Mendota High School Response to Intervention/Period 8 Presentation Holly Beals Jayne Barnes Tammy Guerrero Stephanie Haskell Amy Wilson

Contacts Denise Aughenbaugh, principal Amy Wilson, RtI Chairperson (815) ext. 310 Scott Horsch, Curriculum Director

The Problem: 1. At any given time up to 1/3 of our student population were failing one or more classes 2. Statistics for the class of 2010: PSAE does not meet/exceed – Reading 37.6% – Math 38.4% – Science 49.3% – Writing 42.4%

The issue continues: Class of 2012 (current sophomores) – 46 total students below benchmark* – 23 in reading – 37 in math – *Using Explore reading and math and Star reading scores

Class of 2013 (current freshman) – 48 total students below benchmark* – 31 in reading – 34 in math – *using Explore reading and math, Star reading, Aims Webb, and ISAT scores

At the beginning of the school year we have 54 students in reading and 71 students in math that are below benchmark in tests that are precursors to the ACT (in the freshman and sophomore classes)

Class of out of 160 students below the benchmarks now equals at least 28% not achieving meets standards in two years Class of out of 155 students below the benchmarks now equals at least 31% not achieving meets standards in three years

So, what do we do?

Period 8 Students who pass junior level classes meet/exceed on the PSAE Stems from a suggestion from Student Services made to the administration – Formal and informal surveys of students in At-risk focus group and Honors students - Survey of staff from 2008 In-service

The administration negotiated an additional period into the school day in our last contract. – Period 8 has two uses: Students with a failing grade must stay Students who have been identified as having a reading deficiency must stay

Students who are failing a class The “F-list” is run on Thursday afternoon The students are notified Friday by a note at school and a letter sent home that they must attend period 8 starting the next Monday Students are assigned to a specific teacher in the content area in which they are failing. – May not be their classroom teacher

Students are required to stay for three weeks regardless of whether or not they have raised the grade At the end of each week student placement is evaluated and could be adjusted If a student is passing all classes at the end of three weeks he is excused from period 8 If a student is failing the same or a different class at the end of the 3 weeks he will be assigned another 3 weeks. If a student is passing all classes he is dismissed at 2:51 Period 8 is run Monday through Thursday

No teacher is assigned more than 10 students Practices/rehearsals must start after period 8 All teachers have an assignment If a student is in period 8 for failures they are not excused to leave for sporting events until after 3:30

Students are given homework completion help as well as skill-based interventions depending on the need of student. Currently we have 120 students participating in period 8 for failures. Approx. 31 students are on round 2 of being assigned to period 8 After the first 3 weeks, 35 of the original 66 students were done with period 8

Remedial/Intensive Instruction & Intervention Accelerated/Targeted/ Supplemental Instruction & Intervention Core curriculum and Instruction Students meet benchmarks in curricular area 80% 15% 5% What is Response to Intervention?

Key Components of RtI Universal Screening/Data Collection – Explore/Plan test scores for Math and Reading – Aims Webb and Star Reading scores – ISAT scores Interventions based on need and data – Used in Tier 1, 2 and 3 Progress Monitoring – AIMSWEB

Universal screener: Explore Reading and Math scores. – Explore reading scores were compared with AIMSWEB scores (for freshman) – Identified 83 freshman and sophomores as being below benchmark on the Explore and gave them AIMSWEB benchmark testing – Of the 83, 21 students tested below the 25 th percentile on the 8 th grade benchmark on AIMSWEB.

Gave the 21 students the SRA Corrective Reading Placement test Students were grouped appropriately and started SRA Decoding during Period 8. Students are given AIMSWEB progress monitoring every two weeks.

Good Things: Failures are down from last year at this time by 32% Students are receiving scientifically proven reading interventions in hopes of improving scores across all categories on the PSAE More communication and collaboration among staff Students benefit from the individual attention provided by the small numbers Parents appreciate the effort given to helping their student be successful

Yikes! Students in after school SRA reading feel “punished” for being poor readers – When will they “get out”? Will teachers always be in their current placements? Concerns that we are reaching everyone that needs help Inconsistent grading has led to student placement issues for failures Providing a “study hall” vs. providing interventions

For the future: Add behavior interventions More closely align our curriculum within departments as Tier One intervention – Look at grading practices among teachers teaching the same class so grades are equitable Add after school Math intervention Overall program evaluation – What classes do we want to add or change

Questions? Comments? Snide Remarks?