Earlier you considered two important sources of evidence: the best available research, along with definitions and demonstrations of practice, and policies/professional guidelines about tiered instruction. Experience-based knowledge is another source of evidence to help guide your decision-making. Experience-based knowledge is the “know-how” that comes from solving problems, overcoming barriers, and making decisions in everyday life.
These knowledgeable spokespersons are:
- Lydia Carlis, Ph.D. is Director of Education at AppleTree Institute and AppleTree Early Learning Public Charter School in Washington DC. The Apple Tree Institute has implemented the RTI model into its early childhood program. Listen as Dr. Carlis talks about why RTI is important in early childhood programs. Visit the Implementing RTI in Early Childhood Settings Forum page to view the full webcast.
- Jim Lesko, Ed.D. is Director of Early Development and Learning Resources for the Delaware Department of Education in Dover, Delaware. Dr. Lesko previously worked as an education associate for early childhood education and IDEA/Section 619 coordinator for the Delaware Department of Education. Listen as Dr. Lesko discusses the differences between RTI in early childhood and K-12 settings. Visit the Implementing RTI in Early Childhood Settings Forum page to view the full webcast.
- Doré LaForett, Ph.D. is an Investigator at FPG Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is interested in school readiness, mental health, and family functioning during early childhood, with an emphasis on low-income and ethnic/language minority populations. Dr. LaForett works on the Recognition & Response- Dual Language Learners project and focuses on adapting the R&R model for use with Spanish-Speaking preschoolers. Listen as Dr. LaForett talks about how RTI is used with dual language learners in early childhood.
Now watch and listen to video clips 7.20, 7.21, and audio clip 7.1 of these spokespersons and identify important considerations to keep in mind about tiered instruction using Activity 7.15a.
Video 7.20: Lydia Carlis
Dr. Lydia Carlis, the Director of Education at AppleTree Institute, talks about the importance of RTI in early childhood programs (running time: 2 min., 00 sec.).
View Transcript
Narrator:
This RTI national online forum is presented by the RTI action network a program of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Funding is provided by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.
Interviewer:
And Lydia, why do early childhood programs and our children need RTI, that’s my first questions, and I’m going to follow up with another.
Lydia:
Well if you look just at reading, at the research on reading, five to ten percent of children who come to kindergarten ready, need intervening services after, but sixty-five to seventy percent of children who come to kindergarten and they are not prepared for kindergarten need intervening services throughout their school career.
Interviewer:
Ok, and we’re kind of looking for some context here. Don’t all young children develop skills at different rates?
Lydia:
People definitely develop skills at different rates, but there are developmental guidelines for what we know children should be able to do at different ages. And as a social justice issue we really want to ensure that it is not certain children who are not ready and prepared. And right now we see through data across the nation that African American students and children who are English language learners are disproportionately represented in special education and other areas where they’re not getting the services that they need early on so response to intervention in early childhood can support that.
Interviewer:
So it’s not to say that they have special education needs they’re just not getting all the resources.
Lydia:
They have not received the supports they need early on to mitigate some of those deficits.
Interviewer:
Ok.
Video 7.21: Jim Lesko
Dr. Jim Lesko, the Director of Early Development and Learning Resources for the Delaware Department of Education, disusses the differences between RTI in early childhood and K-12 settings (running time: 1 min., 50 sec.).
View Transcript
Narrator:
This RTI national online forum is presented by the RTI action network a program of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Funding is provided by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.
Interviewer:
Jim let me move to you, how is RTI different in the early childhood than in the K through twelve settings?
Jim:
Well Doris there are several differences, I think, that need to be considered. The first would be, and it is a major issue, is funding. Within the K to twelve system there are some more firm funding resources that are available. IDEA makes some specific resources available through their comprehensive Early Intervening Services component of that. Whereas below kindergarten it is much more difficult to identify funding and it is often necessary for districts and programs to be very creative around that process. The second component would be around the competencies and resources that are available to programs that are below kindergarten. We’re often dealing with a very different population of practitioners, some that come into the setting with less knowledge than what we might find in a K to twelve system. I guess the third component would be the settings. In the K to twelve system we have school building, we have classrooms. Below kindergarten we’re looking at preschool programs, child care centers, daycare, family child care. So there are some disctinct differences across settings.
Interviewer:
Ok, thank you Jim.
Audio 7.1: Doré LaForett
Doré LaForett, an Investigator at FPG Child Development Institute, talks about how RTI is used with dual language learners in early childhood settings (running time: 1 min., 59 sec.).
View Transcript
Doré:
So there are several adaptations that could be made within a tiered approach to work with dual language learners. One of these is with regard to assessment. And the adaptation here is something called formative assessment, and what formative assessment involves is conducting assessments using both English and also the home language. So what that would involve is doing one set of assessments using English and the other set of assessments doing the home language. The reason why this would be important for dual language learners is because it would allow for a fuller picture of what dual language learners, or DLLs, know. So when we see what they know in English, we get a sense of what they know in the English skills, and when we assess them in their home language we get a sense of what we know from their home language skills, and when we put that information together it gives us a much broader picture of the kind of things that they know as opposed to if we just did the assessment in English only.
Another adaptation within tiered approaches involves the intervention piece, or the instructional piece. So one adaptation in this area involves what can be called as bridging. Which basically means using both English and the home language strategically during instruction. And there are several ways that teachers can do this. One is they can use both English and the home language to teach explicit concepts, such as vocabulary and letter names and sounds and things like that. The other way they can use it is in responding to children’s responses or contributions in the classroom such as when the child answers a question in the home language the teacher can respond to the child in the home language and then also encourage the child to give a response in English.