Program to Help Struggling Students Shows It's Struggling, Too

By Amber Lester Thursday, June 24, 2010

For the past two years, Williamsburg-James City County schools have worked to help students who are struggling academically, but defy categorization. The division supported the launch of Response to Intervention, a five-year pilot program geared toward rehabilitating middle school students who might otherwise fail classes or Standards of Learning tests.

For the first time since RTI’s inception in 2008, the WJCC School Board heard a report on whether the program is succeeding in its goals.

Outgoing Toano Middle School Principal Theresa Redd told the board the program is making a difference, despite a notable increase of RTI students who failed the math SOL in sixth grade. Byron Bishop, principal at James Blair Middle School and future principal of Lois Hornsby Middle School, told the board the division would not be eliminating the model, but refining it.

Prior to the creation of RTI, students had to fit into government-defined categories, such as English as a Second Language, Special Education or Gifted and Talented, to receive special services. In response to a federal mandate to reach the students in between the categories, the commonwealth launched the RTI initiative.

In 2007, WJCC sent a team of educators to a conference where Billy Cannaday, a member of the state Board of Education, encouraged school divisions to form RTI teams. Berkeley Middle School Principal David Gaston told the board that staff returned from the conference “very energized.” They determined implementation of the program would take five years, and recognized that students entering sixth grade were struggling. In 2008, the middle schools switched schedules to accommodate the new program.

This year, every teacher instructing a core subject taught to the RTI model. Also, two teachers worked collaboratively to teach a small group of students identified as needing more one-on-one assistance. Teachers use a diagnostic approach to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses, Redd said. If students struggle in reading or math, they receive double the amount of time in those subjects.

Middle school students are classified in three tiers: tier 1 students take general education classes taught by general education teachers; tier 2 students are identified as reading below their grade level; and tier 3 students are working significantly below their grade level. Those students receive the most one-on-one instruction.

The teachers conduct quarterly tests to assess students’ progress and adjust their curriculums accordingly. Students in RTI do not receive grades, but if they improve, they can be bumped up from Tier 3 to Tier 2 with the goal of eventually exiting the program.

At the work session, the three principals shared data showing how sixth, seventh and eighth grade students in the RTI program performed on their SOLs compared to the previous year. In general, reading scores improved, especially for seventh-graders involved in RTI. Out of 54 seventh-graders, 39 passed the reading test for seventh grade; out of the same group, only 15 had passed in sixth grade. But scores didn’t improve as much for the 38 sixth-graders in RTI; 18 students passed the reading SOL, an improvement of three students over the previous year. The average score of 398.8 was a failing score.

In math, RTI students showed great gains in the seventh grade, with 48 of the 68 students passing the SOL. Out of those same students, only two had passed the sixth grade test. The sixth grade test was also tough for this year’s RTI students, who showed no improvement. Out of the same 33 students, 10 students passed the sixth grade math SOL, but another seven students who had passed the fifth-grade test failed. The average score for the sixth grade RTI students was 368.2.

The decrease in passing scores concerned the board members, but Redd said the state is reevaluating the sixth-grade math SOL because students have performed poorly on the test statewide.

“I’m not making excuses because I don’t believe in making excuses,” Redd said. “[But] they are addressing the difficulty level.”

The RTI presentation drew criticism from board members, who wanted to see comparable data for students who were not receiving RTI services. Redd said the school division had not done that kind of analysis.

“We don’t have enough data here to know if we’re doing good or if we’re not doing good,” said Jim Kelly, a school board member. He also asked the division to provide a comparison between students receiving RTI services and students enrolled in the Academy for Life and Learning, which serves rising seventh- and eighth-graders. Redd characterized ALL students as tier 3 learners.

Board member John Alewynse suggested the schools reach out to the College of William and Mary for help in further development of the program because it seemed RTI students weren’t performing significantly better or worse. “You don’t have anything to show that this is working better than if you weren’t doing anything at all,” he said.

Next year, the program will add two math specialists and two reading specialists who will collaborate between the three middle schools. To learn more about RTI, visit WJCC’s web site here http://www.wjcc.k12.va.us/content/admin/studentservices/schoolpsychsvcs/pages/responsetointervention.html.