Schools and districts across the country are adopting response-to-intervention programs to improve student outcomes and prevent unnecessary assignment to special education. Since response-to-intervention programs require a systemic approach, and changes in school culture, educators can become overwhelmed without the proper plan and guidance. To help schools through the process, STI , a leader in K-12 education data management solutions, is offering Extreme Intervention through STI Achievement Services . Extreme Intervention is a customized professional coaching service that helps schools develop and implement response-to-intervention programs successfully.
The need for a response-to-intervention model emerged after more than 25 years of research and examination of student outcomes in both general and special education indicated that many students were misdiagnosed with learning disabilities. Response to intervention started gaining widespread acceptance following the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, which changed sections of the statue to reflect new ideas about learning disabilities and provide funding for early intervention strategies.
Response to intervention is a systemic reform process that takes a multi-tiered approach to provide more effective instruction to students with or at risk for learning disabilities. The process involves early identification of learning needs, addressing those needs through specific interventions and instructional modifications, and monitoring student progress closely to determine the need for further research-based instruction in general education, in special education, or both.
Extreme Intervention promotes collaboration among teachers, coaches, specialists, administrators, and other education professionals within a school or district to achieve the desired results. To provide instructional strategies and progress monitoring to students experiencing learning difficulties, Extreme Intervention uses a scientifically based intervention model and a three-tiered approach: universal interventions, targeted group interventions, and intensive, individual interventions. Six critical components are provided to schools and districts through the service to ensure a successful system-wide response-to-intervention program:
- Customized response-to-intervention plan of action
- Assessment benchmarks and baselines for data-driven decision making
- Ongoing coaching
- Progress monitoring
- Curriculum-based measurement
- Intervention resources
With the guidance of STI's continuous improvement coaches, school faculty members develop the competencies and tools they need to improve instruction for struggling learners, including a structured format for problem solving, the way to address common reasons for student failure, and the ability to use various assessment methods to monitor student progress in all academic areas.
"For several years, schools have been tracking and compiling education data; however, they need guidance in the most effective ways to use the data to improve teaching and learning, particularly as new models of instruction and assessment have emerged and traditional models have been redefined," said Ruby McCullough, CEO of STI. "Extreme Intervention is a model that uses best practices and data-driven decision-making to do what is best and necessary to help all students succeed. The Extreme Intervention service was created to assist schools in the complex, extensive process of re-examining and shifting their approaches to instructional design, assessment, and special education."
STI Achievement Services, an integral component of STI's assessment business, offers assistance in planning and executing instructional change to improve student achievement. The company provides customized programs of face-to-face and online professional development and coaching for educators, using best practices, research-based strategies, and data-driven decision-making. STI Achievement Services is led by a team of skilled school improvement specialists who are veteran educators with extensive experience in education data analysis, instructional design, and the school improvement field.
In addition to STI Achievement Services, STI offers fully integrated education data management systems, which enable schools to accurately track and monitor a broad range of student information, assessment and special education data, and create detailed reports to make informed decisions.
For more information about STI, visit www.sti-k12.com or phone 800-844-0884.
