The PLC process is designed to support all learners through ensuring a guaranteed and viable curriculum. When we commit to ensuring all students are learning at high levels, we must ask ourselves:

How will we respond when some students do not learn?

How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?

One way to do this is to implement the Response to Intervention (RTI) structure. RTI is divided into several levels, or Tiers, of instruction, designed to support learning for all students.

What is Tier 1 Instruction?

• Instruction that happens in the classroom

• Based on Essential Standards 

• Taught by the general education teacher

• Is preventative - designed to ensure mastery of the essential standards by 80-90% of students

• "If the ultimate goal of a learning-focused school is to ensure that every student ends each year having acquired the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for success at the next grade level, then all students must have access to grade-level essential curriculum as part of their core instruction." (DuFour et al., 2016, p. 166).

What is Tier 2 Instruction?

• Collaborative teacher teams assume the responsibility for this instruction 

  • Can be implemented by school teams consisting of teachers, interventionists, special education co-teachers, support staff

• Because this support is focused on specific essential standards and learning targets, placement must be timely, targeted, flexible, and fluid. 

• Designed to provide interventions to the 5-10% of students who need additional support to master essential standards

• "Because some students may not have mastered the essential curriculum by the end of the unit, the school must dedicate time to provide these students additional support to master this essential grade-level curriculum without missing critical new core instruction" (DuFour et al., 2016, p. 167).

• What is extension?

  • Implemented by teachers, support specialists, gifted/talented educational professionals, etc.

  • Extension supports learners who have mastered the grade-level essential standards at the current rigor expectations and are ready to dig deeper, dig further, and reason more complexly

  • Extension answers the question:

    • How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?

  • "If a school is going to embed flexible time into its master schedule to provide targeted students additional time and support in learning essential grade-level standards, then there is no reason why this time could not also be used to extend students that have already learned these outcomes." (DuFour et al., 2016, p. 170).

What is Tier 3 Instruction?

• Intensive level of support for any students who are multi-grade levels behind

• Designed to provide interventions to 1-5% of students with intensive and remedial support in universal skills such as reading, writing, number sense, English Language, social and academic behaviors 

• "For students who need intensive remediation in foundational skills, the school must have a plan to provide this level of assistance." (DuFour et al., 2016, p. 167).