Mission Statement

It is the intent of all psychological services at Highlands High School to provide current, relevant and valued information necessary for competent delivery of collaborative-consultation services.  It is the primary concern for all services to be attentive to improved student results occurring from prevention and intervention efforts, which include strengthening relationships within the school, the family, and the community to support the student’s enhanced academic accomplishment as well as supporting the student’s equal opportunity to learn, physical health and social-emotional well-being.

One of the most basic core services is to implement a strategy with fidelity, observe its effects and the effects on others, and continue or change the practice depending on results. Response To Intervention (RTI) is the name of the problem-solving approach in the delivery of support services at Highlands High School.  RTI, “the practice of providing high-quality instruction and interventions matched to student need, monitoring student’s acquisition of skills and the lack of progress with appropriate levels of progress to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals, and applying student response data to important educational decisions” (Batsche et al., 2006)”.  RTI has three tiers:

Tier 1

Effective core interventions in general education classroom instruction are expected; a common criterion for the results of Tier 1 is 80 – 85 % of the student population.

Tier 2

These are more focused supplemental instructions to assist students in meeting academic and behavior expectations in general education classroom; a common criterion for the results of Tier 2 is 10 -15% of the students population.

Tier 3

Tier 3 involves continuation of the same level of resources over a long time period (anticipated to be a year or more) and the utilization of more intensive intervention specifically designed to meet the individual needs of the student.   Tier 3 does not exclusively involve special education.  “A student shall be referred for Special Education instruction and services only after the resources of the general education program have been considered and, where appropriate utilized.”