Introduction
This is intended to provide parents/guardians, families and others with
a basic review and understanding of Response to Intervention. Response to Intervention (RtI)
was developed to prevent academic failure for students who are having trouble
learning. RtI provides
early intervention to prevent early difficulties, especially in the area of
reading and literacy, from becoming large and insurmountable.
You should also contact your child’s school
if you have questions regarding the intervention(s) that your child is
receiving.
What is Response to Intervention?
Response to Intervention is a process that
aims to prevent learning difficulties in students. RtI focuses on the
early prevention of academic difficulty, particularly in the areas of
reading and math by:
·
ensuring
appropriate instruction for all students
·
monitoring
students’ progress
·
providing
additional levels of instructional assistance (intervention) for students who
require support
As a result of this preventative
approach, RtI may reduce the number of students who
are not successful academically by offering support before they experience
significant learning difficulties or fall behind their peers.
What are the steps in RtI?
Screening is a type of quick test that measures a student’s skills or
behaviors. Screening will help schools identify students who are considered
at-risk of not learning the necessary skills expected for the student’s age or
grade level. School wide screening is an
important part of RtI because it identifies students
who need extra help early before a pattern of failure occurs. In kindergarten
through sixth grade, screening will occur three times each school year. If the school recommends that your child
receive extra help based on screening results, you will be notified.
2. All students
receive appropriate instruction
RtI is a multi-tiered model which provides different levels, or
tiers, of instruction to meet the needs of all students. Tier 1, provided by the classroom teacher, is
the instruction and curriculum provided to all students in the general
education class.
A response to intervention program begins with assuring that all
students are receiving appropriate instruction provided by qualified
teachers. Appropriate instruction means
that the methods and materials a teacher uses are based on research which shows
that most students will be successful if taught in this manner. Since students learn in different ways, it is
also important for teachers to use a variety of effective methods and materials
to meet the needs of all students in their class. You may want to discuss with
your child’s teacher the type of reading instruction provided in the class. This should include instruction in the essential
elements of reading: phonemic awareness,
phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, and reading comprehension.
Tiers of
Intervention
Essential
Elements of
3. Students in need of additional instructional
support, based upon screening, receive targeted assistance (Tier 2 or 3), often
in a smaller group setting. (Targeted assistance may be viewed as instruction
tailored to an individual student’s needs)
In the RtI model, if your child is
experiencing difficulty in progressing as expected, increasing levels of
support (Tiers) are provided to help the student reach grade level or state
standards.
This additional support, also called Tier 2, could mean that your child may
be:
·
Taught
in a smaller group.
·
Receive
additional instruction time
·
Taught
using various instructional methods to work on specific skills
The additional instruction may be provided by a reading teacher or other
support staff. During this time, your child will be closely monitored to see if
the extra help is meeting his/her needs.
For those students who are still not progressing, Tier 3 instruction may
be provided. This additional individual
help may be more frequent or for a longer period of time.
If you child is receiving a Tier 2 or Tier 3 intervention, he/she will
also continue to receive core instruction.
If your child is identified as needing extra help, a school team will
meet to review information from your child’s classroom work, screenings, state
and district-wide assessments and information from parents/guardians. The team will recommend what type of extra
instruction your child needs and how often and for how long the extra help will
be provided. They will also decide on
how often your child will be tested to determine if he/she is responding to
this additional help. This process is called progress monitoring.
5. What is
progress monitoring?
It is important for the classroom teacher, and others persons who may be
providing additional support to students, to know whether the intervention is
working. How often a child’s progress
should be monitored will vary by the individual child’s needs. In many cases, schools will monitor
individual student progress once every other week or as frequently as every
week. The school will chart the student’s
progress on a graph so that it is easy to see if progress is being made. This will help everyone, including
parents/guardians and family members, to identify the gap between how the
student is performing and what is expected of other students of the same age or
grade.
Progress monitoring also helps school staff know if the extra help needs
to be changed, increased or, in the best case, decreased.
Schools will make progress monitoring information available to the
parents/guardians of the student receiving the extra assistance. Progress monitoring results will be reviewed
and discussed regularly by teachers and parents/guardians so that everyone who
has an interest in the student knows what the expectations are for the
future.
Many students who are receiving extra help through one of the tiers of
intervention will make good progress in reaching age or grade level standards.
In this case, parents/guardians should continue to work with their school and
their child’s teacher to ensure that the progress continues. Teachers may ask you to assist in continuing
your child’s progress in a number of ways.
They may ask that you read to your child, have him or her read to you
and engage in other activities that promote positive growth in skills.
There may be a small percentage of students who do not make the expected
progress and may need to be considered for special education support. In this case, the school will seek your
permission to further evaluate your child to see if there are other reasons for
the lack of progress. The school will seek your consent to conduct this formal
evaluation. The information gathered
through progress monitoring will be very helpful in this evaluation. If your child is considered for special
education, more assessments of your child will be conducted by the school to
determine what additional help your child might need, including help from a
special education teacher.
If, at any time, you as a parent/guardian,
think that your child has a need for special education services, you have the
right to make a formal request to the school to have your child evaluated. This is your right that is protected by
federal law. You can make that referral through the building principal who will
help you with this process.
One of the great benefits and strengths of the RtI
process is the collaboration among professionals and parents/guardians. Working together as a team, the goal is
better performance for students before there are significant academic,
behavioral or social problems. This approach makes school staff and
parents/guardians share the responsibility for all students. Providing early
appropriate instructional support has a long-term positive effect on all students,
especially those who may be struggling. Instead of waiting for failures to
occur, a focus on prevention and early intervention for students in need puts
the energy of the school and parents/guardians where it can have the most
beneficial effect: early in the educational process.