This year, the Eatontown Public Schools received a grant to participate in the New Jersey Tiered System of Supports- Early Reading Project. This grant allows our district literacy coaches at Meadowbrook and Woodmere Schools, as well as our district’s Reading Specialist, to receive coaching on the implementation of the New Jersey Tiered System of Supports and reading strategies and interventions. The coaches, reading specialists, principals and the Director of Education have attended workshops and meetings with a state coach focusing on how to implement a tiered intervention system into the schools and building on activities for educators and families to enhance family engagement.
At Meadowbrook School, we have begun to implement a Response to Intervention (RtI) model approach to help our students succeed in reading. Response to Intervention is a three-tiered approach where each tier provides additional support beyond the core curriculum instruction. Students will be monitored to ensure they meet grade level expectations and will be placed in one of the following tiers:
Tier 1—Students receive instruction inside the classroom setting. Classroom teachers use differentiated instruction to meet the students’ needs. There can be one or more than one teacher in the classroom.
Tier 2—Students receive targeted skill instruction using services and interventions in a small group setting in addition to the classroom instruction. Tier 2 can be in a push-in or pull-out model. Students are monitored to assess student growth.
Tier 3—Students who are not making adequate progress in Tier 2 or students who need more intensive intervention will receive instruction in a one-to-one setting or a small group with no more than three students. Students are monitored to assess growth.
Criteria, such as classroom teacher observation, daily work/test grades, I-Ready benchmark results, district created assessments/district benchmarks, and universal screeners will be used to determine what tier a student may fall under. We plan on expanding the model to Woodmere School and eventually into the other schools as well as with the subject of Math.
Parental involvement is an important component of the Response to Intervention process. When a child is struggling in school there is no time to waste. Working together, parents and teachers can keep students on the road to school success and graduation.
By working together, we can ensure success for our students. I encourage you to research more about NJTSS and the RtI model by logging onto https://www.nj.gov/education/njtss/.
If your child is struggling in school, it is important that you:
- Communicate with your child's teacher(s)
- Ensure that your child attends school regularly
- Encourage your child to do well in school
- Understand the assessments (tests) your child takes
- Ask how you can help your child at home