Rigor in the RTI and MTSS Classroom

Practical Tools and Strategies

Barbara R. Blackburn, Bradley Steven Witzel

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781317273929
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Bildung
• Categoria: Bildung Allgemein

In this new book, bestselling author Barbara R. Blackburn and intervention expert Bradley S. Witzel show you how to develop rigorous RTI and MTSS programs that will support students and lead them to lasting success. Written in a clear, engaging style, Rigor in the RTI and MTSS Classroom combines an in-depth discussion of the issues facing at-risk and learning-disabled students with practical strategies for all teachers. You'll discover how to:

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• Improve academic and social-emotional performance with scaffolding and demonstration of learning techniques;

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• Establish and teach class rules, expectations, and consequences;

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• Use evidence-based activities to spark student discussion;

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• Implement rigorous, research-based strategies for math, literacy, reading, and writing development;

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• Assess student growth and encourage self-reflection.

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• Form an MTSS leadership team to ensure that student needs are met across building and district levels.

Each chapter contains anecdotes from schools across the country as well as a variety of ready-to-use tools and activities. Many of the tools are offered as free eResources at www.routledge.com/9781138193383, so you can easily print and distribute them for classroom use.

1
Rigor and the RTI/MTSS Classroom

Rigor has been an area of increasing focus in education. However, when you talk with teachers and leaders, everyone seems to have a different understanding of what rigor means and, especially, what it looks like in the classroom. In this chapter, we look at why rigor is important, misconceptions related to rigor, a clear definition of rigor, and how rigor is incorporated in tiers 1, 2, and 3.

The Call for Rigor

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released its landmark report A Nation at Risk. It painted a clear picture: Test scores were declining, lower standards resulted in American schools that were not competitive with schools from other countries, and students were leaving high school ill-prepared for the demands of the workforce.

Over 30 years later, similar criticisms are being leveled at today’s schools.

New Calls for Rigor

Since A Nation at Risk was released, the call for more rigor has only increased. The Condition of College and Career Readiness (2011), a thorough report from the ACT, has reinforced high school graduates’ lack of preparedness for college and for the workforce.

The focus on increased rigor has shifted to other grade ranges as well. For example, SREB’s report Preparing Middle Grades Students for High School Success (2008) underscores the need for rigor in the middle school years:

Many students entering the ninth grade are not prepared for the more demanding course work required of high school students—and they know it. On a 2006 survey of more than 11,000 ninth-graders at High Schools That Work (HSTW) schools, 39 percent of students said they were not prepared with the necessary reading skills for college-preparatory high school courses. Additionally, 49 percent reported being unprepared in writing, 57 percent reported being unprepared in mathematics and 60 percent reported being unprepared in science.

(Bottoms & Timberlake, p. 1)

In 2010, the Common Core State Standards (www.corestandards.org) were created to increase the level of rigor in schools. Other recently revised state standards similarly reinforced the need. Rigor is at the center of these standards, and much of the push for new standards came from a concern about the lack of rigor in many schools today, as well as the need to prepare students for college and careers (Blackburn, 2012b).

Most recently, the Pew Research Center (2017) released information that the academic achievement of students in the United States lags behind that of students in many other countries (see Scores on the Programme for International Student Assessment). As Pew pointed out, “Recently released data from international math and science assessments indicate that U.S. students continue to rank around the middle of the pack, and behind many other advanced industrial nations” (www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/).

Scores on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
Subject	Ranking	Score Compared to Highest Score
Reading	24 out of 71	497 compared to 535
Math	38 out of 71	470 compared to 564
Science	24 out of 71	496 compared to 556

The Need for Increased Rigor for Students With Disabilities

According to the National Center for Special Education Research (Newman et al., 2011), 60% of young adults with disabilities reported having continued on to postsecondary education within eight years of leaving high school.

The National Center for Educational Statistics (U.S. Department of Education, 2016) found that, in 2013–2014, approximately 13% of college students had a disability and 4.5% of all college students had a learning disability (https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=64).

Therefore, we must assess whether students with disabilities are appropriately prepared for college. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights discusses what students need to do to be successful in college. One item is of particular importance.

Because all students will be expected to meet an institution’s essential standards, students with disabilities need to take a high school curriculum that will prepare them to meet those standards. If students with disabilities plan to attend a rigorous postsecondary institution, they, like their peers without disabilities, need to make high school curriculum choices that support that goal.

(www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transitionguide.html#keys)

When we look at these three pieces of information, the conclusion is clear: Students with disabilities need to be prepared for college, and rigor is an integral part of that.

Of the variety of reasons that rigor is important, which ones matter most to your students?

Key Shifts in the Standards

The Office of Vocational and Adult Education wanted to create a stronger link between adult education, postsecondary education, and work. To do so, it evaluated the Common Core State Standards, which had been created based on a broad range of research and with wide input from stakeholders. It then determined which of those essential skills were most relevant for post–high school plans. Finally, it shared the results in Promoting College and Career-Ready Standards in Adult Basic Education. First, let’s look at three critical shifts that need to occur in schools in the areas of English/language arts and content literacy across the curriculum.

English/Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects
Texts Students Read and Questions for Writing and Speaking
Shift	Explanation
Complexity: Regular practice with complex text and its academic language.	Complexity of text that students are able to read is the greatest predictor of success in college and careers. Current gap in complexity between secondary texts and college/career texts is roughly four grade levels (Williamson, 2006).
Evidence: Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from text, both literary and informational.	National assessment data and input from college faculty indicate that command of evidence is a key college and career readiness skill.
Knowledge: Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction.	Informational text makes up the vast majority of required reading in college and the workplace.

These shifts are critical for all students, including those with special needs. A teacher Barbara spoke with said, “My students can’t even answer the questions. How am I supposed to ask them for evidence?” Requiring students to provide evidence for opinions and responses is a necessary skill that should start at the kindergarten level. It’s simple. Just ask, “Why?” If they say that Clifford is a big dog, ask them, “Why?” If they explain that the main character in Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli did a particular action, ask, “Why?” When asking students to justify an antagonist’s actions, ask, “Why?” Of course, with older students, we should use words such as evidence and justification, but the heart of citing e...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• eResources
• Meet the Authors
• Introduction
• 1 Rigor and the RTI/MTSS Classroom
• 2 Tiered Instruction
• 3 Prevention, Then Intervention
• 4 Evidence-Based Instructional Strategies
• 5 Evidence-Based Practices in Literacy
• 6 Rigorous Assessment in the RTI/MTSS Classroom
• 7 Behavior and Social and Emotional Learning Through RTI/MTSS
• 8 Working Together: The RTI/MTSS Leadership Team
• Bibliography