US/Global 
CAN
DEMOGRAPHICS
1,592 students
- 1% English learners
- 13% students with special needs
WINDSOR CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT'S CHALLENGE
Windsor Central School District, like others in upstate New York, was facing dramatic changes: The area population—and subsequently, school enrollment—was declining significantly. Poverty was dramatically gripping families and their students.
Windsor Central was ranked 13th out of 15 among districts in its region, when considering overall elementary and high school testing rates. Staff turnover was rampant. And a 78 percent four-year graduation rate for the district was not satisfactory either.
“Our staff was isolated, and it did not focus on student learning outcomes,” superintendent Dr. Jason Andrews said. “We were not really a desirable place for folks to go.”
Most importantly, students were not receiving the targeted support they needed to succeed beyond the K−12 classroom environment. It was then that Dr. Andrews and Windsor Central’s staff knew it needed to act and take accountability for the learning of every student across its high school, middle school, and three elementary schools.
“We’re continually looking at how students are doing, so that we’re getting interventions to the kids who need the most, when they need it the most.”
IMPLEMENTATION
Windsor Central contributes its success with RTI at Work™ to the tools and strategies gained at Solution Tree events, as well collaborating with Solution Tree associates on staff conference days.
“They certainly helped to ensure that we were staying focused, consistent, and adhering to the critical elements of quality PLC implementation over the course of many, many years,” said Barbara Phillips, Windsor Central’s director of learning and continuous improvement.
Windsor Central’s administrators and teachers also utilized key book resources, such as Taking Action and Simplifying Response to Intervention, to broaden their knowledge of RTI and inform decision making in the best interests of their students. These texts provided the staff at Windsor with the research-based, practical strategies and tools to apply to their own innovative, locally developed structures to meet the needs of diverse learners.
The Extended Student Contact Model, for instance, fostered multigrade-level collaboration between mathematics and ELA content experts, allowing students to have the same core content instructors for two consecutive years. The model, intentionally designed to deeply address the four critical questions of a PLC at Work®, also provided instructors with the opportunities to build stronger relationships with students, families, and colleagues.
In addition, a team of Windsor educators was developed to serve as full-time Tier 3 interventionists to fill foundational gaps of elementary students performing in the bottom 3−5 percent of their peer group. The team now travels to all elementary buildings, with their time regularly adjusted based on the current need of elementary students across the district.
RESULTS
With more than 15 years invested in PLC and RTI work, Windsor Central takes pride in its achievements. The district now consistently ranks first or second in the region academically, despite having much starker poverty rates than its peers.
“To get to number one, that’s a story in and of itself,” Dr. Andrews said. “The thought 15 years ago was that it would be laughable that Windsor would be first in the region.”
But the district’s progress is no joke: after initially offering three advanced courses, Windsor Central High School now offers 34 such classes.
Windsor Central’s graduation rate is now a promising 95 percent.
“There’s been a whole lot of innovation. And part of that, from a cultural standpoint, is building that collective responsibility—truly getting to the ‘our kids’ (mentality) in our buildings across the district, across grade levels and between grade levels,” Dr. Andrews said. “We’re all responsible for all of their performance and their learning.”
District Trend Data
WHY RTI AT WORK™?
Built upon the PLC at Work® framework, RTI at Work™ uses team structures and puts the focus on learning, collaboration, and results.
