Simply, “Response to Intervention” (RTI) refers to a process that emphasizes how well students respond to changes in instruction. The essential elements of an RTI approach are: the provision of scientific, research-based instruction and interventions in general education; monitoring and measurement of student progress in response to the instruction and interventions; and use of these measures of student progress to shape instruction and make educational decisions.
A number of leading national organisations and coalition groups, including the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities and the 14 organizations forming the 2004 Learning Disabilities (LD) Roundtable coalition, have outlined the core features of an RTI process as follows:
- High quality, research-based instruction and behavioural support in general education.
- Universal (school-wide or district-wide) screening of academics and behaviour in order to determine which students need closer monitoring or additional interventions.
- Multiple tiers of increasingly intense scientific, research-based interventions that are matched to student need.
- Use of a collaborative approach by school staff for development, implementation, and monitoring of the intervention process.
- Continuous monitoring of student progress during the interventions, using objective information to determine if students are meeting goals.
- Follow-up measures providing information that the intervention was implemented as intended and with appropriate consistency.
- Documentation of parent involvement throughout the process.
LDA Webinar
Response to Intervention – Getting it Right for All, Right from the Start
Sarah Asome delivers a wonderful presentation about how Response to Intervention is used at Bentleigh West Primary School to improve learning for all.
Uploaded with permission.
Links
Intensive Intervention Practice Guide: Applying Response to Intervention for Secondary Students Who Struggle With Reading Comprehension
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-level framework designed to prevent academic failure and remediate areas of deficit. It…
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-level framework designed to prevent academic failure and remediate areas of deficit. It is a framework to support students for whom generally effective practices have been insufficient. Its inclusion in the Individuals with…
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-level framework designed to prevent academic failure and remediate areas of deficit. It is a framework to support students for whom generally effective practices have been insufficient. Its inclusion in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; U. S. Department of Education, 2004) identified RTI with special education eligibility determination. However, RTI can also be viewed as a framework to organize increasingly intensive instruction for students at risk for or with disabilities (D. Fuchs, Fuchs, & Stecker, 2010). Many secondary students who struggle to read, regardless of disability status, struggle specifically with reading comprehension. These students will need interventions targeting comprehension and other related skills to make progress. The RTI framework consists of four main components: (1) universal screening; (2) levels of increasingly intensive intervention; (3) progress monitoring; and (4) data-based instructional decisions. By the secondary grades, the primary focus of RTI shifts from the identification of to the treatment of difficulties (Vaughn & Fletcher, 2012), suggesting alterations to the traditional RTI framework used in the elementary grades. While there is limited research on the effectiveness of RTI in the secondary grades to remediate reading comprehension difficulties, there is evidence that adolescence is not too late to improve reading comprehension outcomes (Scammacca et al., 2007). Overall, the literature supports the implementation of intensive reading interventions for students in secondary schools and that using an RTI framework to intensify reading comprehension interventions is an effective approach for these students.
Early Identification of Reading Disabilities Within an RTI Framework
Early and accurate identification of children at risk for reading disabilities (RD) is critical for the prevention of RD…
Early and accurate identification of children at risk for reading disabilities (RD) is critical for the prevention of RD within a response to intervention framework. In this study, we investigated the use of universal screening and progress monitoring for…
Early and accurate identification of children at risk for reading disabilities (RD) is critical for the prevention of RD within a response to intervention framework. In this study, we investigated the use of universal screening and progress monitoring for the early identification of RD in kindergarten children. A total of 366 children were administered a battery of screening measures at the beginning of kindergarten and progress-monitoring probes across the school year. A subset of children who showed initial risk for RD also received a 26-week Tier 2 intervention. Participants’ achievement in word reading accuracy and/or fluency was assessed at the end of first grade. Results indicated that a screening battery containing measures of letter naming fluency, phonological awareness, rapid naming, or nonword repetition accurately identified good and poor readers at the end of first grade. Findings also showed that children’s response to supplemental and/or classroom instruction measured in terms of growth in letter naming fluency added significantly to the prediction of reading outcomes.
Supporting struggling adolescent readers through the Response to Intervention (RTI) framework.
The purpose of this article is to describe what needs to happen in Australian schools to provide effective literacy…
The purpose of this article is to describe what needs to happen in Australian schools to provide effective literacy support for adolescent students with reading difficulties. The central thesis of this paper is that the Response to Intervention (RtI)…
The purpose of this article is to describe what needs to happen in Australian schools to provide effective literacy support for adolescent students with reading difficulties. The central thesis of this paper is that the Response to Intervention (RtI) model provides a useful framework for organizing multi-tiered evidence-based reading interventions for struggling adolescent readers. Necessary adaptations of the model for the secondary context are discussed and the benefits and pitfalls of flexible and fixed groupings are outlined. Australian schools cannot afford to adopt a “business-as-usual” approach. Reasonable adjustments within classrooms are not enough to equip students with the literacy they need. Rather, schools should look to how they can use the RtI model to provide varying levels of evidence-based reading intervention, drawing on the expertise of speech pathologists.
Tier Two Literacy Interventions in Australian Schools: A Review of the Evidence
The purpose of this review is to summarise the empirical evidence for a range of literacy intervention practices and…
The purpose of this review is to summarise the empirical evidence for a range of literacy intervention practices and programs that are in use in schools in Australia. The review is designed to support schools and teachers in selecting…
The purpose of this review is to summarise the empirical evidence for a range of literacy intervention practices and programs that are in use in schools in Australia. The review is designed to support schools and teachers in selecting interventions that are appropriate and that are evidence-based practices. It focuses on interventions that are currently in use as Tier 2 support, as classified under a Response to Intervention (RTI) multi-tier framework. The review evaluates the alignment of each intervention with effective instructional practices and summarises the existing research evaluating the outcomes of each intervention.