From the Top: Perspectives From School Leaders Implementing Response to Intervention in Elementary Schools

• In Event: 45.086 - Narrating Special Education and Intensive Reading Interventions: Findings From Mixed Methods and Multiple Perspectives

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this presentation is to describe and discuss implementation approaches of school leaders across the country in five core components of Response to Intervention (RTI): universal screening, progress monitoring, high quality core reading programs, increasingly intensive tiers of intervention, and fidelity of implementation.

Methods: Research Questions, Participants, and Data Sources
We used the RTI Essential Components Worksheet and Rubric (National Center on Intensive Intervention) to conduct structured interviews with elementary school leaders across the country to determine how the measured components of RTI are implemented on their campuses. These measured components include (1) Screening and Progress Monitoring, (2) Data-based decision making, (3) Multitier Interventions, (4) Intensive Intervention, (5) Fidelity of Implementation and Evaluation, and (6) Infrastructure and Support. The research addresses five research questions:
1) How do school personnel use assessments to accurately identify students at risk of poor learning outcomes or challenging behaviors?
2) What data-based decision-making processes are implemented to inform instruction, movement across tiers, and disability identification?
3) How are staff teaching and communicating pedagogy across a school-wide, multi-tiered system of instruction?
4) How are school leaders and personnel establishing the knowledge, resources, and organizational structures necessary to operationalize all components of RTI?
5) What types of systems do school leaders use to collect and analyze data, and to measure the fidelity and effectiveness of the RTI model on their campus?

As part of the larger study, we recruited 37 public elementary schools across six states. Administrators on each participating campus were contacted by the research team to set up an interview. Thirty-seven interviews were conducted over the phone and in-person during the spring semester of 2017. In five of the campuses interviewed, the school leaders chose to include additional members of their multi-disciplinary team to assist in the interview. Prior to interviewing, two graduate research assistants and a research specialist were trained to reliably administer interviews. The project coordinator led monthly fidelity checks for interviewers over the course of the spring semester.
After obtaining permission, each interview was audio recorded. Each interview was approximately two hours long. Upon completion of each interview, interviewers rated responses 1-5 based on the criteria from the RTI Fidelity Implementation Rubric (National Center on Intensive Intervention). Graduate research assistants transcribed audio of the interviews for further analysis using NVivo software. Analyses will address common themes in the measured components in RTI implementation among school leaders.
Anticipated Results
Coding and qualitative analysis is still ongoing. The objective of the session is to describe current perspectives of the successes, challenges, and continuing needs school leaders face in overseeing and implementing the intervention framework on their campuses.
Scholarly Significance
To date, very few studies have discussed the perceptions of school leaders in implementing RTI. Findings from this qualitative study will provide insight from school leaders about assessment, decision-making, core and intervention-based instruction, and evaluation of RTI practices and will describe whether or not there are qualitative differences in implementation of RTI across districts and states.

Authors

• Jennifer Elizabeth Stewart, Southern Methodist University

• Stephanie Al Otaiba, Southern Methodist University