A note from Mr. Zangari February 12, 2010

Here we are 100 days into the school year and less time left to close another school year. So much is happening with RTI now and I look for ways to keep parents informed about this comprehensive restructuring of the school. Please feel free to respond to this and let me know if a formal presentation would be helpful, detailed emails, or both should be planned.

The central focus of RTI is increased achievement for all students. By adopting universal screening tools, and frequent growth monitors, we are challenged to insure that all students are meeting standards, and that the programming and support we provide is indeed effective. We have spent a year analyzing the core program which makes sense considering that this is where the majority of instruction occurs for all students. We want to insure that our instructional practice is reaching the masses and we use 80% proficiency to measure this. The core must be effective. This means screening all students 3 times per year in literacy. AIMSWEB is the tool we are using and it measures fluency as the key indicator of reading proficiency. Reports will be available to parents so you can see their progress over time. Students receiving support services are now progress monitored every two weeks so we can assesses the effectiveness of the support.

We have purchased a reading tutorial K-6 (Read Naturally) that models reading, and helps students increase their accuracy and rate of reading. Many students are benefiting from this program. More programs are being explored and in time we will have a toolbox of interventions that we can match to a student’s weakness.

Our RTI team is being trained by NH Responds, a grant funded initiative to create model sites for this structure. We are now assessing the overall balance of our literacy program and moving to match it with the known best practice approaches. This will result in balanced and uniform literacy blocs throughout the building with all teachers supported by professional coaches to insure implementation and support of their instructional design. There is so much more to come.