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Response to Intervention (RTI)

Utilizing a variety of strategies and approaches, the Searsport District Middle School strives to meet the needs of all learners, irrespective of their abilities or disabilities. 

A systematic and multi-faceted, three-tiered approach guarantees that supports and interventions are available to all students who struggle to meet a full range of behavioral and/or learning benchmarks. An effective RTI structure focuses on how well students respond to changes in instruction or interventions.  Feel free to download the RTI brochure below.

Vision: The Searsport District Middle School, in partnership with community, embraces a system of continuous improvement in a safe and supportive learning environment. With the mission to assist all students reach their full potential.

Goals

  • Highest student achievement
  • Safe learning environment
  • High performance organization

Beliefs

  • Accepting responsibility
  • Building internal and external partnerships
  • Communicating positively and constructively
  • Demonstrating mutual respect and integrity
  • Fostering a safe, caring climate
  • Promoting life-long learning
  • Providing for diverse needs
  • Sharing in decision making
Utilizing principles of continuous improvement

Purpose

   

  1. To review school-wide behavior and academic data in order to evaluate the effectiveness of core programming.

  2. To screen and identify students needing additional academic and/or behavior support.

  3. To plan, implement, and modify interventions for these students as well as monitor their progress. Depending on each student's “response to intervention”, a formal referral for special education evaluation my result.

Team Membership

The RTI team membership must include a classroom teacher from each grade level, School Counselor, Administrator, Reading Specialist, member of the Special Education Department, Project Achieve Coordinator, School Nurse and other specialists when available, and applicable. 

The team meets bi-monthly to review our performance at the Tier 1 level, and to discuss individual student needs when necessary. The grade level teams facilitate the actual RTI student meetings to determine the specific needs of the student and develop the necessary action plan.

RTI Tiers
                3 Tier System:

Tier I: Universal

School achievement and success requires that students have adequate exposure to a quality curriculum and instruction. We support a preventative approach to teaching academic and social behavior, beginning at the Tier I level. The practice of teaching and reinforcing students for displaying school-wide expectations, both behaviorally and academically, is considered a universal intervention., delivered to every student in every setting. For example, by teaching and reinforcing expected behaviors, teachers increase the probability that students will act according to the expectations. When these universal interventions are carried out with fidelity, we can begin to identify students who are in need of additional supports. Despite receiving assistance found successful with a majority of other students, these students continue to display academic and/or social/behavioral difficulties.


Tier II: Targeted Group

Once a student has been identified as needing additional support, using evidence-based interventions that require resources appropriate to the student's level of need, and then monitoring the progress is important. At Tier II, this is interpreted as providing interventions to a small group of students. Monitoring the student's progress can lead to a decision for ending the intervention, maintaining the current intervention, adaptations to the intervention, and/or a referral to Special Education.


Tier III: Individualized/Intensive Interventions

At Tier III we need to conduct a more in-depth analysis of the student's data, which would include all the information gathered from Tier I and Tier II, as well as more intensive interventions and progress monitoring techniques. It may be determined that the student be referred to Special Education.