Response to Intervention - Essay Example

Response to Intervention Abstract Response to Intervention is a recent program of student assessment that is increasingly becoming popular in the current education system. This Paper seeks to determine exactly what the purpose of the response to intervention approach is, its benefits, challenges, and ways of overcoming these challenges. The paper will also seek to establish why it is important to intervene early in a student’s learning experience. Purpose of Response to Intervention Response to intervention is a school assessment and intervention model that came into being, with the signing into Law on December 3, 2004, by the then President George Bush, of the 2004 IDEA act. The Law became effective in July 2006. Response to Intervention seeks to aids schools in the selection and use of sound instructional methods to students. This is made possible by monitoring the individual student’s response to their regular instructional approaches, and if need be modifying these approaches to suit and uniquely address the needs of each child who may have a learning disability.(Mather & Kimberly, 2011). Advantages of Response to Intervention The major advantage of using Response to Intervention Method is that students with learning disabilities and whose performance is below that of their peers is seen sooner rather than later and afforded the necessary interventions that they may need, this allow them more time to try and become successful students rather than their just waiting to fail. This results in a series of intensive group or individual, based programs interventions, lasting for a period of about 10 – 15 weeks. The programs help some students in obtaining the necessary support that they need early. This helps them to go on, and avoid their labeling as having learning disabilities.(Judy, 2008). The rapid response afforded by Response to Intervention is proving to be cheaper, as opposed to waiting for a case study analysis to be completed that is seen, when other methods of assessment are used. Another key benefit of using the Response to Intervention process is that the long duration a student normally waits before they can begin receiving additional instructional assistance or special education services in school is greatly reduced. This helps in averting the usual scenario whereby most students continue on failing to make any significant improvement in their studies for long stretches of time, which may sometimes run for several years before someone notices that they may have learning disabilities, and require the help of special education, as is seen in the use of the test-score discrepancy model. (Mary & Ayn, 2011) Response to Intervention also has the added benefit of helping in identifying students having learning disabilities, are seen to be at risk of failing. With the early detection, appropriate adjustments can be made to their systems of teaching and progress monitoring assessment that will help the students be successful and achieve success at higher levels and thus serving to avoid potential individual failure. (Rachel & Mark, 2010) The intense one on one and group supplementary assistance, afforded by Response to Intervention has had a rather profound effect in reducing the overall number of students, who end up getting referred for special education services. As a result of this effect, the resources available in special education services are now channeled towards helping more disadvantaged students with severe learning disabilities. Response to Intervention has also been attributed to the increase in the number of students that end up becoming successful while still in the formal education system. This is as a result, of their problem areas not being identified and rectified in advance, some of these students get locked out of the regular education system. Because it is structured to compare the performance between students, the response is intervention model can differentiate between students posting inconsistent/poor results and those who have a learning disability. Therefore, it is more accurate as compared to other models of education to determine which of the two factors are playing a vital role in a child’s learning delay. If a child happens does not respond well to the same instruction that a majority of students are responding positively, The Response to Intervention model suggests that a disability might be the cause of the learning difficulties and consequently recommends the child receive special education programs and services. The use of Response to Intervention is seen to significantly reduced the number of unnecessary testing performed on students. These testings can be seen to be of little relevance to the students. With the intervention used in Response to Intervention model, there has been a marked reduction in the number of children incorrectly identified as having specific learning disabilities. Response to Intervention is seen to be able to provide some rather critical information about the instructional needs of individual student. This information has often been used in the crafting of unique and effective educational interventions for these students with some rather extremely positive results. In case the student still needs placement in a special education program, those who have gone through the Response to Intervention system, are seen to have more often than not received appropriate training and teaching, particularly in reading. These students post better results are compared to those who have not gone through the Response to Intervention system. Response to Intervention has also been found to foster unity and enhance the collaboration of faculty staff, general education teachers, principals, school psychologists, special educators and other. This is as a result of their shared responsibility towards ensuring a student’s learning success. A significant role in the child’s education is played by the parents. This is achieved by their cooperating with the school personnel regarding their children’s instruction and progress. (Rachel & Mark, 2010) Response to Intervention is rather effective when it comes to interacting and assisting students with severe emotional and traumatic experience or problems. The one on one mode of intervention that in Response to intervention is seen to help foster a close relationship between the instructor and the student. The close student and teacher tie helps the teacher to gain the trust of the student. Once the teacher gains this trust, he can help the student in resolving some of his emotional issues. Improvements are being seen in the overall general education instruction.(Mary & Ayn, 2011) Challenges of using the Response to Intervention Model Although the response to Intervention model has been used by school districts for several years, it is currently seen as a school-wide prevention model. However, it is not used to identify students with learning disabilities. There usually is no set of mutually agreed instructional strategies and methods used in the system that can be applied to the different academic subjects and grades. This is vital in the use of the Response to Intervention Model. This has resulted in teachers not receiving enough training, in the application of Response to Intervention and therefore there is a general lack of scientific skills and general knowledge, that can be applied in their day to day instructional practices and assessments. (Sharon, Lynn & Douglas, 2008) In addition to this, the measures used in the identification of the child’s response may not be adequate and reliable. In instances where the measures are seen to be both valid and reliable, there is a dispute as to whether or not the final determination of whether a child is responsive or nonresponsive, should be measured against what are considered to be local normal conditions. (how one child performs in comparison to all the other children who happen to be in the given grade or age). Concerns are raised, that most schools use Response to Intervention in the early elementary grade level only. They tend not to apply the model in the middle and high school level. This has resulted in the negligence of students whose performance was benefiting by the supplemental training offered by the Response to Intervention model. Some of these students encounter difficulties in their studies and go on to performing poorly in their academics. There is a lack of a unified general standard to be used in Response to Intervention assessment. As a result, there is confusion on the determination of whether a child’s response pattern is in the category of a “responder”, or poor enough to be in the class of a “non-responder”. Response to Intervention has also been heavily criticized for not affording schools with enough data to help them formulate the response to intervention models, that suit those students who are currently beyond supplementary grade level of schooling. Since Response to Intervention is working towards the identification of the students who perform poorly and usually get the lowest scores in a school, gifted students who have a higher intelligence than normal but are not yet performing up to their potential capabilities are not usually identified for intervention. It is found that as a student progresses through the Response to Intervention Model, it becomes increasingly necessary for the child to take time away from other parts of the regular school day so as to be able to meet the needs of the Response to Intervention model. The Response to Intervention model’s instructions and training become more intense as the student advances through the tiers. This is seen to result in a reduction of the student’s motivation. This is as a result of their spending almost all their time, in areas that they happen to be experiencing difficulties. Possible Methods of Overcoming the Challenges to Response to Intervention It would be beneficial if traditional models like intelligence quotient (IQ) testing were to be used together with Response to Intervention. This is to help in overcoming some of the challenges of using only one model of education. This will have the effect of helping us identify the gifted students, within a group or class. Once the gifted students have been identified, it becomes easy to design and formulate a suitable instruction method for them. The method will help the special educators, general education teachers, school psychologists, principals, and other, in ensuring that the student receives sufficient and appropriate instruction in their education. The extra help will help them attain their true potential, instead of being classified into one major group of “normal” students as it frequently happens with the Response to Intervention Model. More research can be made into better understanding the response to intervention model with the sole aim of helping in expanding and developing a curriculum catering to the needs of children at the middle school level, and other more advanced levels of education. This will have the effect of helping those students whose learning disabilities are reduced or dealt with during their elementary grade level education by the Response to Intervention Model, to continue enjoying the benefits of the model and in doing so ensure that they have a smooth and easy transition into the different levels of education that would encourage them to continue advancing their education to higher levels of education, that would have been difficult to reach without the help that they continuously receive from Response to Intervention. (Sharon, Lynn & Douglas, 2008) Reasons prompting Early Response to a Student’s Prior to 2004, before the signing into law of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA 2004). Children with learning disabilities were identified using the ability-achievement discrepancy model. The model was at fault because of frequently limiting the number of children who were able to qualify for this service. They were seen as having learning disabilities based on discrepancies between their IQ score and academic achievement as comparably measured against a set of standardized tests. Children that were seen to demonstrate this discrepancy, were automatically qualified for a small group or individual support delivered by a special education teacher. This took place outside the normal classroom. There was usually a delay between when a child received a recommendation to attend special classes, and they started. It was also quite expensive for the school system to provide this method of serving disadvantaged students. The U.S. National Congress determined that schools and students would benefit more if resources were to cease from supporting only those students, who showed a general discrepancy between their ability and achievement. They instead opted to adopt The Response to Intervention Model. This model was to help more children when it comes to receiving assistance in their instruction more quickly and efficiently. Response to Intervention substantially benefits those students who happen not to meet the discrepancy model criteria but still happen to be struggling in their classroom academics. The major objective of Response to Intervention is to reduce academic failure through early and timely identification, data collection and identification. (Paul & Bradley, 2010) References Matther K. Burns, Kimberly A. Gibbons (2011). Implementing Response to intervention in Elementary and Secondary schools 270 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016: Taylor & Francis Group Judy L. Paris (2008). CliffsTestPrep Praxis II: Special Education (0351, 0352, 0690, 0371, 0381, 0321) 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774: Wiley Publishing, Inc. Mary Kay Moskal; Ayn F Keneman (2011). Literacy leadership to support reading improvement: intervention programs and balanced instruction New York: Guilford Press. Paul J Riccomini; Bradley S Witze (2010). response to intervention in math Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin. Rachel Brown-Chidsey; Mark W Steege (2010). Response to intervention: principles and strategies for effective practice Published by New York: Guilford Press. Sharon Vaughn; Lynn Fuchs; Douglas Fuchs (2008). Response to intervention: a framework for reading educators Newark, Del. : International Reading Association. Read More