School-Level Screening Checklist and Mature School List

Appendix 4a. School-Level Screening Checklist for Identifying Mature RtI Schools

Phone Interview

Evaluation of RtI Practices in Elementary School Reading

Screening Checklist for Identifying Mature RtI Schools

School Name:

District Name:

Name/Title of Nominator:

Name/Title of Administrator being interviewed:

Location:

Date:

We’re beginning to recruit sites for a U.S. Department of Education study on the Response to Intervention Practices in Elementary School Reading. National experts have nominated your school as a possible site for studying how RtI is addressing the educational needs of students who struggle learning to read. We’re at a very early stage in recruiting districts and schools for the study. We’d like to learn if ____________School might be a good match for the study. Are you the person who knows the most about the RtI practices? (If no, get the name of the person who is knowledgeable.) If yes, do you have about 1 hour to talk with us about the RtI model in place?

Screening Questions

I’d like to ask about the RtI features in your school’s RtI model—are the following components in place or not, or whether there are plans to include the component in your school’s model. Your school may use different words to describe the RtI practices than those that I am using. Please let me know when the vocabulary may be different, although the concept is the same, as we want the description to reflect your school’s RtI practices.

1. Does your school use the name RtI or another name to address how to educate students struggling to learn to read and identifying children with learning disabilities?

2. Are there multiple tiers of service intensity in the school’s model?

If yes,

1. How many tiers are in the model?

2. How is each tier defined or characterized?

For each tier:	Tier 2	Tier 3	Additional Tier
How many days a week?
How many minutes each day?
What’s the group size?
What’s the location of instruction?
Who instructs the students?

Additional comments (respondent may note variation by grade level):

3. Next, does your school administer universal screening (benchmarking) in reading to all students?

   1. What is the benchmark reading measure in grades K-2? In grades 3-5?

   2. How many times a year is the benchmarking reading measure administered?

   3. What system/products does the school use? (e.g., Dibels, Aimsweb)

   4. In what grades?

   5. How is the data stored? Is there a database? Who manages the data base?

   6. In placing students in Tier 2, does the school use a specific cut-score on your benchmark/screening assessment for making this placement?

   7. Can students be placed in Tier 2 following each benchmarking period (fall, winter, etc)?

4. Now we’d like to ask some questions about how students’ reading progress is monitored?

   1. Is there a product that is used? If so, which one? Who maintains this system?

   2. How is the data stored?

   3. Who administers the measures to students?

   4. Who records and graphs the data?

   5. How often is the data collected?

   6. Does this data collection differ for different tiers?

   7. How are teachers organized to review the data? What other staff are engaged in this review?

5. Turning now to using the data for decision making, how do teachers use data for making instructional decisions/changes?

   1. Are there data decision rules for moving in and out of Tier 2?

   2. Are there data decision rules for moving in and out of Tier 3?

   3. Are there more than 3 tiers? Are there data decision rules for these tiers?

   4. Are there time-limits for how long a student can remain in Tier 2 or Tier 3? If yes, how long?

   5. What kind of data is used to make decisions (e.g., level, slope, progress)?

   6. How often is student progress data reviewed? And by whom? May differ for different tiers.

   7. Are there written guidelines for the teachers/teams to follow in making decisions?

   8. How is data from monitoring student’s progress used for identifying students for special education, if at all?

6. Let’s take a few minutes to understand how did RtI in reading was put in place in your school. When were the RtI reading components introduced and in what grades?

Instructions to Interviewer: We expect the response to be quick: e.g., Universal screening was implemented across the grades in 1^st year – in 2005. Tiered reading interventions were introduced later – in 2006 and only in grades 1-2. We needed to figure out how to staff Tier 2. etc.

History of How Schools Chose to Put in Place RtI: RtI Components, by Grade and Years.

RtI Reading Components	Grade 1	Grade 2	Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5
Tiers	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…
Benchmarking Universal	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…
Progress Monitoring	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…
Special education process	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…
Data Management and Decision Process	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…
Are there other components that define your RtI model? If yes, what are they?	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…	Started in ….	Started in…

1. What was the impetus for implementing the RtI model in reading?

1. Whose decision was it to implement RtI

2. Did the teachers have a say in adopting RtI?

3. How have teachers responded to RtI?

7. Now, a few questions about other schools in the district. Are there other elementary schools in the district implementing RtI? If so, did they get started ahead or after you?

   1. Are there some not implementing RtI? How many?

   2. Do some or most of these schools have the same RtI features

Instructions to Screener: If previous responses sound promising (i.e., respondent answers easily with concrete and multiple examples and has been implementing RtI for at least 2 years, proceed to question #8.

8. Testing: Historical and Current

1. We would like to send you a brief spreadsheet to identify the names of standardized tests that are currently being administered in reading in grades 1 and 2 and in what the year the testing started. If the standardized test that your school has used is not on it, please add it to the table.

(Appendix 4b will be sent to collect this information.)

9. Finally, do you think that your school would be interested in participating in this study sponsored by the US Department of Education? If yes, could we call you at a later date to discuss this possibility?

Screening RtI Checklist Page 3