In North Penn schools, we take the importance of keeping children at grade level or higher seriously. If a student doesn’t make a year’s progress in a year’s time, he or she will start the next year at a disadvantage that is difficult to overcome. To that end, NPSD offers a multitude of opportunities to our students to ensure they are receiving the individual instruction they need to succeed.
North Penn teachers have established a solid foundation in instructional strategies for teaching language arts us- ing a balanced literacy model. Our model of Response to Instruction and Intervention (RtII) is designed to enhance and complement this foundation. The training embed- ded in our implementation of RtII has helpeded teachers to hone their instructional practice to support students in the foundational skills in reading. Teachers have also learned techniques to intervene as well as to monitor the impact of their interventions.
NPSD’s RtII implementation plan includes phasing in RtII across the district in three separate stages. Phase I schools (Gwyn-Nor, Gwynedd Square, Oak Park and Walton Farm) began their training in the components of RtII during the spring of the 2008-2009 school year. They spent the 2009-2010 school year gaining knowledge in the area of data analysis and enhancing their instruc- tional practice to address students’ needs. Phase I schools were operational with RtII during the 2010-2011 school year and continue to develop additional components to strengthen the RtII model.
in elementary education
Bridle Path Elementary School • Gwyn-Nor Elementary School • Gwynedd Square Elementary School • Hatfield Elementary School • Inglewood Elementary School • Knapp Elementary School • A.M. Kulp Elementary School • Montgomery Elementary School • General Nash Elementary School • North Wales Elementary School • Oak Park Elementary School • Walton Farm Elementary School • York Avenue Elementary School
Spotlighting Success: 100% of Kindergarten Students Proficient in Reading at Gwynedd Square Elementary School!
“They hugged us!” said kindergarten teacher Rosemary Hilsey as she remembered how the first grade teach- ers reacted to the news that all kindergarten students at Gwynedd Square Elementary School achieved 100 percent proficiency in reading.
Hilsey and her fellow kindergarten teacher Amanda Cooper credit the Response to Intervention and Instruction (RtII) program as the reason their students performed so well in the 2010-2011 school year.
“RtII helps educators be more focused on the individual academic needs of the child,” said Cooper.
Hilsey and Cooper are just two of the people on Gwynedd Square’s RtII team helping students succeed. They explained that RtII and student success is a shared responsibility among grade-level teachers, reading specialists, and more.
“It’s no longer ‘your’ students or ‘their’ students, but ‘our’ students,” said Hilsey. “We all have a role in everyone’s success.”
Hilsey remembered a particular student who entered kindergarten knowing only a few letters. By the end of the year that student was 100 percent proficient along with the rest of the class.