1. Using RTI Data to Inform Eligibility
Dr. Evelyn Johnson
Boise State University

2. What is the National Center on RTI?
The National Center on RTI is a 5 year Technical Assistance (TA) Center funded through a cooperative agreement with the Office of Special Education Program (OSEP)’s Research to Practice Division and is part of OSEP’s National Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network
This presentation is sponsored in part by the National Center on Response to Intervention. The National Center on RTI is a 5 year TA Center funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and is part of the national Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network. The National Center on RTI is based at the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC in partnership with the Fuchs at Vanderbilt and Don Deshler and Daryl Mellard at the University of Kansas. Nancy Safer is the director of the National Center on RTI.

3. The website has a variety of resources on RTI related topics, including reviews of screening and progress monitoring tools. On the website, you can sign up for the RTI Responder, a monthly electronic newsletter. Once you are signed up for the RTI Responder, you will also receive blasts alerting you to new products and resources as they are posted. Posted on the website is contact information (both an address and a toll-free number) for the National Center on RTI; please send an or call with any questions you may have regarding the implementation of RTI.

4. NCRTI Mission
To build state capacity and support for implementing RTI in local districts and schools by serving as a central source of knowledge, expertise, and research-based information for educators, administrators, and parents.
The mission of the National Center on RTI is to build state capacity and support for implementing RTI in local districts and schools by serving as a central source of knowledge, expertise, and research-based information for educators, administrators, and parents. Their strategies for accomplishing this mission include identifying and evaluating RTI components for identifying and serving students with or at risk for a learning disability identification; providing ongoing technical assistance to states to support the implementation of RTI in classrooms, schools, and local districts nationally; and to disseminate information about proven and promising RTI models to interested stakeholders across the country. The website at is one way that they disseminate information about RTI.

5. Defining RTI
Response to intervention (RTI) integrates assessment and intervention within a multi‑level prevention system to maximize student achievement and reduce behavioral problems.
(National Center on Response to Intervention)

6. Genesis of RTI – Public Health Model

7. Purposes of RTI School reform framework
Early identification and prevention
Disability determination

8. What are we trying to prevent?
Instructional casualties – Working to ensure that students receive effective instruction to prevent learning difficulties that later become intractable.

9. Federal Definition of SLD
A specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. (34 CFR Sec (c)(10))

10. One State’s Approach to Operationalizing the SLD Definition
Characteristic
Criteria
Method
Not due to other factors
Appropriate instruction
Evidence that team considered external factors
RTI data
Screening data
Imperfect ability to learn
Low achievement (adverse impact)
Academic Assessment
Basic disorder in psychological process
Pattern of strengths and weaknesses
Comprehensive Evaluation
One State’s Approach to Operationalizing the SLD Definition

11. What is RTI Data?
Screening to initially identify students at-risk and establish effective core
PM data to determine response and establish interventions are effective
Outcome data to establish instructional program efficacy
School-wide, Multi-level Instructional System for Preventing School Failure
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Screening
Progress Monitoring
Data-Based Decision Making for:
Instruction
Movement within the multi-level system
Disability identification (in accordance with state law)

12. Standards for Data Screening Progress Monitoring Outcome Reliability
Alternate forms have high reliability
Minimal Measurement Error
Validity
Does screening predict outcome?
Does growth predict outcome?
Does measure represent construct?
Fidelity
Is core delivered as intended?
Are interventions effective?
Is instructional program effective?

13. A Case Study: Cedric
This data helps establish that the core instructional program is generally effective for most students.

14. A Case Study: Cedric
This data describes the intensity, frequency and duration of the Tier 2 intervention.

15. Progress Monitoring
Reviewing the collective progress of the group of students who receive intervention demonstrates that many of the students are benefitting from Tier 2 intervention.

16. Individual Data Shows a Lack of Response

17. What RTI Data Tells Us About Cedric
Has not achieved grade level performance standards
Core instruction is generally effective
Was not responsive to an intervention
Requires further assessment to determine the nature, extent and underlying causes
Informs individualized instructional planning

18. Questions? National Center on Response to Intervention
Evelyn Johnson, Ed.D.