RTI at a High School

photo credit: CarbonNYC  via photopin  cc

Start with lots of questions.

• Do we believe all kids can learn?  
• What is more important:  grades or knowledge?
• What positive changes can we make to encourage and support the factors for learning that educators CAN control?
• What kids are struggling right now?
• What supports do we have in place, and what do we need to develop?

And so, West Delaware and other schools started down the pathway to implementing RTI in high schools almost 4 years ago.  This is not a checklist approach to helping all students learn, because the climate of all districts is based on local needs and interests.  It's a process.

As the DE gets ready to unveil the RTI initiative this week, it seems to me that we need advocates from the initial pilot of the the IRIS project (Iowa Rapidly Improving Schools).  to speak up and talk about the work that we has been done.   That's my goal for the next month--to give snapshots of how RTI is working in high schools across the state.

Here's what West Delaware first developed as a result of the conversations above.