Screening Call with Principals and District Nominated RtI Comparison Schools

Appendix 6. Screening Checklist for Identifying RtI Comparison Schools

(for CITS design)

Phone Interview

Evaluation of RtI Practices in Elementary School Reading

Screening Checklist for Identifying RtI Comparison Schools

School Name:

District Name:

Name/Title of Referring District Contact:

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 (RtI) Practices in Elementary School Reading. National experts have nominated a school in your district (or a neighboring district) 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, and we’d like to learn more about how the reading and RtI practices of other elementary schools in ____________District might be similar to or different from the nominated school. Your district recommended that ____________School would be a good place to learn more about these similarities and differences. Are you the person who knows the most about your school’s reading practices? (If no, get the name of the person who is knowledgeable.) If yes, do you have about 45 minutes to talk with us about the reading practices in place?

Screening Questions

I’d like to ask about the degree to which your school might implement specific reading practices —are the following components in place or not, and when particular components might have been implemented. Your school may use different words to describe the reading practices than those that I am using. Please let me know when the vocabulary may be different, although the concept may be the same, as we want the description to reflect your school’s reading practices for students who struggle in reading. If your school does not currently implement a specific reading practice, but had implemented the practice at some point in the last ten years, please also let me know (to the best of your knowledge).

1. Does your school use any Response to Intervention practices to assist struggling readers and/or identify children with learning disabilities? (YES/NO)

2. Does your school use multiple tiers of increasingly intensive instruction to support struggling readers? (YES/NO)

IF YES, continue

IF NO, skip to 2d.

1. In what school year did this practice begin? _________

2. How many tiers does your school use?

3. 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):

d. How does your school provide additional instructional support to struggling readers?

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

3. Next, does your school administer universal screening (benchmarking) in reading to all students? (YES/NO)

1. IF YES, in what school year did this practice begin? _________

   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. Does your school use a specific cut-score on your benchmark/screening assessment for placing students in a different instructional tier (or otherwise making decisions about providing students with additional instructional support)?

      1. If YES, in what school year did this practice begin? _________

4. Beyond benchmarking tests, does your school administer additional assessments to frequently monitor students’ reading progress for those students who struggle with reading? If so, please describe.

1. IF YES, in what school year did this practice begin? _________

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

   2. How is the data stored?

   3. How often are these measures administered?

   4. Is there a product that is used? If so, which one?

   5. Does this data collection differ for different tiers (if your school uses different tiers)?

   6. How do teachers organize themselves 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 in your school use data for making instructional decisions/changes?

   1. Are data decision rules used for moving students in and out of instructional tiers (if your school uses different tiers)? (YES/NO)

      1. IF YES, in what school year did this practice begin? _________

      2. Which tiers?

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

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

   3. How often is student progress data reviewed? And by whom?

4. Does your school use data from monitoring student’s progress to identify students for special education? (YES/NO)

   1. IF YES, how are such data used?

   2. In what school year was the current practice/policy for using data to identify students for special education adopted? _________

6. Let’s take a few minutes to review how the school may have put in place different reading practices across different grades. When were these practices introduced and in what grades?

Instructions to Screener: use information gathered in questions #1-5 to guide question #6 and to skip any RtI Reading Components not mentioned by school contact

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…

7. Do you think that your school would be interested in further 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 and gather some additional information?

RtI Comparison School Screening Checklist Page 3