Become a Partner School

We are currently recruiting Project FOCUS Partner Schools for academic year 2018-19

Download Partner School Brochure

Who is Eligible?
  • Public schools implementing RTI in grades 1-5 (including charter schools)
  • Schools conducting universal screening and collecting reading outcome data using DIBELS, Easy CBM, AIMSweb, FAST, MAP, iStation, or STARS.  If another assessment is used, it must measure reading progress and, at minimum, be administered at the beginning and end of each academic year.
  • Click HERE to take our eligibility survey!
Benefits of Participation
  • $500 stipend for Core and $1,000 stipend for Advanced Partner Schools
  • Access to professional development resources
  • Optional debrief of findings with senior project staff
  • Access to study results that will be useful for professional development, goal setting and developing an RTI baseline to track progress
  • Contributing to research that will significantly impact approaches to reading interventions, teacher training and education policy
What will be asked of Partner Schools?

Two Participation Levels:

Core
  • An interview with your principal or RTI Specialist (2 hours)
  • Teachers and administrators to complete an anonymous online RTI knowledge survey (20 minutes)
  • Access to anonymous data that includes demographics and student MAP, Istation, or ORF test scores and any other relevant school-administered standardized testing
Advanced
In addition to Tier 1 responsibilities:
  • Observation nominations of 2 students receiving Tier 3 reading instruction, dyslexia services or special education at each grade level for grades 1-5 (2 observations per student)
Implementation Process
  • Identify FOCUS students and obtain parental consent (Tier 3 partners only)
  • Distribute online RTI knowledge survey
  • Schedule principal/RTI Specialist interview
  • Once consent forms received, schedule FOCUS student observations (Tier 3 partners only)
  • Submit requested data as soon as available

Contact Us!

Dr. Athena Trentin

Research Director

(214)-768-3787

atrentin@smu.edu