Websites to Support RTI/MTSS Implementation

Share This: Facebooktwitterlinkedin

By Pamela J. Bell

Fall 2017

Explore these annotated, research-based websites to find information and resources that you can share with colleagues to identify practices and strategies to improve implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) in your school. Warning: Exploring these websites could be habit-forming!

Campus RTI/MTSS Implementation and Data Driven Decision Making. The Building Capacity for Response to Intervention Implementation project has over 700 resources on its searchable website, http://buildingRTI.utexas.org.  Find these resources for school administrators:

  • A Resource for Student Evaluation Personnel in Schools Implementing RTI systematically discusses RTI and its federal requirements, roles of assessment personnel, instructional collaboration, problem solving when a student is not making adequate progress, and using RTI data in student evaluation for special education. It also includes letters from the Office of Special Education Programs.
  • The Campus Needs Assessment Tools for Reading, Mathematics, and Behavior helps educators understand their level of campus implementation, identify areas that need improvement, and develop an action plan.
  • Instructional decision-making procedures: Ensuring appropriate instruction for struggling students in grades K-12 is designed for campus teams to examine their decision-making practices related to English learners, reading, math, and behavior in areas of assessment, curriculum, instruction, intervention, and referral to special education. The format helps teams collaborate and develop Administrative Action Plans and Professional Development Action Plans.
  • The Campus RTI Progress Monitoring Tool (RTI-PMT) is a free, easy-to-use customizable app that educators can use to monitor student progress in an intervention over time, and administrators can use to monitor grade-level progress and make resource and professional development decisions.
  • Keeping parents informed about their child’s progress is an important requirement of RTI/MTSS implementation. Understood.org is designed for parents: https://understood.org

Effective Instruction

Providing direct, explicit instruction is critical to successful learning.  Effective lessons maximize learning within the allotted time, and follow a sequence that allows teachers to demonstrate, provide guided practice, and then monitor independent practice to automaticity. The teacher explicitly states the learning objective, and models the new concept (I Do); models again and thinks aloud (I Do); then provides several opportunities for guided practice (We Do) [and, if necessary, models again to be sure every student understands (I Do) and provides more guided practice (We Do)], and then lets students practice with partners or independently (You Do). Effective teachers use a variety of response strategies to engage students and provide instant feedback to know when students are ready to practice independently (You Do) or need additional instruction in a small group.

K-12 Literacy Instruction and Intervention

Reading is essential for success in all content areas. Too many teachers have little knowledge of instructional routines or strategies that will help their students access the concepts they encounter in text. They need to know the components of literacy, and proven literacy strategies they can embed in their everyday content area instruction.

Vocabulary instruction is essential and should be explicitly taught in every subject area. Students have a lot of fun exploring words and word origins:

  • Explore the vocabulary matrices at Real Spellers: Realspellers.org/Resources/Matrices “Muse is the base of a lot of words” and “A Revolutionary Matrix.” Go to the Lesson Plans section and find “Collaborative Round Table Word” and then the one for a student explaining the word ladder she created for the book Stargirl. http://www.realspellers.org/resources/lesson-plans/801-ann-whiting-s-concept-ladders

  • The Word Works Literary Center in Ontario Canada: Peter Bowers has the Beyond the Word blog by Lyn Anderson http://wordsinbogor.blogspot.ca

  • The National Center for Intensive Intervention has oodles of resources for parents and teachers of students who need intensive intervention. Its focus is on meeting the needs of students who do not respond adequately to intervention, including students who need special education. http://www.intensiveintervention.org/

  • Finally, the website of the organization that disseminates this publication, the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) has a multitude of resources for parents and educators who work with students with dyslexia as they journey from elementary school to post-secondary education. Be sure to explore its website: https://dyslexiaida.wpengine.com

Pamela J. Bell, Ph.D., has designed and implemented campus, district, state and regional education initiatives for more than 40 years. At the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at The University of Texas at Austin, her projects translate research findings into instructional practices. The Building RTI Capacity project (http://buildingRTI.utexas.org) focuses on preventing learning and behavior difficulties. She also works to promote collaboration between educators and care providers to realize positive outcomes for students in foster care.

Copyright © 2017 International Dyslexia Association (IDA). Opinions expressed in this article and/or via links do not necessarily reflect those of IDA.

We encourage sharing of articles on our website. If portions are cited, please make appropriate reference. Articles may not be reprinted for the purpose of resale. Permission to republish this article is available from info@dyslexiaida.org