1. www.nccrest.org Academy 3: Ensuring Culturally Responsive Student Supports

2. Introductions National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems NCCRESt www.nccrest.org www.nccrest.org

3. What’s in an Educational System? People PoliciesPractices www.nccrest.org

4. People PoliciesPractices What are Culturally Responsive Educational Systems? www.nccrest.org

6. Leadership Academies

7. www.nccrest.org Roles

8. Outcomes Following this Academy, participants will: Gain awareness of the need for increased research on RTI with students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. Identify and interpret existing research that demonstrates effective interventions at the secondary and tertiary tiers for students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. Consider RTI as an alternate process for identifying students who require special educational supports. Consider interventions at the tertiary tier that are inclusive and collaborative.

9. www.nccrest.org Agenda 15 min Introductions, Greetings, & Warm-Up 40 min Activity 1: The Continuum of Supports 20 min Lecturette 1: Intervention in Culturally Responsive RTI 30 min Activity 2: Revisiting the Continuum of Supports 10 minBreak 15 min Lecturette 2: Expanding the Unit of Analysis: RTI as a Process of Culturally Responsive Special Education Eligibility Assessment 20 minActivity 3: A Support Plan for a Student 30 minLeave-taking and Feedback

10. Activity 1: The Continuum of Supports Participants look at the interventions for students that are already being utilized in their schools in order to activate their prior knowledge. Activity Takes 30 Minutes www.nccrest.org

11. Intervention in Culturally Responsive RTI Frameworks: Research into Practice Lecturette 1

12. www.nccrest.org Agenda

13. Exploring the Research Base for Interventions Grounded in the Role of Culture in Teaching & Learning

14. www.nccrest.org TOOLS SUBJECTS GOAL

15. Culturally Responsive RTI with Students Learning English www.nccrest.org Considerable research demonstrates that bilingualism may facilitate the development of reading skills in a second language & that bilingual learners benefit from heightened metalinguistic awareness (August & Shanahan, 2006; Lesaux, 2006, e.g., Bialystok, 1997; Cummins, 1991).

16. www.nccrest.org An RTI Research Base that is Mindful of Culture and Language for Students Learning English Specific comprehension strategies can be directly taught including: Resolving the meanings of unknown vocabulary items, asking questions, and making inferences, making use of bilingual language abilities such as searching for cognate vocabulary, translating, transferring information, and reflecting on information in either or both of their languages (Jiménez, 1997). Less proficient readers can successfully be taught comprehension strategies, that improve comprehension (Jiménez, 1997). Vocabulary knowledge strongly related to effective text comprehension ; appears to be a highly significant variable in second language readers’ success (Fitzgerald, 1995; National Reading Panel, 2000). Phonological awareness AND vocabulary are important in predicting second language reading achievement(Klingner, Artiles, & Barletta, 2004). Literacy interventions should be provided in students’ native language in conjunction with English interventions. Effective literacy interventions include oral English proficiency interventions. English second-language oral proficiency, native- language reading, & English second-language reading are positively related (Fitzgerald, 1995; Garcia-Vasquez, 1995; Gottardo, 2002; Tregar & Wong, 1984). The Research The Practice

17. Teacher provided total of 58 supplemental reading sessions (5 times/week, 30 mins/session for 13 weeks) of: Reading Fluency (5 mins.) familiar text & wide range of print material (pictures added to back of word cards, decodable books for connected text) Phonological Awareness (5 mins.) Practice blending, segmenting, deleting, substituting & manipulating phonemes in words, discriminating between real & nonsense words; some activities pre-designed; others developed specifically for students Instructional Level Reading (10 mins.) Practice with text with which students made less than 10 errors/100 words Word Study (5 mins.) Explicit instruction in the alphabetic principle and word analysis strategies. Instruction of phonetically regular word patterns included the introduction of new patterns, meta- linguistic discussion of similarities or differences of the new sounds or patterns between English & SpanishWriting (2-3 mins.) Students instructed to write as many words as they could think of in 2 minutes & read back to teacher Research-Based Interventions for Students Learning English www.nccrest.org Linan-Thompson et al., 2003

18. www.nccrest.org Culturally Responsive Secondary & Tertiary Interventions Who? Collaborative teams of educators with expertise in subject matter and types of support determined appropriate for students who require it. Where? In general education classrooms through collaborative methods of instruction. What? Ongoing professional learning for teachers around types of supports students require Curricular & instructional resources to utilize with diverse learners Research-based interventions are grounded in culture’s essential role in teaching & learning. Time and space for educators to examine & reflect on practices.

19. Interventions that are Culturally Responsive… www.nccrest.org …are constructed by intervention design teams …consider students’ language, background experiences, preferred ways of interacting, and home literacy practices and integrate all of these factors in curricular materials, instructional methods, educational environment, involvement of families, and both formative and summative progress monitoring. …are based on a theory of culture in learning …are informed by cultural brokers (Gay, 1993).

20. Prescriptive Teaching 1.Teach skills, subjects, or concepts; 2.Reteach using significantly different strategies or approaches for the benefit of students who fail to meet expected performance levels after initial instruction, 3.Use informal assessment strategies to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses and the possible causes of academic and/or behavioral difficulties (Ortiz, 2002). www.nccrest.org

21. Culturally Responsive Interventions with African American Students The Algebra Project The Cultural Modeling Project www.nccrest.org

22. Agenda

23. Activity 2: Revisiting the Continuum of Supports Participants revisit and enhance an intervention generated in Activity 1 to ensure that they are culturally responsive, beyond use for only students learning English. Activity Takes 40 Minutes www.nccrest.org

24. Lecturette 2 Expanding the Unit of Analysis: Culturally Responsive Special Education Eligibility Assessment and Intervention www.nccrest.org

25. Agenda

26. The Tertiary Interventions Tier: Rationale of RTI for Assessment of Disability Tertiary Interventions www.nccrest.org

27. Reauthorization of IDEA (2004) related to Special Education Eligibility Reauthorized IDEA provides eligibility and identification criteria for LD [614(b)(6)(A)-(B)]: –When determining whether a child has a specific learning disability The LEA is not required to consider a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability. The LEA may use a process that determines if a child responds to scientific, research-based intervention as part of the evaluation. www.nccrest.org

28. How Does RTI Fit into Assessment for Specific Learning Disability? Special Education Eligibility Determination: takes place within culturally responsive RTI models through which a child has progressed to more & more intensive & individualized supports, yet is determined as not responding to robust, evidence- based instruction with adequate opportunities to learn & culturally responsive intervention. www.nccrest.org

29. What Should LD Assessment Look Like within Culturally Responsive RTI Frameworks? The student’s achievement is substantially lower than peers The student’s progress is substantially lower than peers Context: The student has received solid, research based instruction and interventions that are culturally responsive and systems issues that affect student progress have been addressed. www.nccrest.org

30. Assessment for LD Eligibility also Rules Out: Other disabilities (e.g., intellectual and developmental disabilities, visual impairment, hearing impairment, emotional or behavioral disorder) Absence of appropriate literacy instruction A low level of proficiency in academic English Situational trauma (e.g., the death of a parent)

31. Rationale for Design of Culturally Responsive RTI Frameworks for Special Education Assessment The way that IDEA is currently written, schools get more funding and resources by identifying children as having special needs. In our view of CR RTI, however, an eligibility decision does not change the location or intensity of supports being provided to students. Instead, eligibility allows for increased resources to ensure sustained and ongoing intensive individualized instruction for these students, in the general education classroom by individuals who work collaboratively to ensure students are getting the level of support they need. www.nccrest.org

32. Lingering Assessment Issues… In RTI, a fixed point must be determined to indicate the point on a continuum at which LD identification is determined, which is still arbitrary (Vaughn & Fuchs, 2003). How does an arbitrary cut-off favor a certain view of what is considered “normal” and “deficient” performance? How can this be the same point for all students without considering culture and context of schooling?In RTI, a fixed point must be determined to indicate the point on a continuum at which LD identification is determined, which is still arbitrary (Vaughn & Fuchs, 2003). How does an arbitrary cut-off favor a certain view of what is considered “normal” and “deficient” performance? How can this be the same point for all students without considering culture and context of schooling? www.nccrest.org

33. Tertiary Interventions as Compared to Universal and Secondary Increased intensity and explicitness More frequent progress monitoring (e.g. at least once a week versus once a month in Tier 2 or once a quarter in Tier 2) Smaller teacher-student ratio for instruction(e.g. 3 students per teacher) www.nccrest.org

34. Culturally Responsive Secondary & Tertiary Interventions Who? Collaborative teams of educators with expertise in subject matter and types of support determined appropriate for students who require it. Where? In general education classrooms through collaborative methods of instruction. What? Ongoing professional learning for teachers around types of supports students require Curricular & instructional resources to utilize with diverse learners Research-based interventions are grounded in culture’s essential role in teaching & learning. Time and space for educators to examine & reflect on practices.

35. Agenda www.nccrest.org

36. Activity 3: A Support Plan for a Student Participants will use what they know and have learned about culturally responsive tertiary intervention, and develop a student support plan for Francisco, the student from Academy 1. Activity Takes 30 Minutes www.nccrest.org

37. Leave Taking Thank you for your participation! www.nccrest.org