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The Guru

The other day I was informed that my name and number had been given to another school district as the RTI Guru. Four weeks on the job - two of which were spent trying to figure out a poorly designed assessment matrix - and I'm a guru. The word scared doesn't even cover that feeling... this is federal and state mandates and money, people! You can't screw around with that stuff! And that last thing I want to do is be telling people how they should do it. Or showing them when they visit... how do I get myself into these things?

To be honest, although our district is really into this RTI thing, the high school implementation has been haphazard at best. The reading intervention existed for one year and then it was gone, replaced by math. Now it's back with math. The materials for reading however, are spread all over the campus hiding in drawers and dusty boxes belonging to various people, some of whom are no longer at the high school. It's taken nearly four weeks, but I think I've managed to track down most of it.

Right now, I think I need to focus on getting things done in a more efficient manner. I would like to have the reading program up and running (we're still testing), but I cannot test myself, so it's out of my hands. I would like to have the math program using the program to monitor the student progress, but can't access any funding for the program that was chosen for us. I would like to see more of the behavior modification program implemented, but it takes time, consistency and actual buy-in (one of the questions the guru was asked, but neatly side-stepped). Oh, yeah. I still have to grade papers and teach.
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The Science Goddess said…
If you want some help with a secondary RTI model, e-mail me and I'll give you the name of a contact and school that have a good program in place (and a protocol for 30 minute RTI meetings!).
7:47 PM
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