Austin Buffum > Quotes

“Beyond simply rewording the standard into teacher-friendly, student-friendly language, teachers need to tightly align these standards with their curriculum, instruction, and assessment.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Research has made it abundantly clear that putting the least capable and least motivated students together in a class with a curriculum that is less challenging and moves at a slower pace increases the achievement gap and is detrimental to students” (DuFour, 2010, p. 23).”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“collaborative teacher teams should build assessments to assess narrow learning targets rather than the entire standard.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Once a standard has been unwrapped into a number of learning targets, teachers can build their assessments at the target level, rather than attempting to assess an entire standard.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Unless a school has clearly identified the essential standards that every student must master, as well as unwrapped the standards into specific student learning targets, it would be nearly impossible to have the curricular focus and targeted assessment data necessary to target interventions to this level.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Assessments should be conducted in such a way that students feel that assessments are being done “with” them and “for” them, rather than “to” them.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“No matter what explains a student’s lack of learning, schools can and must commit to a collective responsibility to providing supports.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“A culture of collective responsibility is based on two fundamental beliefs: 1. The first assumption is that we, as educators, must accept responsibility to ensure high levels of learning for every child. While parental, societal, and economic forces impact student learning, the actions of the educators will ultimately determine each child’s success in school. 2. The second assumption is that all students can learn at high levels. We define “high” levels of learning as “high school plus,” meaning every child will graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge required to continue to learn.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“the four Cs of RTI. They are: Collective responsibility. A shared belief that the primary responsibility of each member of the organization is to ensure high levels of learning for every child. Thinking is guided by the question, Why are we here? Concentrated instruction. A systematic process of identifying essential knowledge and skills that all students must master to learn at high levels, and determining the specific learning needs for each child to get there. Thinking is guided by the question, Where do we need to go? Convergent assessment. An ongoing process of collectively analyzing targeted evidence to determine the specific learning needs of each child and the effectiveness of the instruction the child receives in meeting these needs. Thinking is guided by the question, Where are we now? Certain access. A systematic process that guarantees every student will receive the time and support needed to learn at high levels. Thinking is guided by the question, How do we get every child there?”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Tier 1 and Tier 2 are not the responsibility of either teacher teams or school-wide teams—it takes classroom teachers and schoolwide resources. • When everyone is responsible for interventions, nobody is. For this reason, final responsibility to lead certain interventions must be clearly defined. • When determining who should be responsible for a particular intervention, the school should ask, Who is best trained in this area of need? Look beyond job titles. What does the child need, and who has the skills to address those needs? Do the individuals asked to lead a particular intervention have the time and resources necessary to succeed? Is the intervention fair and reasonable to all involved?”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“the primary responsibilities of the site intervention team are to: • Determine the specific learning needs of each student in need of intensive support • Diagnose the cause(s) of the student’s struggles in Tier 1 and Tier 2 • Determine the most appropriate intervention(s) to address the student’s needs • Frequently monitor the student’s progress to see if interventions are achieving the desired outcomes • Revise the student’s intervention(s) when they are not achieving the desired outcomes • Determine when special education identification is appropriate”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“We know one thing for certain: we are never going to get there doing what we have always done. Our traditional school system was created in a time when the typical educator worked in a one-room schoolhouse and served as the only teacher for an entire town. Today it is virtually impossible for a single teacher to possess all the skills and knowledge necessary to meet the unique needs of every child in the classroom.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“If 80 percent of children can become successful as a result of first, best instruction (Batsche et al., 2005), shouldn’t district leadership devote 80 percent of its efforts toward improving Tier 1 concentrated instruction, rather than focusing most of its time, energy, and resources on “plugging holes in the dike”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“A culture of collective responsibility is guided by a shared belief that the primary responsibility of every member of the organization is to ensure high levels of learning for every child.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“If the primary goal of the school is to raise test scores, the bubble-kid approach, although morally bankrupt, makes some sense because the lowest-achieving learners are so far behind that providing them intensive resources will likely not show immediate gains in the school’s state assessment scores. But if the goal is to help all students learn at high levels, this approach will do nothing for the students most in need.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“The purpose of RTI is to ensure high levels of learning for every child, and our actions must be guided by that purpose.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“when arbitrary, predetermined amounts of time are allocated to achieve specific learning outcomes, students who need additional time to learn the concept will be left in the wake as the teacher races to cover all the material.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Behavior. Anyone who has ever taught knows that students cannot learn until they can demonstrate the positive behaviors necessary to succeed in class. For students weak in self-control and social skills, learning becomes collateral damage.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“When teachers use formative assessment in this way, students can learn in six to seven months what will normally take an entire school year to learn (Leahy, Lyon, Thompson, & Wiliam, 2005). Using”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Collaborative teacher teams are teams of educators whose classes share essential student learning outcomes; these teachers work collaboratively to ensure that their students master these critical standards. The structure for teacher teams could include grade-level, subject/course-specific, vertical, and/or interdisciplinary teams.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“de-emphasize state accountability reports and instead consistently promote (1) using common formative assessments to measure student performance on key targets and (2) designing and then using interventions when students struggle.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Collective responsibility. A shared belief that the primary responsibility of each member of the organization is to ensure high levels of learning for every child. Thinking is guided by the question, Why are we here?”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“There are five characteristics that can define an intervention as more intensive: Frequency. The more often a child receives a particular support, the more intensive the intervention. Duration. The more time a student spends receiving a particular support, the more intensive the intervention. Ratio. The smaller the teacher-to-student ratio, the more intensive the intervention. Targeting. The more aligned a particular support is with the individual needs of a specific student, the more intensive the intervention. Training. The more highly trained the staff member is in the student’s area of need, the more intensive the intervention.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“A school’s core instruction in behavior should result in at least 80 percent of students being able to articulate what is expected of them, because these behaviors have been taught, actively supervised, practiced, and acknowledged.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Students who feel connected to adults at school are more authentically involved in their learning (Osterman, 2000).”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“How Do We Raise Our Test Scores? This is the most pervasive misguided (and misguiding) question. While high-stakes testing is an undeniable reality in public education, this fatally flawed initial question leads to the wrong answers for achieving deep levels of student learning.”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“However, this new approach alone is not enough. Schools that are true professional learning communities, as defined by Rick and Becky DuFour, Bob Eaker, and Tom Many (2006), understand the power that comes with this kind of professional development. PLCs enhance the learning that occurs in their collaborative cultures through well-defined and focused adult learning. They define areas of growth through data analysis, and then they ensure that the adults receive the knowledge they need to make the necessary decisions for continuous growth. Through their structures and processes, these professional learning communities define, learn, and implement appropriate professional development: that which will positively impact student achievement.”
― Austin Buffum, Collaborative Administrator, The: Working Together as a Professional Learning Community

“Asking the Right Questions”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Certain access: A systematic process that guarantees every student will receive the time and support needed to learn at high levels. Thinking is guided by the question, How do we get every child there?”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles

“Using formative assessment, teachers can: • Determine what standards students already know and how well they know them • Decide what changes in instruction to make in order to help each student be successful • Create lessons appropriate to the needs of students • Group students for intervention and enrichment • Inform students of their own progress in order for them to set goals”
― Austin Buffum, Simplifying Response to Intervention: Four Essential Guiding Principles