RTI - Response To Intervention

RTI refers to Response to Intervention. This model of intervention came out of Special Education. It was first mentioned in the special education law, Individuals With Disability Education ACT (IDEA). Statistics show that the largest percentage of students in special education are those with learning disabilities. Most students with learning disabilities are struggling readers. As a result RTI is having a major effect in the field of reading.

RTI is an approach to identifying students with learning disabilities that is different from the discrepancy model typically used to place students in special education that uses IQ testing and often leaves many kids who need it without any extra support. RTI is a tier modeled process used with all students to provide early interventions to students at the classroom level and then small groups within and outside of the classroom before suggesting placement or referring students for special education. In the RTI process students are screened on basic literacy skills approximately 3 times a year. Student’s scores are compared against a benchmark score that is typical for students at their grade level broken down by a beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of the year benchmark score. Most benchmark screenings look at students Oral Reading Fluency rate. Students who fall below the benchmark score in any of the tested areas are placed in tier 1.

Students who have been screened, identified and placed in tier one receive support within the classroom from their classroom teacher typically. Students who are slightly below the benchmark are often just monitored and those well below the benchmark are placed in an at- risk category and provided immediate attention. Now you must understand that schools that adopt the RTI process also should train their teachers through many forms of professional development to be able to step up their reading instruction and provide students with research based reading instruction that has been proven to work. Students who are identified are supposed to have been receiving great instruction at the classroom level from their teacher. The teacher will differentiate instruction for these identified students giving them extra support in the areas identified as weak from the benchmark screenings and anectdotal notes the classroom teacher takes. The progress of students identified is continuously monitored.

If students due not respond to this mostly regular instruction and make improvements, then they are placed in tier 2 of the RTI model. Tier 2 students receive more intensive instruction because they were not responding to the instruction given in tier 1. Tier two instruction often includes support from a wide arrange of adults in the building including support teachers, paraprofessionals, reading teachers and reading specialist. This instruction is done as pull in, pull out or in small groups. These interventions are again monitored. Students who do not respond to tier 2 interventions are then placed in tier 3. Tier 3 students are typically students who have not made progress with very intensive supports and will be looked at for possible placement in special education. In some schools tier 3 students may receive another round of even more intensive pull out instruction from a reading specialist several times a week or everyday of the week before they are recommended for placement in special education. These interventions would be individualized, and it may include more testing to identify the specific cause of the student’s problems.

RTI is meant to keep students who may have mild learning disabilities or simply poor vocabulary, background knowledge, or decoding skills from being placed in special education. They can receive support in other ways and stay in the regular education classroom where research on social learning theories show students need to be if all possible to learn their best. Students who have made progress and reach the grade level benchmark will not receive interventions any longer or placed in a lower tier as needed. The RTI process often includes a team of teachers that should run dually the Student intervention team promoted by special education when pre-referral interventions became all the rage. It may consist of several classroom teachers, reading specialists, and special education teachers that meet and discuss students, deciding on what type of interventions to use and when to place students on the next tier or release them from a tier.

Now does RTI work??? Yes it can and I will go into more detail in my next post. If set up wrong it can fail like many other initiatives before it. Please email me any questions and I will try to address them.