District leaders and experts weigh in on the four steps to having a successful intervention.
– Plan ahead. Every system drifts. Perform regular audits of your intervention system. “If you want to have any initiative survive, you need to plan forward.”
— Jim Wright, author and RtI trainer
Link to main story: Intervention strategies evolve in K12
– Create overall philosophy. Intervention systems should not be implemented as standalone initiatives, but as part of a well-articulated philosophy on climate and learning. “You can’t just put an RtI mandate in place for schools and expect it to change learning if you don’t have the right culture in place for staff.”
— Garth Larson, director of learning, Winneconne Community School District
– Implement coaching. Teachers working with stressed or traumatized students need coaching on monitoring their own emotions. “Behavior management is as much about the teacher’s brain space as it is about students.”
— Lori Desautels, assistant professor, Butler University in Indianapolis
– Improve communication. Strengthen supports for struggling students by improving communication between departments, so that nurses, discipline staff, counselors and teachers aren’t starting from scratch when trying to find solutions. “Instead of having all these teams working separately, they all work together so we don’t replicate, we don’t lose information that might be really important.”
—Dane Caldwell-Holden, director of student services, San Jose USD
