Principal Weekly Update, February 4, 2013

Each Wednesday morning groups of staff get together to discuss possible ways to provide interventions to students within the elementary school.  On this committee is Mr. James (Elementary Special Education), Ms. Maas (Elementary Title I), myself, and different groups of classroom teachers depending on the week (ie. one week is K-2, one 3-4, one is 4-5).  I would like to share a little bit about RtI and also include a guide to the parents as to what we are trying to accomplish from this.

What is Response to Intervention?
Response to Intervention (RtI) is the practice of providing high quality instruction and interventions matched to student needs, monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals, and applying data to important educational decisions.
RtI is encouraged in federal and state law as an effective way to support high achievement for all students.
Within Lester Prairie Elementary School, students are given various benchmark tests, this is through Title I testing, NWEA, MCA results, STAR tests, and others.  What we look for are students who are in Tier 2 or 3.  To explain the tiers, Tier 1, is when we expect that at least 80% of our students will be successful in the general education classroom without any further intervention.  Tier 2 is about 15% of the student population and these are students who need more support in addition to the core curriculum, while Tier 3 is about 5% of students who need intensive and individualized interventions for growth.
Students who are in the Tier 3 category would be referred to our child study team which includes all special education staff, along with our school psychologist.  This team makes a specifically designed plan for interventions for this student.
Throughout each step parents are informed about their child's progress.  Our goal is to help all students achieve their full academic potential by intervening early and often.

What are the core principals of RtI?
We can effectively teach all children
Early and frequent intervention is most effective
Problem solving is used efficiently in a muli-tiered model
Research based instruction is targeted to student needs
Data is used to make decisions
Student progress is monitored to guide instruction

As we look further to aligning our assessment procedures to state and national standards and benchmarks, it is important as a school to recognize the importance of assessments.

Assessments are used to:
Determine the overall effectiveness of the district's curriculum and instruction.
Identify children who are not reaching achievement benchmarks.
and,
Monitor the progress of children who receive additional intervention.

As always, please contact Mr. Schmidt if you would like more information on this process and Response to Intervention.