The Daily Bulletin Archive

By Tony Astran

The New York State Education Department has awarded Buffalo State College a five-year, $1.5 million contract to develop a statewide Response to Intervention (RTI) Technical Assistance Center.

RTI is an early-intervention program designed to identify students at the first sign of academic struggle. Beginning in July 2012, all schools in New York State will be required to implement an RTI program in the area of literacy for children in kindergarten through grade four.

Buffalo State College will assume the lead role for the center and will manage the work of faculty from a consortium of universities throughout the state, including New York University, Syracuse University, Mount Saint Mary College, the College of St. Rose, and Rochester Institute of Technology. The Technical Assistance Center will be housed at Buffalo State in Ketchum Hall 210.

Theresa Janczak, assistant professor of exceptional education, will serve as project director. The contract also allows for the hiring of a full-time assistant project director and a graduate student assistant. The three will work to compile and disseminate RTI information, resources, and tools to schools statewide. They will also provide direct technical assistance and professional development to 14 schools throughout the state that will undergo extensive training to become model schools for using effective RTI tools and techniques.

“The School of Education is proud of Dr. Janczak and is excited to have the Response to Intervention Technical Assistance Center on Buffalo State’s campus,” said Ronald Rochon, dean of the School of Education and associate vice president for teacher education. “Dr. Janczak competed statewide for the contract and worked hard to develop the RTI initiative. She is a leader in her field and on our campus, and her efforts enhance the academic experiences of area children.”

Janczak is very optimistic about the project’s benefits to schoolchildren throughout the state. “We will be working closely with the 14 schools, helping them monitor student progress to determine how they are responding to intervention efforts,” she said. “Ideally, one would expect and hope that by providing intervention early on, schools would be able to decrease the number of referrals to special-education programs and, consequently, lower associated costs.”

The State Education Department is expected to award RTI minigrants to the 14 schools by June. The grants will provide funding for up to $150,000 per year over a five-year period. Consortium faculty members will be paired with each school and will deliver on-site technical assistance and professional development opportunities. Under Janczak’s guidance, the Technical Assistance Center will play a major role in helping schools evaluate the success of their RTI programs.

In addition, the center will indirectly support RTI implementation efforts to schools statewide by establishing a Web site and providing regional training on RTI topics. Janczak has begun working with the College Relations Office to develop a site that would include relevant articles, research, tools, and webinars for school districts and parents.

Janczak will continue her traditional role of providing support to graduate students who are working on master’s projects but will teach two fewer classes in order to devote time to the initiative. She thinks the project will boost Buffalo State’s visibility statewide and also yield tangible benefits for classes taught here.

“The RTI approach uses empirically based instruction and student performance data to help educators determine how to best meet the needs of struggling students,” Janczak said. “We will learn a great deal on how to best support these students, which I hope can inform the content of what we teach in our methods classes here at Buffalo State. It would help teacher candidates learn more about state-of-the-art assessment tools and methodologies.”