RTI at Work™ Model Agenda

Nicole Dimich Vagle

Convergent Assessment: Evidence to Increase Student Learning

Assessment converges collective responsibility, concentrated instruction, and certain access to meet the unique needs of each student. Nicole Dimich Vagle highlights the critical understandings and strategies collaborative teacher teams need to effectively use assessments to improve student results, not merely to measure and record them. Creating and analyzing assessments guides the work of teams as they strive to improve instruction, invest students in their learning, and inform targeted and specific interventions and extensions. Convergent assessment points the way to high achievement for all students.

Mike Mattos

Eating the Elephant: Transforming Ideas Into Action

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Implementing RTI can be daunting. The key is to break the process down into meaningful steps. Mike Mattos assists participants in creating practical action steps to implement the four Cs of RTI: collective responsibility, concentrated instruction, convergent assessment, and certain access. Participants leave with a practical implementation plan and the inspiration to get started.

Building the Pyramid: How to Create a Highly Effective, Multitiered System of Supports

Mike Mattos and the RTI at Work faculty discuss the essential elements necessary to systematically provide supplemental (Tier 2) and intensive (Tier 3) interventions for academics and behavior, and how teacher teams and support staff are utilized to make this work doable.

Luis F. Cruz

Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

Many schools struggle to realize the powerful potential of RTI because they are too focused on paperwork and protocols, think too rigidly to meet the unique needs of each school, or view RTI narrowly as a means of qualifying kids for special education. Luis F. Cruz shares a new way of thinking about RTI and simplifies the process to four essential elements (the four Cs of RTI): collective responsibility, concentrated instruction, convergent assessment, and certain access.

Austin Buffum

Concentrated Instruction: Designing and Refining Our Instruction Around Student Learning

Rather than asking how to raise scores, collaborative teams should ask what specifically students need to master and how they can construct a plan for instruction, intervention, and enrichment to achieve mastery for every student. Austin Buffum helps teams clarify how to identify the essential knowledge and skills students must master to be successful in school and in life.