Keeping TAB on Students

Last year a neighboring school worked with our county RtI Specialist to develop more concrete guidelines for the steps we should take when a student is not making sufficient academic progress. They developed a very thorough process that guides teachers through data analysis, brainstorming and team decision making, and tier movement.

Over the summer, the county targeted specific schools that needed extra support with the RtI process and allotted them to hire an intervention specialist. This year I have worked in this role and have been able to help teachers work through the new RtI guidelines. The process is not perfect and there are many things we will change next year but I feel that it has helped us prevent kids from falling through the cracks.

The process starts by teachers meeting weekly as a grade level. The first week of the month teachers pull new data on all of their tier 2 and tier 3 students. The second week, grade level teams works together to analyze the data. During this time they determine if the student is making progress, showing inconsistent progress, or not showing any progress. Student names are turned into me if they have a certain number of data points that fall below the aim line and either show no progress or inconsistent progress. The third week of the month teachers prepare a document for each student concern for our monthly TAB (Teacher Advisory Board) meeting. This document must include student history, services in place, data, and any other information that is necessary. These documents can be very lengthy. The last week of the month we hold our TAB meeting. The TAB team includes our assistant principal, EIP teachers, LEA, ESOL teacher, counselor, speech teacher, intervention specialist and grade level teachers. At these meetings teachers present their student concerns and the team determines next steps.

I am wondering if anyone's school follows a similar process? If so, does it work well for teachers? This year has been a big adjustment because the process does require a lot of time. I think that teachers find the process important because before we lacked direction and support with RtI.