1 Response to Intervention Lou Danielson, Ph.D. Director, Research to Practice Division Office of Special Education Programs June 21, 2006

2 What is Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI)? 1. Implementation of a differentiated curriculum with different instructional methods 2. Two or more tiers of increasingly intense scientific, research-based interventions 3. Instructional intensity addressed through duration, frequency and time of interventions, group size, and instructor skill level 4. Individual problem-solving model or standardized intervention protocol for intervention tiers

3 What is Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI)? (continued) 5. Screening and progress monitoring to assess entire class progress and individual student progress 6. Explicit decision rules for assessing learners’ progress (e.g., level and/or rate) 7. Fidelity measures to assess consistency of instructional methods and curriculum

4 Advantages of RTI Approach Provides instructional assistance in a timely fashion (e.g., NOT a wait-to-fail model) Helps ensure a student’s poor academic performance is not due to poor instruction or inappropriate curriculum Informs teacher and improves instruction because assessment data are collected and closely linked to interventions

5 Primary Instruction (~80%) School-/Classroom-wide Systems for All Students, Staff and Settings Secondary Intervention (~15%) Specialized Group Systems for Students with At Risk Performance Tertiary Intervention (~5%) Specialized Individualized Systems for Students with Intensive Needs ~80% of Students ~15% ~5% Continuum of School-Wide Instruction Adapted from”What is School-Wide PBS?”

6 EIS Provides an Assessment /Intervention Framework within General Education Early intervening services (EIS) is a process for ensuring students receive “appropriate learning experiences” in general education The student’s response to EIS is very informative if a disability is considered as an explanation of the child’s difficulties RTI can be used as a component of SLD determination to assure the child’s difficulties are adequately addressed

7 Using RTI to Define Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) in Terms of Severe Low Achievement RTI eliminates poor instructional quality as a possible explanation for learning difficulty SLD designation is used only for nonresponders who have received validated instruction. The assumption: If a child does not respond to instruction that is effective for the vast majority of children, then there is something different about the child causing the nonresponse

8 Using RTI as Part of SLD Identification Process Tier 2 intervention is viewed as the ‘test’ to which at-risk students respond for determining disability Using an appropriate measurement tool, response to Tier 2 intervention needs to be measured and categorized as either Responsive to intervention (not SLD) Unresponsive to intervention (evaluate for SLD)

9 Resource

10 Implementing an RTI Approach: 5 Dimensions (continued) 4. How ‘response’ is defined Final status on norm-referenced test or using a benchmark Improvement from pretest to posttest CBM slope and final status 5. What happens to nonresponders Comprehensive multidisciplinary evaluation to distinguish: specific learning disability (SLD) behavioral disability (BD) mental retardation (MR) speech-language impairment (SLI)

11 Implementing an RTI Approach: 5 Dimensions 1. Number of tiers (2-5; this example uses 3) 2. Nature of preventive intervention Individualized (e.g., problem solving) Standardized scientific research-based protocol 3. How at-risk students are identified Percentile cut on norm-referenced test (screening) Cut-point on curriculum-based measurement (CBM) with 5 weeks of CBM progress monitoring

12 Advantages of Using RTI Approach (continued) In some RTI models, nonresponders are not labeled to avoid stigma to avoid disability categories (e.g., learning disability, behavioral disability, mental retardation) that have little instructional validity

13 Simplified RTI Procedure: Four Parts 1. All children in a class, school, or district are tested once in the fall to identify those students at risk for long-term difficulties 2. The responsiveness of at-risk students to general education instruction (Tier 1) is monitored to determine those whose needs are not being met and therefore require a more intensive intervention (Tier 2: Small Group)

14 Simplified RTI Procedure: Four Parts (continued) 3. For at-risk students, a research-validated Tier 2 intervention is implemented; student progress is monitored throughout; and students are re-tested after the intervention 4. Those students who do not respond to validated intervention are identified for multi-disciplinary team evaluation for possible disability determination and special education placement

15 Overview Presentation topics Define RTI RTI and SLD Four Parts of RTI Sequence Advantages of RTI Key Questions for RTI Implementation Vanderbilt Reading Study NRCLD