TALENT DEVELOPMENT IN AN RTI FRAMEWORK Kristin Schlingman Hannah Coburn School District of Cudahy

Introductions… ● About Us... ● Name ● District ● Role ● Explain your district’s level of alignment of G/T within an RtI framework

Objective for today: To share our story and explain how the School District of Cudahy aligns the Talent Development program within an RtI framework.

Agenda ● Demographics ● Past Practices ● Current Beliefs ● Principles of RtI and Talent Development ● Identification process in Cudahy ● Communication/Documentation ● Continuing Growth

FACTS ABOUT CUDAHY ● Population: Approximately 18,000 ● Ethnicity: 88% Caucasian, 10% Hispanic, also a small percentage of Serbian and Albanian residents ● Number of Schools: 5 elementary, 1 middle school, 1 high school ● Free/Reduced Population: 60%+ ● Number of Talent Development Support Personnel: 1.5 FTE

PREVIOUS GIFTED AND TALENTED SERVICES IN CUDAHY ● Looked at WKCE solely ● Used SAGES 2 for K-2 identification or as a confirming assessment ● Kids were in or out of the program ● Projects not necessarily aligned to curriculum ● 3rd-6th grade focus ● Provided enrichment for many students, but didn’t necessarily address specific needs of advanced students. ● Limited communication with teachers and parents

Flaws we believed existed in our Gifted and Talented Program/Process: ● Limited data used ● Progress monitoring non-existent ● Lack of parent/teacher communication ● Lack of tracking information regarding services previously provided ● No specific goals identified ● Not tied to standards

OUR BELIEFS ● Intelligences are dynamic ● Giftedness is inclusive ● Educational systems are responsive *These three beliefs align with RtI (Response to Intervention/Instruction)

PRINCIPLES OF RtI ● Addresses both academic and behavioral domains ● Systematic process for instruction and intervention/enrichment ● Provides a process for decision making based on clear data for every student ● Requires continuous progress monitoring and formative assessments to drive instruction ● Responds to learner’s needs

Gifted Students, Gifted Services, and Response to Intervention (RtI) RtI handout

What we did next…(over 4 years) ● Established working relationship with RtI district team ● Developed a Gifted and Talented district leadership team (consisted of administrators and teacher reps from each elementary building) ● Developed criteria for various programming ● Researched and purchased resources for advanced programming for both in and out of school opportunities ● Created a flowchart for identification of advanced students ● Networked with other districts within CESA 1 ● Determined screeners to be used for identification for services ● Created documentation forms ● Developed a resource handbook for both teachers and parents ● Changed title of services from Gifted and Talented to Talent Development ● Scheduled meetings with classroom teachers regularly to discuss individual student needs and review data ● Began having family nights to share information about our services and to bring families together

RtI FOR TALENT DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

IDENTIFICATION PROCESS FLOWCHART ● Determining students need of Talent Development Services ● Analyze data...STAR, PALS, AIMSweb ● Data documentation Data documentation ● Meet with classroom teachers of students that fit criteria to discuss student needs. ● Oct and Jan. ● Discussion includes…how is this student performing in class? Do you believe they need additional opportunities/challenges? ● We do not exclude students because they are not performing in class…these can be our underachievers and these kids still need to be challenged. The underachievement may be from not feeling challenged by the core curriculum

● Determine what appropriate opportunities to provide for students and when they will be provided ● Most services will be provided by TD coordinator during the student’s Intervention/Enrichment time 45 min. each). ● Some of these opportunities include ● Jr. Great books ● Center for Gifted Education Lang. Arts ● Future Problem Solvers ● Contexts for learning ● WCATY Courses ● Update the list with Tier of service needed for each studentlist ● Any student determined to need Tier 3 services would then go through our Student Service Team for further review. (See information on Flowchart) (See information on Flowchart)

COMMUNICATION/DOCUMENTATION ● Student Plans ● Student Support Profile (Tier 2) ● Advanced Learning Plan (Tier 3) ● Sent home with report cards ● Update progress after 2nd and 4th quarters ● Use of mail merge to complete plans with ease Use of mail merge ● Parent Information night held in October to share information about services offered in our district.

CONTINUING OUR GROWTH...things we need to keep doing/improving... ● Continuing to improve our communication with teachers/parents ● Aligning specific goals with specific opportunities ● Develop progress monitoring to align with goals. ● Identification of Kindergarten (outliers) ● Locating additional resources for services ● Evaluating our services