Intermediate and Primary Schools Show Success in Instruction Management

The respective administrators of the school buildings got a chance to report to the school board on one of several goals they had achieved in the 2010-2011 school year.

One such principal was the ’s Dr. Joseph Waters, who addressed the Sept. 6 Programs and Services Committee meeting.

In his presentation, Waters discussed the successful implementation of the RtII program.

RiII (Response to Instruction & Intervention) is identified by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as an all education standards-aligned initiative.

According to Waters, RiII involves identifying specific needs of students.

“The purpose of RtII is to match intervention and instruction needs,” Waters said. “It provides a framework.”

Although Waters said that RtII is not a new concept, the framework does help in providing benchmark assessments, which teachers can monitor, and screen students.

Through this screening process, students are placed in one of three leveled tiers. Waters explained the difference in tiers, as Level 1 tier students being gifted and meet with their teachers every day, while Level 3 students  have found to be typically Title 1 students, who fall bellow benchmark standards, and meet with appropriate educators.

Students in these tiers would meet in small group settings.

According to Waters, a team of teachers and education professionals met last year at each tri-mester, or marking period, to review the data. Teachers at the Primary school also form a data team and meet on a regular basis.

And, while some of the students in RtII meet with their teachers every day, Waters said that no time is taken away from the core curriculum instruction.

“Students have moved up,” Waters said, explaining how the framework enables teachers to guide students. “Student progress and student performance are always under the micro-scope and always watched.”

UMSD superintendent Dr. Robert Milrod added that last year was the first year in which RtII had been attempted.

“This model doesn’t wait until students fail to put students in special education,” he said. “And the students don’t remain static, as they move up and down this [program]”

Milrod emphasized that RtII not only attempts to identify students that struggle along the way, but also provide their proper instruction, based on methodical data collecting throughout the student’s school career.

“Students not making progress get more and more intensive support, in the attempt of getting them back into the flow,” Milrod said.

The district’s director of education Jenny Lehman also voiced her approval of the program at the committee meeting.

“Looking at the data, this is actually very exciting,” she said.

According to Lehman, the program would allow complete audits of student progress.

“And, that’s what we’re doing in the tier groups,” Lehman continued. “We’re looking at consistency, where they should be… and guiding their instruction.”

Lehman said that the program has been in the works for the last four years, and the 2010-2011 would be the first year both the Primary and Intermediate implemented the programs.

In a related presentation that evening, principal Susan Smith had similar success with its literacy-pacing guide, formed through the data collected in the RtII program.

“It’s based on best practices research, not based on a curriculum series,“ Smith said. ”It gives teachers a road map for the entire school year.”

For the pacing guide, teachers were able to take student data that showed positive and consistent progress, and identify the best practices, Smith said.

“We look at them as individual teachers and come together as a grade level and a school,” she said.

Lehman said that an important aspect to the literacy-pacing guide would be the consistency of a core reading program for all students, as they progress through primary school.

Smith showed for the committee how the student assessment data collected could be clearly demonstrate grade-level and individualized  student progress.

“Overall, we are very proud of the progress that the students have made,” Smith said.