Response to Intervention (RTI)
Response to Intervention (RTI) represents an important educational strategy to close achievement gaps for all students, including students at risk, students with disabilities and English language learners, by preventing smaller learning problems from becoming insurmountable gaps. It has also been shown to lead to more appropriate identification of and interventions with students with learning disabilities.
Each day educators make important decisions about students' educational programs, including decisions as to whether a student who is struggling to meet the standards set for all children might need changes in the nature of early intervention and instruction or might have a learning disability. The decision as to whether a student has a learning disability must be based on extensive and accurate information that leads to the determination that the student's learning difficulties are not the result of the instructional program or approach. RTI is an effective and instructionally relevant process to inform these decisions.
Elementary School Procedures for using the Response to Intervention Model:
Appropriate instruction is delivered to all students in the general education class by qualified personnel. Appropriate instruction in reading means scientific research-based reading programs that include explicit and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency (including oral reading skills) and reading comprehension strategies.
Screening tools - Curriculum-based measurements are administered to all students in the class to identify those students who are not making academic progress at expected rates.
Instruction is matched to student need with increasingly intensive levels of targeted intervention and instruction for students who do not make satisfactory progress in their levels of performance and/or in their rate of learning to meet age or grade level standards.
Repeated assessments of student achievement are administered which include curriculum-based measures to determine if interventions are resulting in student progress toward age or grade level standards. The information about the student’s response to intervention is used to make educational decisions about changes in goals, instruction and/or services and the decision to make a referral for special education programs and/or services.
Written notification to parents when the student requires an intervention beyond that provided to all students in the general education classroom that provides information about the:
amount and nature of student performance data that will be collected and the general education services that will be provided;
strategies for increasing the student’s rate of learning; and
parents’ right to request an evaluation for special education programs and/or services.