How We Help YOUR Child

October 9, 2009 | Posted in: Class Updates

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This is a time of change for our nation, and although much of the discussion on the news surrounds the wars overseas, the economy, and healthcare, there are also many changes going on in the education field.  Supportive services for students who struggle academically are legislated (to some extent) by the federal government.  Based on a new revision to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, schools around the country are changing how they support students, and our district is priding itself on being ahead of the game in implementing the new strategies.

The old way consisted of schools supporting struggling students through various interventions (reading and math resource, PAINTERS, Wilson, etc.) and classroom support.  If a student continued to struggle for what seemed to be an inordinate period of time or experienced what seemed to be an intense difficulty without improvement from the support, a school might approach parents about determining the child’s eligibility for special education services.  With parental consent, a team of professionals would administer a battery of tests in hopes of identifying specific areas of strength and weakness.  This helped the team (of which parents are the most important part) to determine if the child would benefit from special education services.  If the team agrees that special education services would be a good option for the child, they developed (again, with parent involvement) an individualized education plan (IEP) that outlined goals, objectives, methods, defects, strengths, etc.  If the child did not qualify for special education, he or she would continue to receive all appropriate supportive services that fell under the REGULAR education (non-special education) umbrella.

The new way is referred to as RTI (Response to Intervention) or, in Connecticut, SRBI (Scientific-Based Response to Intervention).  As the name implies, we use data to track how well a struggling student responds to various interventions that specifically target areas of difficulty.  As Ms. Grainsky (Assistant Principal) wrote in the PGS newsletter:

This new model considers many possible reasons why students may struggle with the demands

of school and fall behind their peers academically or behaviorally. In an effort to accommodate

the learning needs of students who experience school difficulties, we have identified three tiers

of support to help them achieve state and district goals.

Tier I is comprised of academic and behavioral strategies that teachers routinely use. For

example, if a child struggles in achieving his/her grade level expectations, the general education

teacher will offer support by differentiating his/her instruction to meet the learning and

behavioral needs of the student. Support may consist of individual help, checking that the child

writes down homework assignments, and small group instruction.

Tier II consists of programs for students who require stronger interventions. It is in Tier II

support where a student may begin to see a specialist to get help with reading, math or writing a

few times a week. Much of this instruction, although possibly administered by a specialist, may

be occurring in the classroom. This support will not take place while the child is in his/her

regular education class and participating in direct instruction from the teacher. At PGS, we are

presently looking for the best times to offer this instruction so that children do not miss core

instruction but also do not miss other important times of the day. This is proving to be a

challenge because so much of the day is full with pertinent and enjoyable instruction.

Tier III supports are for the students who are not responding to intervention in Tier I or Tier II.

Tier III supports will be delivered by a specialist and consist of a longer duration and greater

intensity than Tier II interventions. Again the scheduling of these supports is the greatest issue at

present.  A student receiving instruction in Tier III will need to participate in intensive and

targeted instruction, as well as being in his/her class for core instruction.

One of the biggest strengths of SRBI is how it encourages (mandates, in fact) teachers to support one another with ideas for strategies and interventions.  Every Wednesday morning (before school), the fourth grade teachers will be meeting with each other, Mrs. Lenihan (Speech and Language), Mrs. McCarthy (Special Education), Mrs. Cole or Mrs. DelGallo (Occupational Therapy), Ms. Gooding (School Psychology), and specials teacher (this year, our music teacher, Mrs. Cowdrey), an interventionist (Mrs. Daly-Byrnes, Mrs. Kryzanski, Ms.  Searson, or Ms. Jablonski), and either Ms. D-H or Ms. Grainsky.  (This is why fourth graders read in the hallway before school on Wednesdays.)  At these meetings, teachers are invited to bring up for discussion students who seem to be struggling with specific skills, concepts, or behaviors.  We will brainstorm new ideas, and the classroom teacher will return to their classroom with new strategies and supports to try.  That gets the ball rolling, hopefully on the right track for helping the student to improve whatever area is troubling him or her.  The formal evaluation process for determining a student’s eligibility for special education services does remain available, as do all special education services, but the goal is to help a student to improve weak skills through a series of general education interventions, rather than through an IEP.

If you ever have any questions on how we’re working with your child, please feel free to contact me.  If you have any questions about the SRBI model, please contact Ms. Grainsky.