SNAPSHOT: Do you want your students to have the benefits of the response-to-intervention (RTI) model?

Under the response to intervention model, the focus is not on putting students into learning-problem categories but on frequent assessment and monitoring to make sure all students are reponsive to instruction, and if not, to make changes in instructional approaches so that all students make progress.

In Getting to RTI: What you need to know before implementing this results-based model the past coordinator of Idaho's Results-Based Model, used in more than 150 schools around the state, will save you from losing time on trial and error, by telling you what he has learned about what does and doesn't work. You will also hear from educator who has implemented RTI in schools in Montana and Alaska.

Audioconference CD: $197 CD includes audio only. You will receive a link to Powerpoint slides to print out or view on your computer. Need to pay by purchase order? FAX POs to 815-461-5647. Add $7.50 for shipping/handling Questions? Call 207-632-1954.

CONFERENCE TOPICS: In their presentation, Wayne Callender and Dave Means draw on their experiences to describe key steps in implementing RTI. Topics include:

• Evaluating support, modifying instruction--Making changes when a student doesn't make adequate progress.
• 3-tiered approach--Benchmark, strategic and intensive levels of instruction plus a fourth level for long-term support
• Interventions are not just for special ed --Maximizing the use of special education resources for the benefit of all students. Using scientifically validated teaching practices and interventions across all levels.
• Systems--Setting up a well-designed structure for addressing all students.
• Screening and assessment--Identifying student needs, differentiating instruction and evaluating student progress and program effectiveness.
• Problem-solving--Trouble-shooting at both individual and systems levels.
• Four purposes of assessment--Assessment should be done for purposes of screening, diagnosis, progress monitoring and outcome measure
• Assessment-intervention loop--Identifying need for support and planning instructional intervention.
• Evaluating support, modifying instruction--Making changes when a student doesn't make adequate progress.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Wayne Callender is a regional education coordinator with the Center on Teaching and Learning at the University of Oregon, and the past coordinator of the Results-Based Model Project for the state of Idaho, a problem-solving and RTI approach to special education. Callender has conducted trainings and seminars with educators implementing RTI and currently serves as a consultant to schools in several states. A certified K-12 building and district administrator as well as a special education director, Callender was a contributor to the "Handbook of response to intervention: The science and practice of assessment and intervention recently published by Springer (Edited by S. R. Jimerson, M. K. Burns, & A. M. VanDerHeyden). He wrote a section titled "The Idaho results-based model: Implementing response to intervention statewide."

Dave Means is director of special services for the Whitefish School District in Montana where he has helped introduce and implement the RTI model in one elementary school in the Whitefish School District. Previously, as director of special services for Alaska's Kodiak Island Borough School District, he introduced and helped initiate the implementation of RTI in four elementary schools. Dave worked with the Alaska Department of Education, Wayne Callender, and the Western Regional Resource Center to start the program in Kodiak. He has also worked as a school psychologist and counselor in Montana and Alaska.