RTI in an Urban School- Year 2

We just finished the RTI training for the school staff and its interesting that all the teachers were asking the “right” questions. Some of the new innovations of the program this year is to focus on better logistics, planning, and implementation. For example, the school has assigned a learning specialist for each grade who is a Special Education provider as well as endorsed in sheltered English instructional strategies. In addition, the principal also organized for each grade to have a students teacher and paraprofessional at each grade level. The principal has the gift of organization and logistics in running the school to support the RTI model. The main goal is to be able to provide small group instruction and 1 to 1 when needed within the tired system.

One update from last year not posted in my August post, is that this school was in the “Needs Improvements” list the last couple of years because they didn't meet adequate yearly progress (AYP), but last year after the implementation of RTI the school met AYP for English language arts. Great news and very promising results to follow up this year. My main role this year is to develop a problem solving protocol in collaboration with a colleague trained in “Instructional Consultation” to implement the RTI model using both a problem solving model and fixed protocol.