By David Vitrano
L’Observateur

RESERVE—St. John School Board members recently were presented a report on Response to Intervention (RtI) a program new to the parish for the 2008-2009 school year.

Josie Clement, program director, introduced the national program aimed at identifying and aiding those students who are at risk for academic failure.

“What it is is preventative medicine,” she said before turning the microphone over to some of the parish’s RtI teachers.

Janine Brown, the RtI teacher at Fifth Ward Elementary School in Reserve, handled most of the rest of the evening’s presentation duties.

According to Brown, the program’s “medicine” consists of high-quality, research-based instruction for at-risk students in grades kindergarten through three.

Those students are identified through a universal screening process using criteria outlined in the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills or DIBELS.

Under the DIBELS assessment, students are given short literacy skills tests that measure a student’s ability to sound out words and basic overall reading fluency. It also assigns each grade level an average number of words a child should be able to read per minute.

Students scoring in the bottom 10 percent of the assessment are referred to the RtI program.

Brown stressed the program is not aimed at giving the students preferential treatment or easier coursework, but rather it gives at-risk students specialized instruction with the goal of bringing them up to the level of their peers.

The instruction focuses on the five literacy skills of phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency with connected text, vocabulary and comprehension.

Brown presented slides showing the results from the first year of the RtI program. According to the report, students showed across-the-board improvement, with K-2 students showing over 100 percent gains.

Board Member Albert Burl asked why the program does not include the bottom 20 percent, but Brown responded it is basically an issue of available resources.

She added it is up to the individual school to make the final decision regarding these matters.

Board Vice President Patrick Sanders asked, “What’s going to happen in the summertime if these students fall back?”

Brown explained at Fifth Ward as well as at Emily C. Watkins and Garyville/Mt. Airy Magnet a voluntary summer program is in place.

Superintendent Courtney Millet added that after assessments are made again in the fall, the need for summer programs can be determined more accurately.

The position of RtI teacher was created during the summer of 2008.