Response to Intervention-RTI - Research Paper Example

Response to Intervention---RTI Introduction Response to Intervention (RTI) describes a process that assesses how well students are able to respond to variations in the instruction (Wedl, 2005). The approach gained credibility in the last decade as alternative to the criteria used traditionally in teaching students with special needs. The most critical elements of the RTI approach are that it facilitates adoption of intervention and instruction program in education that is based on research and scientific facts (Klotz, 2007). RTI also facilitates monitoring and assessing progress of a student in response to interventions and instruction. Consequently, RTI model is critical in making decisions on students who could require more interventions to boost their performance (Klotz, 2007). The purpose of RTI model is to enhance educational outcomes among all students and central concept in the approach is to offering evidence-based interventions to students in a tiered manner and with mounting intensity and periods (Wright, 2007). RTI calls for significant changes to the school systems although various components such as monitoring of progress and discriminated instructions remain unchanged. According to Wright (2007), RTI is a comprehensive system to address the needs of the students. This paper will discuss the features of RTI, role of RTI in Special Education Eligibility and involvement of parents in RTI process. Additionally, the potential benefits of RTI will be discussed and issues that should to be addressed to enhance the implementation of RTI. Features of RTI approach In 2004, Learning Disabilities (LD) Roundtable partnership was formed by various learning national organizations such as the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities and allied organizations and they defined the critical features of RTI process (Klotz, 2007). The roundtable asserted that instructional and behavioral support offered in general education must always be based on high quality research. RTI process also calls for universal behavior and academic screening of all students to allow for identification of the students that require enhanced interventions and closer monitoring (Klotz, 2007). An effective RTI process should also be implemented in a tiered approach informed by scientific research to meet the needs of each individual student. The other feature of RTI is that it relies on collaboration of the staff at school to develop, implement and monitor the intervention process (Suckla et al., 2008). The Learning Disabilities (LD) Roundtable also explained that monitoring of the progress of a student under intervention must be carried out continuously and objectively to assess whether the student is able to meet the defined goals (Suckla et al., 2008). RTI process must also allow for carrying out follow ups to ensure that the intervention is implemented properly and in accordance to the required consistency. Furthermore, RTI process must allow for the documentation of the parent involvement and adherence to special education assessment criteria as outlined in the IDEIA 2004 and other state regulations (Suckla et al., 2008). Universal screening which is recommended in RTI and should be undertaken by school staff as an academic year begins to identify students who are not likely to meet the state grade level or the ones having emotional and behavioral problems which can negatively learning (Klotz, 2007). Universal screening is accomplished by either reviewing the current state test results or by giving academic and behavioral screening tests to students with a given grade. The students who score marks below a certain level are categorized as requiring specialized behavioral and academic interventions. According to Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs and Barnes (2007), scientific and research-based instruction refer to particular curriculum and education intervention which have been identified as being effective, that is, it has been reported in peer-reviewed journals. Three-Tier intervention in RTI RTI process is implemented in a three-tiered approach to meet the needs of all the students. The curriculum adopted should adhere to the state standards to ensure the success of the students (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs and Barnes, 2007). The first tier involves an instruction program based on research and instructions offered at this level meet the needs of all students. Under this section, flexible groups are formed to impart specific skills to the students (Klotz, 2007). Tier 1 encompasses all students and in this stage universal screening takes place and progress is monitored with an intention of design the instruction. Tier II provides supplemental instructions to the standard based curriculum offered at tier I (Klotz, 2007). Tier II specifically targets groups of students who do not progress in Tier I as envisioned. These are the students who are found to be under risk of performing below the standard level or those that require support in order to achieve significant progress. To offer intervention here, students are usually organized in small groups of a maximum of four students having the same abilities (Suckla et al., 2008). Tier III of intervention is usually intensive and individualized. The students who are placed in this tier are the ones who are found to be struggling without any tangible progress even after placed in the in Tier I and II for 12 weeks (Suckla et al., 2008). The monitoring provided here is based on the curriculum and is undertaken frequently. Tier III intervention could be provided via special education and in most cases only two to five percent of the students get to this level. Figure 1 showing Tiers of Intervention in RTI Source (Suckla et al., 2008) To have an effective RTI process, it is also critical to ensure that the school environment and culture is favorable to the students. To have a good school environment, there is need to ensure that four elements are achieved; RTI requires a caring and supportive school community and teach suitable behaviors and social skills to solve problems (Suckla et al., 2008). The school environment should also foster a positive behavior support (PBS) and offer thorough academic instruction. To teach the good behaviors among the students, the school must be able to define and teach the expected behaviors to students, educators and parents. To encourage students for good behaviors, it is also important to acknowledge them when they behave well (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs and Barnes, 2007). Additionally, the instructional and behavioral errors should be monitored and corrected. All educators are expected to participate in collaborative teams to solve the problems of the students. The students learning should be implemented in a culturally-sensitive environment and therefore their families must be involved. Role of RTI in Special Education Eligibility RTI offers an alternative to the traditional strategies that were used in determining a student’s eligibility in special education. The 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) introduced changes bringing the interaction between special and regular classrooms into a single system (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs and Barnes, 2007). In addition, more changes were introduced to the IDEA and it was renamed to be Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) in 2004. The law expanded on the changes introduced in 1997 by integrating regular and special education programs (Sandomierski, Kincaid and Alozzine, 2007). IDEIA did away with IQ tests which were used as eligibility criteria for determining the children having learning disabilities. IDEIA also did away with a requirement for significant discrepancy which was the formula used in determining students with learning disabilities. Consequently, IDEIA required all states should allow school districts to utilize alternative models such as RTI to determine eligibility to special schools (Suckla et al., 2008). RTI is an important criterion in determining eligibility to special education as it adopts an effective instruction and strategy to monitor the progress of the student. For one to considered fit for special education placement due to learning disabilities, s/he must first be subjected to an effective instruction program and progress accessed via documentation of their progress data (Wright, 2007). Additionally, since the parents need to consent to the child’s placement in special education, it is critical to support this using monitoring data captured during the monitoring process and RTI offers these capabilities. Furthermore, IDEIA gives school districts the freedom to decide whether they can use RTI procedures in evaluating the student’s eligibility to the special education. However, the eligibility criteria must eliminate learning problems such as poor vision, mental retardation, hearing, inadequate instruction or limited proficiency in English (Wright, 2007). RTI is also critical in providing early intervening services to students. The IDEIA 2004 mandates school districts to use up to 15 percent of the special educations finances allocated by the federal government in providing early intervening services to those students who although they are not identified as requiring special education but need enhanced behavioral and academic support to excel at school. The intervention services which can receive such appropriation are critical in RTI and entail development of the teachers and other stakeholders professionally to facilitate them to provide research based behavioral and academic interventions and evaluations services (Suckla et al., 2008). Involving Parents in the RTI process To have an effective learning program, schools should collaborate with the families of the students through open communication. Moreover, it is critical to involve parents at all the stages of learning. According to Suckla et al. (2008), keeping the parents updated about the progress of the RTI process is critical in making them partners in the initiative thereby enhancing the chances of success. National Center for Learning Disabilities and National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities recommend that parents should seek to understand whether a school follows the RTI process. To do so, the parent should inquire whether a school uses the RTI process and incase it does not, whether there are plans to adopt the process. The parents should also probe to know whether there are written materials meant for them about RTI and inquire about the different ways in which they can get engaged in it (Klotz, 2007). Parents should also understand the interventions used to address behavioral and academic problems of their students and assess whether such strategies have been tested scientifically. A parent needs to be informed the duration that a student takes in a particular tier before evaluation can be made to ascertain whether s/he has made any significant progress (Klotz, 2007). To allow the monitoring of the implementation of the interventions, parents should understand the strategies that school staff uses in assessing the implementation of the interventions. A parent must also be able to monitor the progress of their children under interventions and therefore s/he also understands the methods in assessing the progress of the student and the overall appropriateness of the intervention. Additionally, the parent should be aware whether a school issues regular progress records showing the growth that a child goes through. In addition, parents are required to understand their rights under IDEIA such as the right to get an evaluation on eligibility to special education. Benefits of RTI According to Wedl (2005), the most common recognized advantage of RTI approach is that it does away with the “wait to fail” case where remedial measures are given only after a child fails to achieve a certain grade. In contrast, RTI model offers students prompt support within a general education setting and such early interventions leads to better success. Secondly, RTI has the potential of reducing the number of children placed under special education services as it increases the numbers of students who excel under the regular education section. Moreover, RTI is used in distinguishing between students who experience performance problems due to disabilities in learning from the ones whose achievement is affected by issues such as inadequate instruction and therefore the number of students being referred to go for evaluation tests to assess their eligibility to special education is reduced (Wright, 2007). RTI is also critical in ensuring cultural sensitivity among student. RTI techniques ensure that students from different cultural, linguistic and racial backgrounds are not misinterpreted as experiencing learning disabilities. The other benefit of RTI is that parents and school personnel agree that techniques employed in RTI process allow for adoption of relevant instructional approach compared to the traditional assessments. Indeed, reliance on scientifically based instruction enhances the chances for the success of the program. Recommended Areas of Improvement in Implementation of RTI approach There are various issues that need to be addressed to enhance the implementation of RTI model. There is need to adopt strong leadership and encourage collaboration in the implementation (Suckla et al., 2008). Additionally, schools should try to provide various instructional strategies which have been proven effectively scientifically. School staff should also be trained on various techniques that can be used to measure small increments in the performance of the student. In addition, parents should be informed on such new techniques and made equal partners in the program. Conclusion RTI is a critical education approach of providing interventions to the behavioral and academic needs of the student based on evidence and has the potential of helping students getting to their full potential and surpassing the state grade standards. The process is three tiered where students who do not show adequate improvement after placement in tier I are taken to tier II and tier III is the highest stage where individualized and intense interventions is provided. For, RTI process to be effective, it is important to have a good school environment that is caring, teaches the behavior and problems solving skills and has a thorough instruction. Moreover, it is critical to involve parents in the process as partners and they must understand the monitoring and evaluations strategies adopted by the school. RTI is an important tool for assessing the students’ eligibility into the special education. The benefits of the program is that it does away with the approach of making interventions after the student fails to excel and is useful in enhancing the performance of the student. RTI also helps reduces the number of students referred for special education. References Fletcher, J. M., Lyon. G. R., Fuchs, L.S. & Barnes, M. A. (2007). Learning Disabilities: From Identification to Intervention. New York: Guilford Press. Klotz, M. B. (2007). Response to Intervention (RTI): A Primer for Parents. National Association of School Psychologists. Retrieved 3rd August, 2012 from http://www.nasponline.org/resources/handouts/revisedPDFs/rtiprimer.pdf Sandomierski, T., Kincaid, D. & Alozzine, B. (2007). Response to Intervention and Positive Behavior Support: Brothers from Different Mothers or Sisters with Different Misters? Retrieved 3rd August, 2012 from http://www.pbis.org/news Suckla, P. et al (2008). Response to Intervention (RTI): A practitioners Guide to Implementation. Colorado Department of Education. Retrieved 3rd August, 2012 from < http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdegen/downloads/RtIGuide.pdf > Wedl, R.J (2005). Response to Intervention: An alternative to traditional eligibility criteria for students with disabilities. Education evolving: Joint Venture of the center for Policy studies and Hamline University. Retrieved 3rd August, 2012 from http://www.educationevolving.org/pdf/Response_to_Intervention.pdf Wright, J. W. (2007). RTI Toolkit: A Practical Guide for Schools. Port Chester: Dude Publishing. Read More