districts where this kind of model has been successful have district wide assessment tools that

they use to identify the appropriate tier for the child. They also utilize progress monitoring tools


to be able to respond to the progress that a child is making immediately and not waste time in a

group that the child has mastered (Casey, Robertson , Williamson, Serio & Elswick, 2011).

Schools then face the problem of how to group students with the staff they have and hard

economic times it becomes clear that more staff is not able to be hired or trained (Intervention

Central). There are many models of RTI that exist, but the push is to utilize people that you may

not consider using at first. Any trained staff member can run an intervention group; this can be

the librarian to the art teacher. (Intervention Central) Schools may choose to group students

across grade level during intervention time to be able to meet the most needs and have the

smallest groups and best use of staff (Dunn, 2010). It may only be possible to group primary and

intermediate grades together considering the staff that is available during the time frame when

intervention is taking place. Strengths of leveling across the grade levels are that students would

receive the instruction at the grade level where they are currently performing and would not feel

out of place. It is also important for teachers that have the strength of teaching a subject area are

the ones teaching it. For example, some intermediate teachers are now teaching phonics skills

and they have never had to do it before. If the child could go to a different grade level group that

is working on that particular skill where the teacher is comfortable they are much more likely to

learn it. (Mellard and McKnight, 2010)

Although there are potential setbacks, most researchers say that there is more positive

than negative when utilizing RTI. Teachers must be willing to “buy-in” to the process and the

work that it will take to make it be successful, but the results are undeniable (White, Polly &

Audette, 2012). When staff is given adequate time and professional development to learn the

subject matter and the process of RTI they are much more willing to participate in the process

than if they have to do it all on their own time. Professional development and professional


learning communities (PLC’s) are best used when data driven and if the principal encourages and

participates in this belief then the staff is more likely to do it as well (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2005).

There is a large amount of literature regarding response to intervention. Many of the

articles were clarifying and supported the information that has been shared within the USD 259

school district. Much of the information references how to make groups and how students meet

the requirements to be placed in a particular tier, but there isn’t really any proven data on how to

make the best use of a schedule in an elementary school. It is a struggle to make an academic

schedule intertwine with a specials schedule and get the most out of both worlds. A good

schedule would only serve to streamline the educational process and help teachers and students

get the most out of their day. I believe that there needs to be a natural flow to the educational

process and I don’t think it has been found yet within the RTI model.

Purpose of the Study

Constructing appropriate intervention groups and activities with the staff that is available

in a classroom is a large challenge that teachers face on a daily basis. It is difficult to have small

groups that are intense in instruction for the academically challenged students when resources

are limited. It is also difficult to provide enrichment activities simultaneously for those students

who need it. Many times, one teacher is in the classroom and has little to no support to make this

kind of teaching happen. Response to intervention (RtI) is a structure that has come into the

education world from the business world and has allowed teachers to begin thinking about how

to improve intense instruction. The purpose of my study is to examine the most efficient ways to

provide instructional groupings that meet student needs using the staff that is available at the


current time. For struggling students it is important to have a group of no more than 5 students

and this takes a great deal of flexibility on the part of the staff to make it happen.

Primary Question

What comprises good Tier 1 instruction, and how are we ensuring that classroom instruction is

increasingly effective to prevent large Tier 2 and Tier 3 populations?

Secondary Questions

What is our next, more supportive (or intense) instruction or intervention, who provides it, and

why are we choosing this?

How can we guarantee that all staff will have fidelity to the RtI program at our school and who

will hold them accountable?

Setting

Anderson Elementary is a Title I school that is located in the southern portion of Wichita.

It is primarily comprised of students that come from an economically disadvantaged home life as

95% of its students meet this criterion. The school population is comprised of approximately

525 students that are primarily neighborhood families. The student population is fairly diverse

with 46% Hispanic, 20% White, 18% Other, and 16% African American. This school has failed

to meet AYP is both reading and math and has become a “choice” school. This means that

students and their families have a choice as to whether or not they attend Anderson.


While this Anderson Elementary has a fairly large student base, parent involvement is

minimal. Many of our families have to work more than one job to make ends meet and so they

are not available to participate in school functions. The school does offer many activities to try

to involve families, such as “Sit ‘n See’s” once a month, music programs, winter intramural

basketball, reading and math activity nights, Muffins for Moms, and Donuts for Dads programs.

This spring we will be starting a Watch Dog program for dads to participate in to help have more

male presence in the school.

At the beginning of this research study the fourth and fifth grade staff will collect the data

from AIMSWeb concerning student fluency rate and comprehension skill from the RCBM and

MAZE testing. Students will also be given a Quick Phonics Screener to analyze if the students

are struggling phonetically. Students will then be placed in groups according to their needs.

Depending on need, students will be split into phonics, fluency, or comprehension groups. Staff

will meet on a weekly basis to analyze the current reading progress monitoring data or Quick

Phonics Screener data to determine the groups for the next week. Interventions will then be

planned to respond quickly to student gaps. As students progress they will move from teacher to

teacher and hopefully the number of students in tier 2 and tier 3 groupings will lessen because of

the intense and responsive instruction that has been provided.

Participants

This action research study will involve all of the fourth and fifth grade classroom

teachers, as well as the support staff. The goal is to work with groups that may cross grade level

so that student needs can be met where they are and to reduce group size.


Classroom teachers will be expected to meet on a weekly basis during Professional

Learning Community time or a team time in order to discuss student groupings. They will be

responsible for having the current fluency progress monitoring data for the students in reading.

These teachers will then make groups for intervention time that are appropriate to the student

level. Teachers will communicate about the students and their reading and conferencing

interviews to determine who needs support in comprehension or fluency. Interventions will be

constructed to respond to the current data.

The special education teacher will meet with classroom teachers in order to help analyze

the current fluency progress monitoring data, as well as data from the Quick Phonics Screener to

help group students phonetically. Interventions will be constructed to respond immediately to

the current data.

These staff members will help to analyze the data and to share how the students that they

work with are progressing. They will be a part of helping to construct interventions that they feel

comfortable teaching and getting to know the student data so they are able to better help the

students.

Data Collection Strategies

Data will be kept through weekly progress monitoring of tier 2 and tier 3 students to

check progress in fluency rate increase. The average fourth and fifth grade student will increase

by at least one word per week if the instruction is rigorous enough. If students are not

responding then instruction will change to respond to student need.

I will use summative and formative assessments to assess the current instruction based on the

district approved protocol that identifies the curriculum that is available. If student progress is


not occurring then I will consult the district approved protocol to identify the next intensive

support available for instruction. The AIMSWeb data will also be utilized to group the students

initially.

Staff members will all input student data on the same excel spreadsheet so that all teachers

can look at the data at any point. Teachers must have their data inputted by the Professional

Learning Community time so that groups can be made.

Baseline data is integral to my study. I will collect baseline data in reading fluency and

comprehension at the beginning of the school year by using AIMSWeb and Quick Phonics

Screener and input initial data on my data collection sheet. Teachers will then keep data on the

same form so that we can follow student progress and allow teachers to group students according

to need and interventions provided. Through the semester student performance will improve and

be documented if staff is responding quickly to the student data and need.

Plan for Increasing Validity

The study on Response to Intervention that is being conducted requires that the data be

valid so that the team members can make the most effective decisions regarding student growth.

I chose three different methods to help ensure increased validity in this study. The first is the

Truth-Value Validity method. Results must be useful in future populations, so using truth value

validity suggests that the data that is collected is truthful and probable in working with future

student populations that are similar. Because our population is fairly static regarding

demographics this data will be very useful to future teachers when they are trying to support the

students in the most effective way. There is also a large special education population that attends


this Anderson and having a format that works in place when they begin will be very beneficial as

there isn’t time to lose when teaching these students.

The second method of increasing validity that I chose is the Consistency/ Dependability

Validity. The demographics don’t change much from year to year, but this study should be able

to give data to primary grade levels or schools that have similar data. Again, the data must be

dependable because every moment that teachers spend trying to invent a plan of attack when it

comes to our kids is a waste of time. Teachers must be very proactive with any student and in

our situation it is especially true.

The third way that I chose to increase validity of this study is the Outcome Validity

method. The data and interventions used will be analyzed by the fourth and fifth grade teachers,

special education staff, and ESL staff to increase understanding of what interventions are

effective or not in order to respond very quickly to student need. Because the intention of this

study is to reduce students in Tier 2 and Tier 3 support groups the data must be analyzed and

grouped in effective ways. Having valid data makes this study worthwhile to both our teachers

and students.

Projected Conclusions

Anderson Elementary is a school in high need of academic intervention, but the students

who attend are capable of achieving greatness. They need the staff to be willing to go the extra

mile to analyzed and use the data and support them in the most effective way. I believe that

during this study I will see great growth because of using the data intentionally to improve

specific student skills that are lacking. Creating interventions on a weekly basis and

continuously moving students to the appropriate groups will help ensure that we aren’t missing


“gaps” the students might have in their reading skills. The Quick Phonics Screener will help to

identify phonics gaps that can hold back a student and they will receive explicit instruction in the

missing skill. I believe with this structure and support in place that student achievement in

reading fluency and comprehension will increase because of solidifying phonics for students.

We will also work to improve fluency in students who may read at a slower rate.

Because phonics and fluency go hand in hand I believe that as the phonics deficits begin to

disappear the fluency rates will improve dramatically. The progress monitoring piece is critical

to this portion of the study. Students that are Tier 3 will be monitored once per week while Tier

2 students will be monitored once every 2 weeks. In addition to the progress monitoring, fourth

and fifth grade teachers have agreed to include fluency practice every day at the beginning of

reading core. Students will practice with the same passage for one week, graphing their rate at

the beginning of the week and also at the end. I believe that this practice will also help students

gain the confidence they may be lacking to truly be successful.

All of the components addressed above are nothing though without staff buy in. The

research states that teacher buy in can be detrimental to an education program so as a staff we

have to be willing to hold each other accountable. All fourth and fifth grade teachers,

Interrelated teachers, and support staff will be responsible for entering data pertaining to the

students work every week. The groups will then be constructed from the most current data from

the week. This is a way to hold each other accountable and make our teaching as effective as

possible. Hopefully through the support that is offered we will be able to involve everyone and

have group buy in.


References

Casey, L., Robertson , J., Williamson, R., Serio, C., & Elswick, S. (2011). Spending instructional

time wisely: a case study using brief intervention probes to determine the most effective

strategy. Canadian Journal of Education, 34(3), 33-46.

Dunn, M. (2010). Response to intervention and reading difficulties: a conceptual model that

includes reading recovery. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 8(1), 21-40.

Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. (2005). Responsiveness-to-intervention: a blueprint for practitioners,

policymakers, and parents. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 38(1), 57-61.

National Research Center on Learning Disabilities. (2006). Fidelity of implementation. Retrieved

from http://www.nrcld.org

Nunn, G., & Jantz, P. (2007). Factors within response to intervention implementation training

associated with teacher efficacy beliefs. Education, 129(4), 599-607.

Ritchey, K., Silverman, R., Montanaro, E., Speece, D., & Schatschneider, C. (2012). Effects of a

tier 2 supplemental reading intervention for at-risk fourth grade students. Council for

Exceptional Children, 78(3), 318-334.

Russell, G., & Dimino, J. (2006). Rti (response to intervention): rethinking special education for

students with reading difficulties (yet again). Reading Research Quarterly, 99-107.

Strangeman, N., Hitchcock, C., Hall, T., & Meo, G. (2006). Response-to-instruction and

universal design for learning: How might they intersect in the general education

classroom?. LD Online, Retrieved from C:\Documents and Settings\mrohde\Desktop\

Action Research\Response-to-Instruction and Universal Design for Learning How Might

They Intersect in the General Education Classroom LD Topics LD OnLine.mht

http://www.nrcld.org/


White, R., Polly, D., & Audette, R. (2012). A case analysis of an elementary school’s. Journal of

Research in Childhood Education, 26, 73-90.


Appendix A

Table A

Overall Reading Data

Stud

ent N

ame

Clas

s Tea

cher

Inte

rv.

Teac

her

Curr

ent Q

PS

targ

eted

skill

Curr

ent P

AST

targ

eted

skill

Aim

sweb

RC

BM

Qua

dran

t / %

Sigh

t Wor

ds

PM 1

(Mos

t re

cent

)

PM 2

PM 3

PM 4

(Old

est

data

)

SLA

Wee

kly

Asse

ssm

ent

Scor

e


Table B

Quick Phonics Screener Data

Clas

sroo

m T

each

er

Stud

ent N

ame:

Task

1a:

Lett

ers

1b:

Soun

ds

(Con

sona

nts)

1b:

Soun

ds

(Vow

els)

2a:

VC

and

CVC

2b:

VC a

nd C

VC

( in

te

xt) 3

a: C

onso

nant

Di

grap

hs3b

: Con

sona

nt

Digr

aphs

(in

text

)Ta

sk 4

a:

CVCC

and

CCV

C

Task

4b:

CVC

C an

d CC

VC (

in te

xt)

Task

5a:

Sile

nt e

Task

5b:

Sile

nt e

(in

te

xt)

Task

6a:

r-

Cont

rolle

d Vo

wel

s

Task

6b:

r-Co

ntro

lled

Vow

els

(in te

xt)

Task

7a:

Adv

ance

d Co

ns.

(-tch

, -dg

e, -

x, q

u-, s

oft c

&g,

kn,

gn

, wr,

-lk)

Task

7b:

Adv

ance

dCo

nson

ants

(in

text

)


Appendix B

Timeline for Project

June 3: Initial Reflection

June 3-June 17: Review of Literature

August 1-10: Contact principal, school district, and university Instructional Review Board to secure permissions for study

August 20-August 31: Gather baseline data using AIMSWeb RCBM and MAZE, Quick Phonics Screener.

August 15-31: Phone parents to discuss action research study. Send home permission forms. Collect permission forms. Follow-up phone calls to parents if necessary.

September 3-December 14: Meet at team plan times to evaluate progress monitor data, QPS data and classroom performance data to design fluid intervention groups and interventions that are responsive to student performance.

December 15-20: Analyze data results from December AIMSWeb RCBM, MAZE, and QPS data

December 20-31: Writing results and putting the action research report/paper together.

January 1-15: Revisions of the paper.


Appendix C

Gaining Informed Consent

Project: The purpose of this study is to examine student data and the interventions that are then

put in place by quickly responding to student need.

Researcher: Misti Rohde

Employment Affiliation: Anderson Elementary, USD 259

Phone Number: 316-973-1900

Location of the Study: Anderson Elementary, fourth and fifth grade classrooms

Supervising University Professor:

Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Response to

Intervention in reading for the intermediate grades.

Procedures to be followed: Core reading and intervention times will continue to follow the

schedule as mandated by the Wichita Public School District. Teachers will continue to give tier

2 and tier 3 students the appropriate time for interventions. Classroom teachers, Inter-related

teachers, and ESL teachers will document data for students that they work with every week and

will evaluate and plan effective interventions for reading instructional times.

Time and duration of the study: August 2012-December 2012, Core reading and reading

intervention times.

Benefits of the study: Teachers will discover how to quickly respond to students needs while

creating interventions that are providing intense instruction for students who really need it.

Persons who will have access to the records, data, tapes, or other documentation: All

teachers who work with fourth and fifth grade students and administration will have access to the

documentation.


When the records, data, tapes, or other documentation will be destroyed: The

documentation will not be destroyed, but will continue to be kept for the remainder of the year

and offered to the following year’s teachers in hopes of continuing the same intensive

instruction.

I understand that participation in this project is voluntary, and I understand that a parent or

guardian may withdraw his/her child from this study at any time by notifying the researcher.

Statement of confidentiality:

The participation of the students in this project is confidential. Only the researcher,

collaborators, and supervising professor will have access to the students’ identities and to

information that can be associated with their identities.

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