Experts Reveal an Innovative Process for Addressing the Needs of At-Risk Students

Bloomington, Ind., March 19, 2018 -- Studies show that students at risk of not acquiring the academic skills, dispositions, and knowledge necessary for long-term success also often experience behavior problems. With Targeting Behavior and Academic Interventions, an unscripted video workshop from Solution Tree, educators will learn how to address this dilemma using the Pro-Solve Process.

Developed by RTI at Work™ co-creators Austin Buffum and Mike Mattos, the Pro-Solve Process brings together two traditional approaches to RTI implementation—the protocol-based process and the problem-solving process. In the protocol-based process, a school has predetermined timelines, assessments, and criteria for identifying and placing students in need of intervention; in the problem-solving process, the site intervention team determines a student’s individual needs and interventions.

The Pro-Solve Process includes five questions designed to help teams determine the causes and potential solutions for students in need of interventions:

1. What are the concerns?
2. What are the causes of the concerns?
3. What are the desired outcomes?
4. What steps must be taken to achieve the desired outcomes?
5. Who is going to take responsibility for each intervention?

Buffum and Mattos revealed that their motivation for developing Pro-Solve was seeing too many schools have separate processes for addressing behavior and academic issues, leading to disjointed intervention efforts. “After decades in which students were allowed to fail, or at best, received hit-or-miss attempts to help with academics and behavior, the Pro-Solve Process provides a unified and systematic approach to helping all students succeed,” they explained.

The thirty-two-minute video is divided into eight segments:

1. Welcome and opening: Mattos and Buffum discuss objectives, expectations in the 21st century workplace, and the importance of taking a 360-degree view of each student.
2. What is intervention?: The authors discuss the importance of teaching self-monitoring behaviors and developing a schoolwide, proactive, collaborative process.
3. PLC is a never-ending process: Participants review the four critical questions of a PLC.  
4. The Pro-Solve Process: This segment defines the Pro-Solve Process, including the sequence of five questions, and explains how to apply the Pro-Solve Process to Tier 1.
5. The Pro-Solve Process at Tier 2 and Tier 3: This segment expands on how to apply the Pro-Solve Process to Tier 2 and Tier 3.
6. Model Pro-Solve schools in action: Participants observe two model schools as they utilize the Pro-Solve Process within their own PLCs.
7. Intervention principles of the Pro-Solve Process: After viewing the video, workshop participants apply concepts to a Pro-Solve Process intervention.
8. Conclusions: Participants evaluate the workshop.

Targeting Behavior and Academic Interventions includes one DVD and a thirty-two-page facilitator’s guide in print and on CD. K–12 teachers and administrators can view the DVD independently or use it with the facilitator’s guide for one half-day workshop.

Targeting Behavior and Academic Interventions is now available to order at SolutionTree.com.

About the Authors
Austin Buffum, EdD, has 38 years of experience in public schools. His many roles include serving as former senior deputy superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District in California. Dr. Buffum has delivered presentations and trainings on the RTI at Work™ model in over 500 schools and districts around the world.

Mike Mattos, an internationally recognized author, presenter, and practitioner, specializes in uniting teachers, administrators, and support staff to transform schools. Mike is a former principal of Marjorie Veeh Elementary School and Pioneer Middle School in California, where he helped create cultures of success, improving learning for all students.

About Solution Tree
For nearly 20 years, Solution Tree (https://www.SolutionTree.com) has worked to transform education worldwide, empowering educators to raise student achievement. With more than 30,000 educators attending professional development events and more than 4,260 professional development days in schools each year, Solution Tree helps teachers and administrators confront essential challenges in schools. Solution Tree has a catalog of 515 titles, hundreds of videos and online courses and is the creator of Global PD, an online tool that facilitates the work of professional learning communities. Follow @SolutionTree on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Solution Tree
Erica Dooley-Dorocke
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800.733.6786 ext. 247