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​1. What does research say about this topic?

Lynn:Policymakers seem not to understand that there is a fundamental flaw in their proposal that all children should perform at or above grade level. United States fourth graders ranked among the best readers in the world in the most recent international assessments of reading proficiency. This indicates that United States schools are producing children who read reasonably well. Lisa: Why are policymakers deciding what happens in classrooms anyway??

JM: Effective interventions must be established in order to help reading/leaning disabled students. In many places the students who will not succeed are far too predictible. Students from disadvantages backgrounds are over represented in tudents who struggle with literacy.

ML: Interventions for struggling readers should be linked to state and district standards and should be coordinated with regular classroom instruction. There is a need for adequate funding of effective intervention programs. More research needs to be done on long term support.

Lisa: Everyone seems to have summed it up. I think the most important points are quality intervention must take place; it must take place early and it must be quality, and that more research is needed on how to ensure gains are maintained long-term.

Rv: Interventions for struggling readers need to have more support and there is plenty of reserach on the benefits of early intervention in the field now to help prove the importance of this. RtI is an movement that is gaining steam and seems like it is here to stay. I am wondering how this will influence educational policy as a whole. 2. Share the types of interventions your school does use. Lynn:With five elementary schools, we have a range of ways that interventions are being carried out. Two of the buildings have well-defined intervention groups and they utilize all available personnel to carry out those intervention groups. They are able to use the data from various assessments to plan interventions and have a variety of materials at their disposal. I would like to see the interventions be more focused. We seem to have a shotgun approach, hoping that something will hit, but I definitely see it as a step in the right direction.

JM: Interventions are done within our own classrooms, based on what teachers chose to do with the data they recieve. We use 4th grade results and break those down by skill. Throughout the course of the year, all skills will be hit in small intervention groups using activities and strategies to help in the future. ML: My school is 1 of 12 pilot schools for the RtI model. At tier 1, students receive high quality classroom instruction that incorporates whole group, small group, and one-on-one instruction. At tier 2, our students receive an intervention program for 20-30 min. per day from our Title 1 teacher as well as an extra round of intervention provided by our interventionist. This extra round takes 1-3 min. All of this is on top of what the teacher is currently doing in the classroom with the student. We have some students that receive the intervention 3-4 times a day. These students often move into tier 3 if they still are not responsive to this intense intervention. Tier 3 is reserved for those who are being referred for disability testing. We know by this time that there must be a problem.

Lisa: Wow, ML, that is really intense. I think scheduling all of that and getting kids to and from intervention 3-4 times a day is a nightmare. ML: 3 out of 4 are usually done in the classroom by the classroom teacher. We have a built in time for interventions daily for those in tier 2. The kids are not traveling to and from interventions. Lisa: I would love to see how you schedule both in-class and pull-out interventions, that is a HUGE struggle at our school currently. Our school uses interventions within the classroom as JM stated. We use the DIBELS assessment to determine the needs of studetns. DIBELS has a list of activites to do with each chilld, but most teachers agree that they are using their own methods/acivities and not conducting the specific activity indicated by DIBELS. We also have a reading and math interventionist on staff. In the past, groups of 10-12 students went to the interventionist for 20-40 minutes daily. We are in the process of developing a new reading interventionist program for next year.

RV: I teach in the same school as Marlo so what she already said applies to me as well. I know on paper it seems to be a lot but once it becomes common practice I couldnt think of doing it any other way. The teachers have a built in time in their class that works in interventions. We are all used to it by now and are loving the results we are getting. 3. How does this area relate to RtI that you read about already?

Lynn:Actually, I felt that this chapter was a little discouraging. While it does state that United States schools are generally doing a good job, it also gives the impression that we are simply not going to be able to make a difference for some children. We do need to work to make our interventions more long term and coordinated throughout the district. Lisa: I have been questioning this fact also. . . Do we need to make the same difference in the lives of all children. Do we need to ensure that some students have life skills (filling out job apps, balancing checkbook, reading road signs, ect.) while others are prepped for college? I know this question is not politically correct and I feel funny mentioning it here, but every child WILL not perfom the same. We cannot make every student run a 2 minute mile, neither can we make every student excel academically.

JM: This area relates to RtI because both require teachers to identify the stengths and needs of students. Once these have been identified, effective interventions must be put into place to assist all student. ML: I automatically related this chapter to RTI from the title. This could be that I am so involved in our RTI model. I see RTI as promising. I think classroom teachers are taking a closer look at assessment and what each child is needing. I know in our school, teachers feel a sense of direction, accountability, collaboration, and more than anything...accomplishment. We have seen great things happen.

RV: YES Marlo! RtI seems overwhelming and cumbersome to some but to our teachers in our school it is promising. We are putting in a great deal with these students and are seeing amazing results because of it. 4. Your questions from your group. Lynn: 1. How can we ensure that all children receive the interventions that they need with school budget cuts? ML: There are a ton of resources out there that do not cost much to utilize. We asked our academic fund for cardstock, laminate, and ink to print things from FCRR. To me it really isn't about money at our school. Classroom teachers are responsible for the majority of interventions taking place. 2. Is differentiated classrooms the answer?* Not my question, but I say yes :) 3. Are the federal guidelines (NAEP) reasonable?

JM: What are the most effective short term remedial intervention programs? *   Lisa: From what I learned doing my capstone, there are no effective short-term solutions. To provide long-term benefits you must provide long-term interventions. Students show improvement during interventions, only to fall behind again if interventions are halted. MS: THE BEST AND THE SHORT TERM IS TO GET THE PARENTS INVOLVED NIGHTLY IN THE INTERVENTION PROGRAM. THE REQUIREMENT IS FOR LAP READING FOR 20 MINUTES A DAY EVERYDAY OR 20 MINUTES OF AUDIO BOOKS OR BOOKS BEFORE BEDTIME. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT AND IF THE PARENTS ARE PUSHING ALONG WITH THE TEACHERS THE IMPORTANCE OF PRACTICE IN READING, THEN RESULTS WILL HAPPEN. ALL OF THESE RESEARCH PROGRAMS WHICH SHOW RESULTS ARE BASED ON MINUTES OF READING A DAY. SCHOOLS CANNOT PROVIDE MINUTES OF READING (AND THEY SHOULD BECAUSE RESEARCH SAYS THE MINUTES OF ACTUAL READING IS EXTREMELY EXTREMELY LOW...I THINK IT IS 9 MINUTES A DAY...THE REST IS WORKSHEETS AND OTHER INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES) Lisa:
 * How can schools effeciently schedule the amount of interventions needed?
 * What about paraprofessionals used for interventions, what is your opinion? I know some research says trained paras can improve skills.
 * *How are students identified for these interventions in the real world? Must you have an assessment showing a disability or can you use teacher's opinion and informal assessments?*

​ ML: I agree that some students need long term intervention, but some just need a little bit more instruction. The ones that just need more than others do not fall behind. They seem to catch up to their peers at our school.

RV: I have worked with both kinds of the students. The beauty is that RtI provides provisions for both. RV. 1. Do you think there is a time that RtI model will be mandatory in schools? 2. What other educational initiatives in the past have been similar in nature to RtI? 3. Can all teachers do their own interventions and still run a consistant program school wide?