Snowden Elementary principal says RTI and PLC work is driving early gains

Snowden Elementary Principal Mister Navares told the Farmersville Unified School District governing board that the school is implementing Response to Intervention (RTI) alongside professional learning communities (PLCs) to improve achievement and that recent common formative assessments show progress on many learning targets.

Navares said Snowden has focused on three tiers of instruction: universal grade-level Tier 1 taught by classroom teachers, targeted Tier 2 for 10–20% of students needing extra time on guaranteed standards, and intensive Tier 3 provided by specialists for roughly 1–5% of students. He described PLCs as the vehicle for selecting guaranteed standards, creating short common formative assessments and coordinating interventions.

"For any best instructional practice...0.4 is a year's worth of growth," Navares said, explaining research effect-size targets the school uses to guide practice. He told the board that recent assessment results showed about 90% of…