RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION
RTI
RTI schools don’t wait for students to fail for an extended period. They want to act immediately to get the student the help needed. They regularly screen all students to make sure classroom instruction is on target for the students. Each child is compared to others of the same age and in the same grade and same class. School-wide screenings and progress monitoring focus on all students’ achievements in class. For those students who score lowest on in-class subjects and don’t seem to be mastering classroom lessons, the school uses a step-by-step teaching process using scientifically proven teaching techniques and frequent brief assessments to monitor progress—that is, to determine whether the teaching techniques are helping. Results from progress monitoring, usually given at least once a week, show what planning and methods to use for academic success. This process, when done according to effective teaching practices helps to determine whether a student’s low achievement is due to instructional or behavioral factors or whether the child has a possible learning disability.
Think of responsiveness to intervention as a series of steps. The first step is instruction in the general classroom. Screening tests given in the classroom reveal students at risk for reading and other learning difficulties. For example, testing may show that a student who has difficulty reading needs additional instruction in phonics. In the second step, the classroom teacher might handle the instruction. In other cases, someone who has expertise in reading and phonics might instruct the student and other students who have the same difficulty.
Students who fail to respond to this instruction may then be considered for more specialized instruction in step three, where instruction may occur with greater frequency or duration. If the achievement difficulties persist, a team of educators
from different fields (for example, reading or counseling) completes a comprehensive evaluation
to determine eligibility for special education and related services. That’s because responsiveness to intervention alone is not sufficient to identify a learning disability. All in all, the goal is to provide the type of instruction and educational assistance the student needs to be successful in the general education classroom.
RTI Links and Documentation:
