Blog 2: The RTI Process - A Comparison of Ideas

The two articles I chose to compare were "Making the Most of Progress Monitoring" by Lee Ann Jung and "Doing RTI Right" by Michelle Bryson, Angela Maden, Laurin Mosty, and Susan Schultz. These two articles share several similarities in their approach to implementing Response to Intervention (RTI) and addressing the challenges that come with the implementation on campus's. Both articles do emphasize the need for interventions being well-planned with clear processes, measurable outcomes, and consistent implementation. In both articles, the authors stress the importance of moving away from intuition based decisions and instead using quantitative data to guide interventions and monitor progress. Quantitative data should be collected through weekly progress reports, universal screenings, and curriculum benchmarks to show what the student is learning (Bryson et al., 2010). Both articles argue the “handoff” method is what we are seeing most commonly in schools. This method happens when struggling students are passed off to specialists so the responsibility is off of the classroom teachers. RTI is put into place, so the general education teachers maintain the primary responsibility of providing Tier 1 instruction and effective opportunities for all learners for the first time (Bryson et al., 2010). Although there are challenges to making sure Tier 1 instruction is happening in all classrooms, both of the articles discuss ways that teachers can track their progress monitoring and more effectively collect data. In the first article, Jung shows the ways that technology can aid in this process and how using technology can make the process quicker and more efficient. Using an online platform can help teachers and families visualize what the data is showing and allow for better interpretation of data (Jung, 2011). This information can be helpful in a school setting by guiding the implementation process of RTI school wide, promoting data literacy among staff, improving Tier 1 instruction, refining assessment practices, and addressing equity in student support. The readings helped solidify the processes that are in place at my own campus and the why behind it. My district made a big push for making the RTI more effective and providing more education around it in the last few years. We have had professional developments to teach our teachers how to identify students but there isn’t anything in place to help us track and monitor data on the students we identify. In Jung’s article, I learned about the five features of an effective RTI. These five features include having measurable outcomes, clearly defined intervention, an effective data collection system, a visual representation of data from the data collection system, and a web-based platform (Jung, 2011). We started using MAPS testing at the middle school level in my district and my goal is now to use that data to help me in the RTI process to make sure students are getting the interventions they need to be successful.  

References: 

Bryson , M., Maden, A., Mostly, L., & Schultz, S. (2010, October 1). Doing RTI Right. ASCD.                                                 https://ascd.org/el/articles/doing-rti-right

Jung, L. A. (2011, June 1). Making the Most of Progress Monitoring. ASCD.                                                                   https://ascd.org/el/articles/making-the-most-of-progress-monitoring

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