Response to Intervention (Rti)
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Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities (OCECD) Newsletter July - September 2017 Vol. 2, Issue 4 RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION (RTI) Response to intervention (RTI) may proactive approach to measuring sound complicated, but it’s based on a students’ skills and using this data to fairly simple idea. Early in the year, your decide which types of targeted teaching to child’s school can start looking at use. everyone’s skills in reading, writing and math. They can provide targeted How does RTI work? teaching—called interventions—to help The RTI process begins with your child’s struggling students catch up. A big part of teacher assessing the skills of everyone in the RTI process involves closely the class. These assessments help monitoring student progress. That way the the school’s RTI team tell which students school can see which kids need more need instructional interventions. That’s the academic support. term for focusing on specific skills in an effort to improve them. What is RTI? If you look inside any general education Interventions can be part of classroom- classroom, chances are good that you’d wide instruction. The teacher may break see different students struggling for students into small groups tailored for different reasons. Some kids may have different skill levels or learning styles. This undiagnosed learning and attention is also known as differentiated instruction. issues. Students who don’t make enough progress getting this kind of help during “The goal is for the school to intervene, or class may start to work on skills in small step in, and start helping before anyone groups that meet during enrichment falls really far behind.” activities like music or art. Others may be trying to pick up English as As part of the RTI process, schools help a second language. Some students might struggling students by using teaching be shaky on certain skills due to frequent interventions that researchers have absences or inadequate teaching. studied and shown to be effective. Many research-based interventions deal with It’s often hard for a teacher to tell right reading. But there are also some away which students are struggling or scientifically proven methods of improving why. RTI aims to identify struggling writing and math skills. Some schools also students early on and give them the use research-based behavior support they need to be successful in interventions. school. The word intervention is key to understanding what RTI is all about. The goal is for the school to intervene, or step in, and start helping before anyone falls really far behind. RTI isn’t a specific program or type of teaching. It’s a Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities (OCECD) Newsletter July - September 2017 Vol. 2, Issue 4 How do teachers track student Tier 1: The Whole Class progress? In the general education classroom, the teacher measures everyone’s skills. This Another essential component of RTI is progress monitoring. The school is known as a universal screening. The screening helps the teacher work with frequently assesses your child’s skills to determine whether an intervention is students in small groups based on their working. skill levels. All students are taught using methods that research has shown to be During an intervention, your child’s effective. teacher or another member of the RTI team uses an assessment tool that The school will let you know if your child is research has shown to be an effective struggling and will update you on his RTI progress. In some schools, the majority of way to measure certain skills. This tool is used to assess your child’s skills every students need Tier 1 instructional support week or every other week. That may because their reading and math skills are not at grade level. sound like a lot of testing. But each assessment only takes a few minutes to complete. During the intervention, the RTI team monitors students’ progress to see who For example, let’s say your child’s school might need additional support. Many students respond successfully to Tier 1 is using curriculum-based measurement (CBM) to assess spelling skills. During support and achieve grade-level each test or probe, the teacher asks your expectations. child to spell words that are at the appropriate grade level. In total, your child Tier 2: Small Group Interventions will only spend a couple minutes writing If your child isn’t making adequate down these words. progress in Tier 1, he’ll start to receive more targeted help. This is in addition to After each assessment, his score is the regular classroom instruction, not a plotted on a graph. This makes it easy for replacement for it. Tier 2 interventions the RTI team to see if he’s improving at take place a few times a week during the expected rate or if he needs additional electives or enrichment activities such as support. music or art so your child won’t miss any core instruction in the classroom. How much support do students receive? During these extra help sessions, he’ll be There is no single way of doing RTI, but taught in small groups using a different it’s often set up as a three-tier system of method than in Tier 1 because the first support. Some school districts call this method wasn’t successful. The teacher framework a multi-tier system of supports may also ask you to work with your child (MTSS) instead of RTI. One way to at home on certain skills. understand this tiered system is to think of it as a pyramid, with the intensity of The school will monitor your child’s support increasing from one level to the progress so it’s clear whether the Tier 2 next.[1] intervention is helping. Volume 2, Issue 4 Page 2 Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities (OCECD) Newsletter July - September 2017 Vol. 2, Issue 4 Tier 3: Intensive Interventions There are a few other key things to keep Typically, only a small percentage of the in mind about the relationship between class—perhaps one or two students— will RTI and special education: require Tier 3 support. In many schools, RTI can’t be used to reduce your though, that number is much higher. If child’s workload. That kind of your child needs Tier 3 support, it will be modification may be used for some tailored to his needs. Every day he’ll special education students, but it receive one-on-one instruction or work in shouldn’t be used for general very small groups. The groups may education students. include some students who are receiving special education services and Just because your child is getting who need to work on the same skills. extra help through the RTI process Your child will continue to spend most of doesn’t mean you have to wait the day in the general education to request a special education classroom. If he doesn’t make adequate evaluation. You have the right to ask progress in Tier 3, it’s likely that the for that at any time. The federal school will recommend an evaluation for Department of Education has stated special education services. This can open very clearly that RTI cannot be used to the door to individualized teaching, delay or deny an evaluation. [3] assistive technology and other resources provided at no cost to you. As part of the evaluation, the school can gather information from the RTI process, such as screening, progress How is RTI related to special monitoring and instructional adequacy education? data. But the school still needs to Even though RTI isn’t a special education follow the time frame of completing an program, it can help general education initial evaluation within 60 days of teachers pick up on early signs of learning receiving your consent. issues. It can also play an important role in helping schools determine who qualifies for special education services. Federal law says that when deciding whether a student is eligible for special education, the school district can use a “process that determines if the child How many schools use RTI? responds to scientific, research-based According to a study published in 2013, intervention.” [2] That’s one of the reasons 17 states require schools to use RTI to many states have started to use RTI. help determine which students are eligible If your child qualifies for special for special education.[4] All states education, the interventions used during mention RTI in their regulations. Most RTI can help the school decide which states offer schools guidance on how to types of services and supports to include use this kind of framework to decide in his Individualized Education which students have learning disabilities Program (IEP). that qualify for special education. Volume 2, Issue 4 Page 3 Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities (OCECD) Newsletter July - September 2017 Vol. 2, Issue 4 RTI is more commonly used in elementary Here are some other reasons why some schools. But it can be used all the way up parents like RTI: through high school. Students continue to receive their core instruction in the general education “The RTI process can help schools focus classroom. the use of special education resources on kids who truly need them.” The increasing levels of support mean that if the first intervention method One reason advocates like RTI is doesn’t work, there are other options because it can increase the number of before special education. students who are successful in general education classrooms. It may also reduce With RTI, the school isn’t taking a the number of students who are referred “wait and see” approach to your child’s for special education evaluations.