A Perspective on RTI Dr. Mary E. Dahlgren

This powerpoint is an excerpt from a presentation at Neuhaus Education Center by Mary E. Dalgren, Ph.D., on July 7-8, 2010, and has been posted for use with her permission.

Some Background Information History Public Law ensure all students with a handicap would have equal access to a public education, 1975 First major theme - finding and identifying any students who had been denied access to public education Categorical labels - SLD, SED, MR, SL, DF, DB, VI, OI, OHI, AUT, TBI, MULTI,HI

Background cont’d Second major theme - parent consent for assessment and placement, adherence to assessment timelines, creation of IEPs, and regular reviews of placement status. Critical Documentation - referral forms, consent forms, placement permissions, IEPs

years Procedural safeguards were put in place to monitor the system developed and delivered based on entitlement, categorical structures, and rigid adherence to these items.

SPED Statistics 60% of all students in special education are those with specific learning disabilities Up to 80% of SLD students are there because they haven’t learned to read Students in SPED : have less exposure to regular ed. curricula and have fewer regular ed. friends Academic achievement is not better than like, non-identified peers

More about Special Ed. Few students in SPED ever close the achievement gap, even fewer exit. Placement in SPED is a life altering event. President’s Commission on Excellence in SPED (2002)

What about student outcomes? Behavioral or academic? Assessment system to monitor progress?

United States Department of Education Focus incident rates by disability category graduation rates placements by race and gender, etc.

Impact on Our Education System Ballooning enrollments in SPED Narrowing of expectations of student performance

25+ years later Refer, Test, Place Could we do a better job? Are students receiving high quality instruction? Can the emphasis shift to ensure students have received effective interventions prior to any categorical identification? c

Efficacy of SPED Despite the push for the popularized Pre- Referral concept of the 1980’s, resulting interventions have failed to reduce the number of students identified for services. Further, there is essentially no empirical evidence that most pre-referral processes resulted in better outcomes for students.

Who Needs SPED Services? Students who require major resources to sustain progress Students who show progress but will not be able to close the gap with their peers, no matter the intensity or frequency of the intervention

Why Response to Intervention? All we have is the 2% of children’s lifetimes to give them reading skills that will impact them for the remaining 98% of their lives!

What is RTI? It is a problem-solving service delivery system. It is an assessment and intervention process for systematically monitoring student progress and making decisions about the need for instructional modifications or increasingly intensified services using progress monitoring data.

How Does it Work? RTI is implemented in general education settings. RTI provides the following information about a student: Indication of the student’s skill level relative to peers or a criterion benchmark. Success or lack of success of particular interventions. Sense of the intensity of instructional supports that will be necessary for the student to achieve at a proficient level.

RTI is Not.. RTI is not a method of identification in and of itself; it is a framework of delivering services to kids.

FOCus RTI is about: Being student focused. Delivering services to KIDS!

RTI, the Answer? Knowledge base Skill Service delivery system Effective instruction Progress monitoring to determine if changes are necessary

State RTI Initiatives Response to Intervention (Some parts of CA, SC, FL) Problem Solving Model (MN, IA, MI) Instructional Support Team (PA) Student Success Team (Long Beach, CA) Three (3) Tiers of Instruction (WA) Three (3) Tier RTI (AZ)

State RTI Initiatives Three (3) Tier reading model (TX, UT) Multi-tiered model of support (KS) Ohio’s Integrated Systems Model OISM (OH) School-wide RTI (MI) ASPIRE (IL)