Abstract
There are various curriculum initiatives that can be identified in schools across the country. The initiatives may be projects mandated by the local school board, the state or the federal government. These are initiatives such as No Child Left Behind, Reading First among others. Response to Intervention 2 (RTI2) is such an initiative that has been implemented at Cochran Middle School.
The initiative is a reaction to Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Ten Schools Program. Cochran uses the initiative to cater for the academic requirements of special needs students and students drawn from marginalized groups such as blacks and Latinos. This paper analyses various aspects of this curriculum initiative.
Introduction
The Los Angeles Unified School District (herein referred to as LAUSD) describes Cochran Middle School as a “……single track LEARN calendar school” (LAUSD, 2006: p. 5) with one of the highest numbers of American African and Hispanic students in California.
For example in the year 2005- 2006, the school had a total of 1830 learners enrolled in three grades. 75 percent of these students were Latino while 24 percent were African American (LAUSD, 2006). About 44 percent of students in this school as of the year 2006 were English learners.
Academic Performance Index for this school in the year 2005- 2006 indicated that Cochran Middle School is not one of the best performing schools in California. For example, according to LAUSD (2006), 85 percent of learners in this school scored below proficient in English and language arts. 87 percent of the students in this school scored below proficient in mathematics the same school year (LAUSD, 2006).
It is perhaps as a result of this that Los Angeles Unified School District made this school part of the Ten Schools Program. This was in July of the year 2002 (LAUSD, 2006). According to the administrators of this school district, the aim of this program is to provide the schools with “…….an instructional program and an organizational design (which is) language intensive” (LAUSD, 2006: p. 4).
This is in order to rectify poor academic performance of African American students in these schools. This is together with students from other marginalized groups such as Hispanics, Asians and Latinos among others.
Cochran Middle School has initiated the Response to Intervention 2 (herein referred to as RTI2) program as one of the strategies to achieve the objectives of the Ten Schools Program. Through this intervention, Cochran Middle School caters for students with disabilities, special needs students, socio- economically disadvantaged students and English language learners.
RTI2 is just one of the several curriculum interventions adopted by Cochran Middle School to cater for the needs of students such as those from marginalized communities. Other initiatives include Read180, ALEKS and Kids Mastering Math (herein referred to as KMM) among others.
In this paper, the author is going to analyze RTI2 as a curriculum initiative at Cochran Middle School. The author is going to look at various aspects of this initiative.
RTI2 Curriculum Initiative: A Description
Philosophical and Psychological Foundations
According to Ornstein & Hunkins (2009), there are four major educational philosophies touching on curriculum in schools. These are perennialism, essentialism, progressivism and reconstructionism. The same philosophies can be applied to curriculum initiatives.
Perennialism is whereby the initiative focuses on classical subjects and literary analysis (Alonsabe, 2011). The philosophy assumes that the curriculum initiative is constant. According to Ornstein & Hunkins (2009), the curriculum initiative in this case “……..is subject centered (and) relies heavily on defined disciplines or logically organized bodies of content” (p. 39).
Essentialism on its part takes into consideration essential subjects and skills (Alonsabe, 2011). The curriculum initiative in this case addresses subjects such as math, English and science. Progressivism on its part focuses on the interests of the learners.
However, RTI2 appears to be predominantly reconstructionist. According to Alonsabe (2011), the initiative in this context focuses on “present and future trends and issues of international and national interests” (p. 5).
RTI2 addresses poor academic performance of special needs learners such as African Americans and Latinos. Its focus on essential languages such as math and English gives it an essentialism gloss. Its focus on the learning problems of the students gives it some attributes of progressivism.
RTI2 appears to be based on humanistic psychology. This is given the fact that it focuses on how the African American students can develop their human potential. Their human potential in this case is obtaining quality education.
Socio- Economic and Political Factors
There are several socio- economic and political factors behind RTI2 as curriculum initiative. The Ten Schools Program addresses the educational needs of students from marginalized groups especially so the African Americans (LAUSD, 2006). According to Ornstein & Hunkins (2009), “………the groups most affected by declining achievement test scores are racial, ethnic and low socioeconomic groups” (p. 174).
The Ten Schools Program seems to recognize this fact. This is one of the social factors behind the implementation of the initiative at Cochrane Middle School. This is especially so considering the fact that the school has a huge population of students drawn from such social groups.
RTI2 at Cochrane Middle School: Curriculum Design Model
There are several models of curriculum design that can be used by teachers when coming up with a curriculum for their class or the school. According to Ornstein & Hunkins (2009), “…….the curriculum is organized according to how essential knowledge has developed in various subject areas” (p. 191). This perhaps can explain the existence of these varying curriculum design models.
The design models can be adopted for curriculum initiatives. According to Alonsabe (2011), there are four major curriculum design models which can be modified for curriculum initiatives. These are linear product model, interactive model, process model and cyclical model.
RTI2 initiative is tailored along the linear product model. The major assumption of this design model is that there is a given collection of knowledge and skills that learners should acquire (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2009).
To this end, Cochran Middle School realizes that there is a body of knowledge which should be learnt by the special needs students as well as those drawn from marginalized groups. The objective of the initiative is to help the students in acquiring this knowledge and skills.
Curriculum Development Approach
A critical analysis of RTI2 as designed and implemented by Cochran Middle School reveals that it was developed using the Backward- Design Model. According to Ornstein & Hunkins (2009), this approach consists of three main stages.
The first stage involves the identification of “……..goals and checks on national, state and local content standards” (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2009: p. 216). In other words, the teacher at this stage identifies the objectives of the initiative.
The objectives of RTI2 are very clear. They include improving the performance of students from African American and other marginalized groups.
The second stage of the model involves the identification of acceptable evidence to gauge the extent to which learners have achieved the envisaged results. This is for example assessment through tests and exams among others.
To this end, Cochran Middle School has come up with strategies that are aimed at gauging the progress of the learners. The teachers administer tests and quizzes mostly on Tuesdays. The end of year performance indicators are used to gauged the performance of the learners.
The third stage of the backward- design model touches on planning of learning experiences and instructions (Alonsabe, 2011). This is whereby the teachers and the school management come up with appropriate strategies aimed at achieving the envisaged objectives.
As far as RTI2 is concerned, Cochrane Middle School has placed the learners in different learning groups depending on their capabilities. There are those in special needs classes, those in gifted students classes and such other groups.
Aims, Goals and Objectives of the Curriculum Development
The aims, goals and objectives of any given curriculum initiative can be viewed as the intended outcomes of the initiative. This is a description of the traits that the learner should be able to show after successfully engaging in the curriculum initiative.
The aim of Ten Schools Program under which RTI2 is to be found is to improve academic performance of predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian and Other Non- Anglo (PHBAO) students (LAUSD, 2006). The objective of RTI2 is to ensure that PHBAO students at Cochran Middle School report improved academic performance.
Implementation Strategy
Ornstein & Hunkins (2009) provide several guidelines that should guide the successful implementation of a given curriculum initiative.
The initiative must be technically sound, it should be accompanied by changes in the structure of the school, it should be manageable and feasible to the teacher, it should be organic rather than bureaucratic and finally, it should shun the “do something, anything” syndrome (Ornstein & Hunkins, 2009: p. 254). RTI2 has met some of these conditions.
The initiative has been organized in such a way that it is understandable to the average teacher. However, bureaucracy cannot be ruled out since the school management is answerable to the Los Angeles Unified School District which came made it part of the Ten Schools Program.
Evaluation Criteria and Issues
The effectiveness of RTI2 as a curriculum initiative is evaluated through the standardized exams which are administered on the students. LAUSD uses the Academic Performance Index (API) of the school to gauge how successful it has been in achieving the Ten Schools Program objectives.
The major problem with this form of evaluation is the fact that it fails to capture the achievements made by the students in other areas apart from academics. For example, it fails to capture the improvement or deterioration of the students as far as extra- curricular activities such as sports are concerned.
Conclusion
The formulation and implementation of RTI2 at Cochrane Middle School is characterized by a mixture of failures and successes. In my opinion, the initiative has attained various milestones but still it has several shortcomings.
For example, it is obvious that the performance of the school has improved (albeit slightly) after the initiative was implemented. However, the weaknesses of the initiative are to be found in the evaluation techniques that are used to gauge the performance of the learners.
References
Alonsabe, O. C. (2011). Major foundations of curriculum. Web.
Los Angeles Unified School District. (2006). School profile: Cochran Middle School. Web.
Ornstein, A., & Hunkins, F. (2009). Curriculum: Foundations, principles and issues. Boston: Pearson Education Inc.