In response to Carols' question.... RtI (Response to Intervention) seems to have been created for good but is being used for bad. From what I understand the basic premise is this; children are over identified for special education and we ALL (special ed and general ed) need to be responsible for ALL students' learning. I also understand that RtI is stopping the practice of identifying special education students using the discrepancy model (finding them to qualify based on a discrepancy between their ability and their performance). Now, extreme amounts of data gathering will be required, by the general ed teacher, in order to qualify a student for special ed. On its premise that sounds good, right? I don't think so. I am convinced that this data collecting will turn out exactly as the Federal program "Reading First" where states mandated (yes, MANDATED) that districts use only "approved" assessment tools to collect this data, such as DIBELS (because the Federal Government mandated it). I haven't been told this will happen yet, but I strongly believe that it will.
One of the RtI models is the use of the three tiers of intervention. This model is not the only one that can be used but for some reason everyone thinks it is! With that people are jumping on the bandwagon - textbook publishers are dictating how we teach by publishing programs that address each tier of intervention. Isn't that exactly what MOT teaching and this listserv is set up to combat - dictated, scripted teaching????? Tier I is whole class instruction. Tier II is tighter intervention given to the bottom level of your class (20%, or so) and Tier III is for the very bottom 2-5% of your class. Depending on who you talk to both Tier II and Tier III can be a pull out situation or just Tier III. It doesn't really matter, though, because what it reminds me of is the old Title I days. There is no research that the model of Title I pullout was successful but yet - here we go again! Doesn't it sound like special education without the name? Something really crucial to consider is this - we keep hearing about "research" this and "research" that when it comes to programs and instruction. What is NOT being considered is the strong research base we ALREADY have in education. People like P. David Pearson, Michael Pressley and Richard Allington have been doing this research for 30 years!!!!!!!!! Then we have people like Ellin Keene pulling it all together for us and showing how it can be put into practice in the classroom. I really believe that one of the most important things we could do as a group on this listserv is to not only use the excellent teaching strategies we talk about in our OWN classrooms but also to talk to people about what is going on! Teacher professional development and professionalism is slowly being chipped away until you will be left with nothing but a teacher's guide and a script. The Federal Express guy could come in and teach in our classes! And when this happens please don't blame this on school administrators - this is federal law and is slowly becoming state law (it already is in Illinois). The administrators I work with are extremely concerned about RtI and Reading First and are talking to everyone they know. This is something we ALL have to do. Carrie K-8, Illinois _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
