Volume
2A
McIntosh County Schools
SST and RTI Process Alignment Manual 2010-2011
Administrative Guidelines
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McIntosh county Schools SST and RTI Process Alignment Manual 2010-2011
Administrative Guidelines
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McIntosh County Schools
200 Pine Street
Phone 912-437-8838 • Fax 123.456.7890
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Chapter
1
Student Support Team & Response to Intervention General Information
“When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don’t see the one that has opened for us.” Winston Churchill.
t
he Student Support Team (SST) and RTI process in McIntosh County Schools is designed to assist all school personnel in meeting the needs of individual students while operating under the accountability requirements of NCLB, IDEA 2004, and Georgia Board Rule 160-4-.32.
Where available, hyperlinks are added to assist in moving through the document to specific appendixes.
Purpose
This manual is developed from a compilation of documents previously published and generously shared by Glynn County School System; Columbia County School System; the Effingham County School System; materials provided through the State of Georgia Department of Education; and experiences and expertise of district and school level staff in the McIntosh County School System.
It has been designed to act as a “living document” to allow for continued revision and addition as it assists and directs district and school level staff to:
· Understand the principles and components of the SST and RTI process and how they align with federal and state requirements
· Establish a common McIntosh County Schools Pyramid of Interventions to better meet the needs of students and to meet goals established by the McIntosh County School System
· Provide guidelines related to protocol and decision making within the SST and RTI Model
· Answer common questions and provide links to specific areas for further research
Terminology
Accommodation Changes in instruction that enable children to demonstrate their abilities in the classroom or assessment/test setting. Accommodations are designed to provide equity, not advantage, for children with disabilities. Accommodations include assistive technology as well as alterations to presentation, response, scheduling, or settings. When used appropriately, they reduce or even eliminate the effects of a child’s disability; but do not reduce or lower the standards or expectations for content. Accommodations that are appropriate for assessment do not invalidate assessment results.
GRASP System a web based, curriculum based measurement system used by the McIntosh County School System to provide universal screeners and progress monitoring in literacy and numeracy.
Background Information Information that would be helpful to the Local Problem Solving Team in making appropriate determinations for support.
Behavior Documentation forms used to objectively document a student’s specific behaviors that may be interfering with his/her or others learning. These documents include a Behavior Calendar, Behavior Report Card, or Direct Observation form. These forms are available on the District Website under Student Support & Intervention – Forms.
Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) A plan for a child with disabilities, included in the IEP when appropriate, which uses positive behavior interventions, supports and other strategies to address challenging behaviors and enables the child to learn socially appropriate and responsible behavior in school and/or educational settings.
Benchmark Testing Universal screeners using the GRASP system of curriculum based measurements designed to assess basic skills.
Case Manager a member of the LPSTeam. This person is to support the referring teacher throughout the problem-solving process. The case manager may perform roles such as:
· Helping the referring teacher complete the referral form.
· Consult with the teacher about types of student background or assessment information that might be useful during the initial student meeting.
· Assist the teacher in collecting student data before the initial meeting.
After the initial LPSTeam meeting, the case manager also makes a point to check in with the referring teacher to ensure that he/she is able to implement the intervention plan developed at that meeting. The case manager may also be the person on the team to assess the degree to which the interventions and assessment procedures were implemented as designed.
Child with a Disability – In general, (a) refers to a child evaluated as having mental retardation, a hearing impairment (including deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional disturbance (referred to in this part as emotional disturbance), an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, an other health impairment, a specific learning disability, or deaf-blindness and who needs special education and related services. If it is determined, through an appropriate evaluation, that a child has one of the above disabilities identified but only needs a related service and not special education, the child is not a child with a disability. (b) a child with a disability aged three through nine experiencing a developmental delay.
Consent for hearing/Vision/Educational Screening Form available on the district web site and must be completed prior to Tier III referral.
Coordinator Member of the LPSTeam who ensures that the day-to-day operations of the team are maintained. The coordinator reviews teacher referrals, ensuring that each referral is complete and that a case manager is assigned to each case. The coordinator notifies the LPSTeam members of days, times and locations of meetings and coordinates the assignment of substitutes for teachers attending team meetings.
Core Committee Member receives specialized training in all aspects of the SST process. They serve as the SST for all requests. The requesting teacher and any other appropriate personnel serve as flex members based on the needs of the student being served. These team members remain constant throughout the school year.
Curriculum Based Designed to assess growth and development in student’s specific curricula.
Dismissal Letter letter to the parents of a student previously under consideration by the LPSTeam that their student is no longer in need of supportive services.
Effective Teachers model Best Practices in a standards-based classroom and can provide evidence and artifacts that support 80% mastery of the standards by 80% of their students.
Facilitator Member of the LPSTeam who opens the meeting with a brief overview of what the team and referring teacher expect to accomplish in the session. The facilitator also describes the general problem-solving process to be used at the LPSTeam meeting. A key objective of the facilitator is to establish and maintain a supportive atmosphere. While all team members are encouraged to take an active part in the problem-solving discussion, the facilitator pays special attention to “process” issues such as:
· Encouraging participation from others,
· Helping redirect the discussion if the group begins to get off task,
· Clarifying and summarizing information being communicated during the meeting.
Flex Committee Member Member of the LPSTeam that represents the grade level and attends only those meetings that pertain to students in that grade level. Can also act as the Case Manager for that grade level.
Individual Academic Plan (IAP) The documentation and support developed by the LPSTeam for every student receiving a Tier II or identified intervention such as EIP services.
Interventions employ components of acceleration, enrichment, and remediation to meet the needs of all students including gifted, high achiever, core, and struggling learners. It is considered a proactive approach to supporting students who have been identified as ‘at risk.’ Is above what takes place in a standards-based classroom.
Meeting Summary General notes taken at a LPSTeam meeting that documents the determination of interventions, assignment for progress monitoring, time frame for re-evaluation, etc.
Parent Notification/Invitation to Meeting Notification sent from the LPSTeam inviting parents to attend the meeting on their child. While parental involvement is greatly encouraged and preferred, we must balance this desire with the loss of instructional time in setting meeting times. Parental permission is not required to intervene academically or behaviorally on behalf of a child.
PBS: Positive Behavior Support PBS is a collaborative, team-based, educative, proactive, and functional process to developing effective interventions for inappropriate behavior. PBS uses discipline data to identify patterns and possible causes of inappropriate behavior. This information is then used to develop effective interventions to decrease inappropriate behavior and increase desired behavior across campus.
Problem Solving Team Individual school’s and the district’s Student Support Team developed to meet the needs of students, Marshall vs. Georgia court order and resulting 160-4-8-.01.
Progress Monitoring is a formal scientifically researched approach to monitoring progress with in an intervention. The progress monitoring approach cannot be related to or part of the intervention, but should monitor growth demonstrated by the intervention on fundamental skills. In McIntosh County, we use the GRASP system of curriculum measures for formal progress monitoring of general education students.
Referring Teacher Classroom or Connections teacher who makes referral to the LPSTeam on behalf of a student OR homeroom teacher of a student whose parents have made a referral.
Remediation tends to focus exclusively on the struggling learner and often excludes core, high achiever, and gifted students and their needs. Remediation efforts tend to be a reactive approach to supporting students who have failed in an academic area. Remediation efforts can be considered both Best Practices as Differentiated Instruction and part of a standards-based classroom, or a type of intervention.
Response to Intervention the current accepted model or framework for supporting all students with in a system. RTI is a fluid and flexible model that offers increasing levels of support to decreasing numbers of students as needed.
Speech/Language Checklist available on the district website under Intervention and Student Support for use in making referrals for speech and language concerns.
Chapter
2
Response to Intervention (RTI): Georgia’s and McIntosh County School’s Student Achievement Pyramid of Interventions
“Many of life’s failures occur when people give up without realizing how close they are to success.”
Even after we have…
· As a district and staff, accepted learning as the fundamental purpose of our schools,
· Administrators and teachers are working together collaboratively to clarify exactly what each student must learn,
· Administrators and teachers are developing a variety of common assessments to monitor each student’s learning …
Eventually our system will face an inescapable question:
What happens in our schools when, despite our best efforts, a student does not learn?
Our response must be based upon the idea of effective scientifically researched interventions as opposed to strict remediation.
Interventions employ components of acceleration, enrichment, and remediation to meet the needs of all students including gifted, high achiever, core, and struggling learners.
Remediation tends to focus exclusively on the struggling learner and often excludes core, high achiever, and gifted students and their needs.
The Pyramid of Interventions is based upon the theory that as we become more effective managers of our instructional environment through the use of effective teaching strategies, curriculum selection, collaboration, effective formative assessments, and effective use of scientifically based interventions, we will begin to meet the needs of all individual learners with in the general education setting thus reducing the number of students identified as special needs and increasing enrichment opportunities.
In 2006, in an effort to meet the expectations of NCLB and the guidelines outlined in the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA, the State of Georgia identified the RTI model as a preferred method for identifying and assisting students in need of support.
In February, 2008, the state released the latest version of the SST manual, Student Support Teams (SST): A Resource Manual, which integrated the original Student Support Team Model into the new four tiered Pyramid of Interventions. This action formally placed the SST process in Tier III. (See your school’s Coordinator for a copy of this manual.)
Appendix A identifies the current Student Achievement Pyramid of Interventions provided by Georgia’s Department of Education (GaDOE) initially unveiled in June, 2006 and revised for the GAEL conference Feburary 5th, 2008.
A_TI_09 identifies the McIntosh County School’s Student Achievement Pyramid of Interventions which contains alignment with GaDOE and district initiatives.
How does the McIntosh County School’s Pyramid of Interventions Align with GaDOE’s Pyramid of Interventions?
Tier I
According to the State of Georgia, Tier I is defined as standards-based classroom learning where:
· ALL students participate in general education learning that includes:
o Implementation of the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) through research based practices
o Use of differentiation of instruction such as flexible grouping, and varied instructional strategies are evident
o Monitoring progress of learning through multiple formative assessments and analysis of student work
Tier I in McIntosh County places an emphasis on the teaching of standards using best practices. This is implemented through:
· The development of system-supported curriculum maps for all courses taught
· Pre and post testing in grades 1 – 8 in selected core subject areas using a 9 week schedule
· The use of EOCT and GHSGT predictor tests developed by teachers and the State of Georgia and available on OAS for grades 9 – 12
· Benchmarking of universal screeners provided by the GRASP system of curriculum based measures
· Instruction delivery using the Learning Focused Framework supported by the system-wide use of Thinking Maps and other research based Best Practices such as Positive Behavior Support (See B_TI_09)
Evidence of successful implementation of Tier I in the McIntosh County School System is defined as 80% mastery of the standards:
· 80% of the students achieving 80% or greater on post tests, predictor tests, and/or teacher assessments OR
· 80% of the students achieving 80% or greater on final EOCT assessments OR
· 80% of the students achieving 820 or greater on CRCT assessments
· 80% of the students in compliance with established behavioral expectations in all areas as evidenced by the data.
Tier II
According to the State of Georgia Pyramid of Interventions, Tier II is defined as Needs Based Learning. In addition to Tier I, targeted students participate in learning that is different by including:
· Specialized pyramids of intervention
· Greater frequency of monitoring progress of learning through multiple formative assessments and analysis of student work
Tier II in McIntosh County identifies students who may be ‘at risk’ either emotionally, socially, academically, or behaviorally. They are identified through a variety of proactive and reactive measures including:
· GRASP Benchmarking for fundamental skills
· Failure on identified assessments such as CRCT; Predictor tests; EOCT; GHSGT; etc.
· New Century Diagnostics
· GaDOE Portal for At Risk Students