[IAEP] Response to Intervention - Is this being used outside the US?

[Caroline Meeks]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the feedback.

On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 1:48 AM, <forster at ozonline.com.au> wrote:

> Caroline
>
> Thanks for bring this to my attention, you have done a good video
> presentation of it. Testing (and tailoring instruction as a response) is
> coming back into fashion in Australia. Australia seems to lag the US in
> this.
>
> The US has had the No Child Left Behind for a while now, which has an
> emphasis on testing. The Australian government has just introduced the
> Myschool site http://www.myschool.edu.au/ which lists schools by their two
> yearly test results. The results are moderated by the school's socioeconomic
> status. The justification is that it rewards effective teaching and gives
> parents the opportunity to vote with their feet.
>

The difference between NCLB testing and RTI is that RTI is supposed to be a
"low stakes" test.  It is designed to screen all kids 3X a year and students
at risk as often as every 2 weeks.  It is difficult to use yearly tests,
especially with large lag times in getting the data, to make instructional
decisions.

RTI test results are not part of the "school report card" type public
communications as I've seen things like the Myschool site called.

>
> The strongest argument against is that any easily administered testing is
> biased towards lower level skills (as defined in Bloom's taxonomy). That
> would be OK, depending on how the data is used. Any attempt to modify
> teaching in response, biases the teaching towards the lower level skills.
>


> In the Australian case, schools will be forced to confine their teaching to
> lower order skills to maintain their ranking, preserve enrolments and avoid
> criticism and funding cuts. In the case of RTI, it risks defining student
> progress by a narrow subset of education skills and overly concentrating
> teaching on this narrow subset.
>
>
Yes, I absolutely agree. The prof in the class says that RTI is only really
well defined for K-3 literacy and behavior. There is some data on early
math. However, in education people take a hot concept/name and start to use
it for all sorts of things.

I'm reading about reading and Dyslexia this week. "Overcoming Dyslexia"
  Literacy and numeracy are crucial low level skills. And its crucial to
later success that they get set into the neurons and become fast, low
level, subconscious and automatic.  Dyslexia can be seen on a functional
MRI.
  If you read with one part of your brain you will read faster and more
accurately then if you do one of two other known reading pathways.
  Hopefully I will have a better understanding of the state of the art in a
couple weeks as I complete these readings and classes.

I may do another Youtube on this. Reading this book I think I'm probably
somewhat Dyslexic myself.  :)

I do think you have hit a really important point.  We can't take a simple
dicotomous view of "higher level/lower level" thinking.  Especially if it
lets us slip into higher = good, lower = bad. Its time to look at the
research and think about who needs to learn what and why but not define
students as equal to their weaknesses.


> Tony
>
>
>
> > This is a simple, yet powerful idea of tracking student progress in real
> > time and trying different interventions to see what works.
> >
> > I give a brief three minute description here:
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI95fgBnJWI
> >
> > There is a great deal on the web about RTI but everything I have seen in
> > class or on the web is US.  I'm wondering if maybe a similar concept is
> > being used under a different name else where?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Caroline
> >
> > --
> > Caroline Meeks
> > Solution Grove
> > Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
> >
> > 617-500-3488 - Office
> > 505-213-3268 - Fax
> > This is a simple, yet powerful idea of tracking student progress in real
> time and trying different interventions to see what
> works.<div><br></div><div>I give a brief three minute description here:�<a
> href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI95fgBnJWI">
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI95fgBnJWI</a></div>
> >
> > <div><br></div><div>There is a great deal on the web about RTI but
> everything I have seen in class or on the web is US. �I'm wondering if maybe
> a similar concept is being used under a different name else where?</div>
> > <div>
> > <br></div><div>Thanks,</div><div>Caroline<br clear="all"><br>--
> <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution Grove<br>Caroline at SolutionGrove.com<br><br>617-500-3488
> - Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br>
> > </div>
> > _______________________________________________
> > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> > IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
>


-- 
Caroline Meeks
Solution Grove
Caroline at SolutionGrove.com

617-500-3488 - Office
505-213-3268 - Fax
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