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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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 2
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.
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 3
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 4
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 &
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 5
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 6
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 7
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 8
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 9
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.
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 10
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.
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 11
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 12
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 13
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 14
“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.
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 15
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 16
White, R., Polly, D., & Audette, R. (2012). A case analysis of an elementary school’s. Journal of
Research in Childhood Education, 26, 73-90.
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 17
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
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 18
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
)
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 19
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.
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 20
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.
Response to Intervention in Intermediate Grades 21
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.