Goals of the WBTT Program and Current Research in Education
The WBTT program was developed to assist teachers in detecting students who could be at risk for future school difficulties. The WBTT program is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Education, and is available free to all publicly funded schools in Ontario. It provides teachers with quick predictive screening tools and a wide variety of interventions to enhance their teaching practice and benefit their students
WBTT Program Goals:
- To increase student achievement in Ontario
- To close the early achievement gap
- To support the classroom-based model, where screenings, interventions and progress monitoring take place by the classroom teacher
- To provide additional support to students who need it as early as possible.
- To activate a chain of support when it is determined that a student needs extra help.
The WBTT Program’s goals are based on the following documents:
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2009). What We Do. http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/about/whatwedo.html
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2005). Education For All: The Report of the Expert Panel on Literacy and Numeracy Instruction for Students with Special Education Needs, Kindergarten to Grade 6. http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/speced/panel/speced.pdf
Current Research in Education
Current research shows that early screening in literacy and math can detect students who are at-risk for future school difficulties. Current research also shows the following:
- When these at-risk students are provided with interventions by their classroom teachers, they often catch-up with their classmates and no longer struggle in school
- The earlier an at-risk student is supported, the less likely they are to struggle in future
- Students who are not supported continue to struggle. If students are not detected as struggling until the later elementary years, they are often diagnosed with a learning disability, which may not be accurate, and may also be achieving much below their peers.
In response to this and other research, the Ministry of Education outlined its requirements for early identification in its Policy / Program Memorandum Number 11:
Each school board is required to have approved and in operation by September, 1981, procedures to identify each child's level of development, learning abilities and needs and to ensure that educational programs are designed to accommodate these needs and to facilitate each child's growth and development. These procedures are a part of a continuous assessment and program planning process which should be initiated when a child is first enrolled in school or no later than the beginning of a program of studies immediately following Kindergarten and should continue throughout a child's school life.
Why Use the WBTT Program?
The WBTT program seeks to ensure that:
- There is a standardized approach to screening students
- Screening leads to intervention with flagged students
- Educators have a system to differentiate between those students with long-term learning difficulties and those who require extra support in order to catch up to their peers
- All of the screens used by the WBTT program are research-based, valid and reliable. They can successfully predict when a student is at-risk for future school difficulties.
- The WBTT program encourages discussions between teachers and parents
- The WBTT program helps teachers achieve data-driven instruction
- Research shows that correct use of the WBTT program can increase student achievement rates
- The WBTT program is free to all publicly funded schools in Ontario
The WBTT process aligns with the Response to Intervention (RTI) model, which has also been shown to increase student achievement and reduce achievement gaps
