Friday Focus - February 17

This past Monday, Becky and I attended the first of a 2 day conference on progress monitored led by the Wisconsin RTI Center.  I went with the intention of learning how to collect student data to create trend lines (doesn't that sound fun?!), but left with positive affirmation of the great work we are doing here at Dodgeland.  As each school shared out on where they are at with implementation of RtI so far, I felt like we are on the right track and also happen to be far ahead of many other schools (not that it's a race). It is easy to take for granted the things that have become a regular part of our work, and I was surprised to learn that there are many other schools that have no means of tracking student progress other than the WKCE (we have the SRI, SMI, and F&P Benchmark) and that are struggling with trying to figure out how to start to implement intervention for Math and Reading (we already have Math WIN time, LLI in K-3 and READ 180 in 4/5).  

One of the comments that the presenter emphasized several times was that "RTI is not about the interventions, it's about your system."  She asked us to reflect on the following questions:

•  Do you have collaboration? 
• Can you guarantee excellent instruction in any classroom?  
• If a student is struggling can you guarantee that it's NOT due to lack of appropriate curriculum/instruction?

After meeting with each grade level  for our Data Day meetings, I would have to answer yes to these questions.  First of all, I know that our Data Day meetings are not the only time you are looking at data and collaborating.  You are meeting in your grade levels weekly (some even more often) to talk about curriculum, plan for WIN instruction, share instructional strategies, and to help each other problem-solve.  You are going beyond the "surface level" conversations in meetings by asking each other questions about each others' classrooms and observing other classrooms to gather ideas to take back to your classrooms.   

All research on RtI states that at least 80% of your population should be proficient in reading or math and if not then there are issues with your curriculum/instruction across the grade level.  As we look at our grade level data in math and reading, almost each grade level is already at the RtI goal of 80% of students meeting the proficiency level.  Most grade levels have already met this goal for Reading at the middle of the year and we are getting close with our Math scores (keep in mind that the SRI and SMI proficiency scores are for where we want students to be at the END of the year, which makes this even more exciting!)

As I visit classrooms, I notice that you all have a focus on student learning and you are incorporating a variety of strategies to meet the needs of your students (instead of just teaching the same lesson from 10 years ago in the same way).  When I have conversations with teachers about students that aren't performing well, I always hear teachers trying to come up with or ask for additional strategies to try, never just throwing their hands up saying, "well, I taught it, he didn't get it and it's time to move on."  You are all so focused on the needs of the students in your classrooms.  Recently I even heard a teacher say that when she saw how many students bombed their math test, she threw it out and retaught a few lessons, never recording those scores in the grade book.  

You all never cease to amaze me with your commitment to all of our students and your collaboration as a team to ensure that EVERY Dodgeland student has the  guarantee of excellent curriculum/instruction!