This document discusses using assessment-instruction links to support English Language Learners (ELLs) within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. It emphasizes using comprehensive assessment data to inform core instruction and identify students needing additional support. The three-tiered RTI model is described, with Tier 1 being the core instruction meeting over 80% of students' needs, Tier 2 providing targeted small group instruction to about 5-10% of students, and Tier 3 involving intensive individualized support for about 1-5% of students. Aggregating and analyzing assessment data at the classroom level is key to guiding instructional improvements and identifying learning disabilities among ELL students.

1. EFFECTIVE RTI SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
MODULE 3: USING ASSESSMENT-INSTRUCTION
LINKS TO PREVENT AND IDENTIFY LEARNING
DISABILITIES
Nonie K. Lesaux
Harvard Graduate School of Education
In collaboration with the NYC Office of English Language Learners

2. WHY RTI?
 Comprehensive
identification of ELLs at-risk for
reading difficulties
 Multiple indicators of reading development
 Progress in reading development is monitored
over time
 Progress monitoring assessment promotes a
focus on the quality of classroom instruction

3. GUIDING QUESTIONS
1.
How do we use our comprehensive
assessment battery to inform instruction?
2.
How does assessment-driven instruction
support prevention and identification of
learning difficulties?

4. REMEMBER…
MEETING COLLECTIVE NEEDS


Meets the needs of
>80% of students
Core of Instruction
(Tier 1)
This means:
If >20% of students
need more
instruction in a
particular area
 focus first on the
instructional core
"Double Dose"
of Instruction
Intensive
Intervention
4

5. WHERE TO FOCUS?
If more than a small group of students show
risk in a skill area, focus on overall classroom
activities
When only a small number of students show
risk in a skill area, focus on the individual
students

6. REMEMBER…
MEETTING ELLS’ NEEDS DURING THE INSTRUCTIONAL CORE
Common ELL Reader
Profile: Word-reading Word
Knowledge Gap
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
 Build deep academic
vocabulary and content
knowledge
 Use rich texts and
discussions, word play
and study, and writing
"Double Dose"
of Instruction
Intensive
Intervention

7. ALIGNMENT: ORGANIZING ASSESSMENT DATA
Aggregate Data
And discuss what they show
 Within
classrooms
 Across classrooms
 Across grade levels

8. KEY STEPS FOR IMPACT
 Organize
assessment data to identify trends and
patterns
 Have an assessment system that spans across
grade levels
Also promotes alignment instructionally

9. ASSESSMENT-INSTRUCTION LINKS:
IDENTIFYING THE NEEDS OF THE COLLECTIVE

Step 1. What percentage/number of our students are
at-risk in each of the areas we assess?

Step 2. How do these rates differ by grade level?

Step 3. What are our instructional strengths?
Weaknesses?

Step 4. What are our priority issues?

10. Assessment-Instruction Links in your School Context
Are our readers’
code-based and
meaning-based
skills both
developing?
How many students are
at-risk in a given area?
How are our
students performing
compared to their
same-age peers?
What underlies studenttrends?
What does this tell me
about designing
instruction?
Designing Tomorrow’s Lesson
Pinpointing Sources
of difficulty
Core: match needs of
majority of students
Daily
Instruction
tier 2: “Double dose” and
bolster skills that some
students have yet to
master, but not core-focus
Forming Reading Groups
Matching readers &
texts

11. START AT TIER I, BUT DON’T STOP THERE
The Importance of Tier II:
Provides a “double dose”
of instruction, targeted
to their specific needs
bolsters skills that some
students have yet to
master, but not corefocus
The Three-Tiered Model
Core of Instruction
"Double Dose"
of Instruction
Intensive
Intervention
• Creative, rigorous
curriculum
• Includes English
language
development for
ELLs
• Serves >80% of
students’ needs
• Extra
attention, activities, and
experience targeted to
specific students, in
addition to core instruction
• Serves about 5-10% of
students
• Intensive and individualized
instruction (small group or 1:1)
• Serves about 1-5% of students

12. TIER III: INDIVIDUALIZED SUPPORT
The importance of Tier III:
Tailored instruction for
students who are not
sufficiently responding to
tier I and 2 prevention
efforts
Intensive, supplemental
instruction delivered to
small groups or individually
Instruction provided in the
general education
classroom or other general
education location within
the school
The Three-Tiered Model
Core of Instruction
"Double Dose"
of Instruction
Intensive
Intervention
• Creative, rigorous
curriculum
• Includes English
language
development for
ELLs
• Serves >80% of
students’ needs
• Extra
attention, activities, and
experience targeted to
specific students, in addition
to core instruction
• Serves about 5-10% of
students
• Intensive and individualized
instruction (small group or 1:1)
• Serves about 1-5% of students

13. GUIDING QUESTIONS
1.
How do we use our comprehensive
assessment battery to inform instruction?
2.
How does assessment-driven instruction
support prevention and identification of
learning difficulties?

14. ELLS & STRUGGLING READERS
Children with
reading
difficulties
High rates of special
education placement
2 pressing issues

Children
growing up
in poverty
Children
from diverse
linguistic
backgrounds

Delayed identification of
early reading difficulties
Inappropriate
identification of readingrelated disabilities by
adolescence
Schools and
Neighborhoods
(Samson & Lesaux, 2009)

15. IDENTIFYING READERS WITH PERSISTENT DIFFICULTIES

In all schools, a small
percentage of students
do not respond to core
instruction +
supplemental supports
Children with
reading
difficulties
Children
growing up
in poverty
Children
from diverse
linguistic
backgrounds

16. DECISION TREE FOR
ADDITIONAL TIERS

17. ELLS AND LEARNING DISABILITIES?
 Implement
early identification and
intervention models to identify ELLs at risk for
skills-based difficulties
 Augment typical early literacy screening
systems with assessments of meaning-based
skills
 Increase the match between ELLs’ needs and
instruction
comprehensive, content-based approach

18. WHY USE ASSESSMENT-INSTRUCTION LINKS TO PREVENT
AND IDENTIFY LEARNING DISABILITIES?

Looking at data in the aggregate, especially at the
classroom-level, is imperative to guide instructional
improvement efforts

A data-driven instructional model standardizes
practices and creates linkages to support services
Provide students who need extra help with consistency
and sequential instruction
Promotes the use of a shared language and understanding
among the regular and the special education classroom

19. SOME DO’S AND DON’TS
Do’s

Look at data in the
aggregate, especially at the
classroom-level

Provide students who need
extra help with consistency
and in-depth sequential
instruction

Miss the (proverbial) forest
for the trees

Address many students’
needs only through
additional supports in small
groups

Use too many different
instructional approaches and
programs with students who
are struggling
Adjust the instructional core
when many students are
struggling

Don’ts

20. MAKING RTI WORK
 Module 1.
Tiered instruction
 Module 2. Comprehensive assessment