Journal #4

Journal #4

Dr. Reid, Richard. “Innovations in Prevention & Intervention- RtI.” 10^th Annual Summer Leadership Institute. San Marcos, CA. 17 July 2008.

Dr. Reid was not as entertaining as Dr. Villa, but he had some interesting things to say. There was even an overlap at one point. They both agreed that in order to produce change, there needs to be vision, skill, incentive, resources and action. His presentation was focused on RtI (Responsiveness to Intervention). He said that he thinks that relationships are important criteria that need to be met in school. He stressed that schools need to have a leadership team who influence, support, and challenge their colleagues to participate in the change. Change can only occur if everyone is involved in the process. The leaders of the school act as coaches as they assist and support those around them. They also need to remember to take care of themselves while taking care of others. Like Dr. Villa, he stressed that change cannot occur immediately, but instead it is a gradual process. He listed the stages that need to occur when implementing change and they are: exploration and adoption, installation, initial implementation, full implementation, innovation, and sustainability. He talked about how many people will go to seminars and watch presentations, but they only use about 5% of what they learned there, even when they think that the ideas are great. There needs to be motivation and support from others to try to implement more of the ideas. With the support and feedback from others, they can figure out what is working and what isn’t. This requires fidelity and integrity on the teacher’s part.

Q: If schools across the country are losing 7000 students a day, shouldn’t there be more motivation to figure out the problem?

A: The simple answer is yes, but sadly, many teachers (administrators too) don’t want to put in the extra energy to ensure that students are receiving the proper monitoring. Granted students drop out for different reasons, but many of them slipped through the cracks and are way too far behind to catch up. Teachers should be able to tell if their students are improving throughout the year and if there is little/no improvement, there needs to be some sort of intervention. Teachers need the tips, support, and encouragement from their colleagues in order to get the motivation to monitor all their students. No one said it would be easy, but I think it will prove to be worth the effort.