When we look to progress-monitor our students, "how's it going?" is the question that we are constantly asking ourselves. Is what we are doing having a positive effect on student progress? Are we making a difference? Are we closing the achievement gap?

In looking at progress monitoring and assessments, there was a great comment on a previous blog about our assessment team not having a regular education teacher on it. I should probably explain that the assessment team gathers data and puts it into a form that is useful. Then, when making a decision based on this data, yes the classroom teacher is involved. You will see later in this blog that we have grade level meetings that involve the classroom teacher. The assessment team also gathers data from the classroom by collecting the teacher’s observations as well as using any classroom assessment data that the classroom teacher may have to offer. The comment made a great point in that RTI is a regular education issue and not just another means to get a student in special education. In looking at some data, in Wyoming about 39% of all identified special education students are qualified with a learning disability while only 20% of our identified students are qualified with a learning disability. This shows that we are using RTI as a general education initiative and have been able to help many of our students with interventions provided through general education setting. Many of our students are receiving interventions through general education that allow them to be successful without having to be referred to special education. So we have taken the initiative and have dealt and will continue to deal with most of our learning difficulties in the regular education setting through the use of RTI.

It is the best of times… maybe. It is the worst of times… maybe. It is a wrenching time… absolutely! It is a time of budget shortfalls and stimulus money and 401Ks turning into 101Ks. It is a time to get serious.

The CEO of General Electric recently said that this economic crisis is not an adjustment. He said that this crisis is a reset! The problem is that we do not know what all of this is resetting to!

It is my deep conviction that times of great ambiguity demand bold action. The bold action we need to make Response to Intervention (RtI) work to improve outcomes for all students is simple to say and tough to do. Let’s commit ourselves to data-based decision making, 100% of the time. If it works, keep doing it. If it doesn’t, STOP!

On April 2^nd, thousands of principals will show up in New Orleans for the National Association of Elementary Principals National Conference. Principals from all over the country will be looking for ways to improve their leadership skills, investigate new building innovations, network, and share experiences as they address educational issues and educational questions in their states and schools.

We all know that RTI implementation is a topic on the minds of many principals, and principals at the national conference will come from varied experiences and backgrounds concerning their knowledge and understanding of the process.  As I go to the conference, I am very interested in the multiple experiences that principals have had while implementing RTI in their schools. At the national conference I hope to glean some qualitative information from practicing principals.

One of the things leaders in education do as a part of their professional careers is work on leadership skills.  Initiatives such as Response to Intervention (RtI) require leaders to set a vision for how their school can look, work towards it, and sustain the focus over a relatively long period of time.  Leadership is critical, very few would disagree. As a part of our leadership development, we are told of the many leadership behaviors that are correlated with student achievement.  I recently participated in a multi-session leadership development program that identified no fewer than 66 different behaviors that might lead to better results in our schools.  No kidding!

Reflecting on that experience is not comforting.  Indeed, it has left me with more questions than I have answers to.  How can one attend to all of these things at once?  What if I forget something, will I doom the initiatives I am involved with?  The entire experience was unsettling, until I sat down and started to think about it all in context.  Leadership in schools is not about the myriad of key behaviors that are correlated .25 or more with student achievement.  Leadership is not about trying to remember all of the variables that may have an influence.  It’s not about checking off the degree to which I'm doing each of these on a daily basis nor about whether others notice.