LEWISTON — Several teachers told the School Committee on Monday night how they assess their students academically and create plans for each.

If a student didn’t learn what he or she should have, “I know as a classroom teacher I need to change what I’m doing,” Farwell Elementary School teacher Heather Blanchard said. The testing and tweaking is part of Response to Intervention, or RTI, which is essentially building an individual education plan for each student.

RTI is a federally mandated initiative to ensure “universal achievement for all students,” Special Education Director George Veilleux told the committee. It’s designed to ensure every student learns what he or she should for their grade level. If they haven’t, students are given more help, more intense instruction or taught in a different way to prevent them from falling through the cracks.

All school districts must have an RTI plan by 2012. Lewiston schools have a plan and are implementing it for K-10 students. Plans are being developed for grades 11 and 12, Veilleux said.

Test data shows that 80 percent of Lewiston students are being taught at the core level and don’t need more intense teaching. Another 15 percent are considered at risk and do need more intense teaching in smaller groups. Another 5 percent need one-on-one, intense instruction and support.

The percentages were the same when it came to which students understood social skill lessons and which ones needed more instruction and support, Veilleux said.

At the beginning of the year, Blanchard said her first-graders were tested in math and reading. The data helps her teach to meet each child’s need, she said.

Longley Elementary School third grade teacher Rebecca Belleau explained how this year her school is giving out “good cards” to students following school rules. Students are taught what being safe, respectful and responsible looks like in classrooms, the cafeteria, the playground and the halls.

With the RTI plan in most grades, this year schools are working on professional development to help teachers deliver individual-styled teaching.

Several committee members praised the work. Committee member Ronella Paradis was concerned. “I don’t agree with all this testing” and the time it takes, she said.

Educators said they understood her concern, but the data helps them understand what students are learning, which helps them deliver more effective teaching.

Superintendent Leon Levesque said RTI’s assessments “often gets confused with tests.” Not every assessment is a test, he said. Often it’s a teacher checking to make sure a student understands the lesson. “What they’re really doing is saying ‘Is the way I’m teaching working?’” RTI is “giving the staff those tools to do the job they need to do,” Levesque.

Lewiston Education Fund

In other matters, businessman Peter Geiger updated committee members about the Lewiston Education Fund, which supports public Lewiston education with private money.

The Lewiston Education Fund was created in 2002. Money raised provides grants to allow teachers to carry out creating learning.

“Since the inception of LEF we’ve award $130,000 in grants,” Geiger, a member of the fund’s board of directors, said. “The whole idea is to empower teachers through their creative ideas to do projects that are ongoing.”

In addition to paying for teacher projects, the Lewiston Education Fund donates money to a career exploration program at the middle school, said fund  board member Rep. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston. “We’re delighted with the growth of that program. It’s clear we need to start working on aspirations of young people as early as we can.”

Several businesses donate, as do individuals. Two big fundraisers are an annual harvest dinner in October and a Super Bowling Saturday in February.

Rotundo and Geiger thanked Levesque, who’s retiring Dec. 31, for his leadership and vision in creating the fund. “This is one of many important pieces of his legacy,” Rotundo said.

bwashuk@sunjournal.com