It is up to school administrations to provide the structure for instruction that suits the academic needs of all students so that every student can achieve academic success. However, some students require additional instructional time to master concepts and skills, and these students are not always identified properly or early enough to improve their chances for academic success. In these instances, schools can turn to Response to Intervention programs to identify such students, monitor their progress, and analyze student outcome measures.
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a framework that helps identify primary and secondary school students requiring additional instruction. Ideally, RTI programs should identify which students are at risk for failure in any area, including reading, mathematics, and social behavior. At its core, RTI has a fundamental aim to enhance the quality of instruction for all students, because all students can be taught with the correct level of instruction.
Tiered Instruction
The basis for all RTI programs is the use of tiered levels of instruction. Each tier represents a different model of instruction that varies based on a student’s instructional needs.
The below figure illustrates a typical three-tier instructional pyramid.
Tier I – the base of the RTI pyramid – consists of universal instruction for all students. Ideally, approximately 75 to 85 percent of students fall into this category and do not require further intervention. Tier II represents the 10 to 15 percent of students that do require further intervention and receive targeted small-group instruction. In these sessions, students spend more time with the learning material and receive more targeted instruction in small groups. These primary and secondary levels of intervention best serve all but 5 to 10 percent of students. These students, who make up the third and final tier, require individualized instruction. This tier consists of intensive, one‐ on‐one instructional sessions that occur frequently and for longer periods of time. Districts should only consider a special education recommendation once Tier III individualized instruction has not met the desired outcomes.
Universal Screening
A crucial step in creating an effective RTI program is correctly identifying students who need extra assistance or are at risk for learning difficulties. This is achieved through a universal assessment, administered to all students at the start of a given school year and again during the middle of the school year to optimize screening validity. The basic question that should be answered by universal screening is whether a student is “at-risk.” A useful screening will ideally satisfy the following criteria:
It needs to identify students who require further assessment.
It needs to be practical.
It needs to generate positive outcomes (i.e. accurately identify students without consuming resources that could be put to better use).
In order to conduct effective assessments, screening instruments should:
Achieve an appropriate balance between accuracy and validity;
Be “efficient;” that is, be brief and easy to implement reliably; and
Be simple enough as to not require a specialist and should be able to be performed in the normal classroom.
Progress Monitoring
The measurement of student progress is as critical as the initial identification of at-risk students in RTI programs. When students fall below a determined “cut score” for a universal assessment, further screening allows teachers to identify which students are really at risk for learning difficulties, and provides educators with a more comprehensive picture of a student’s strengths and weaknesses.
To be effective in accurately determining students’ progress, progress monitoring measures must be:
Available in alternate forms: Repeatedly taking the same test could artificially raise students’ scores, so alternate forms of measures are highly recommended.
Quick and easy to administer: Since students will be repeatedly tested using these measures, they should be straightforward to administer.
Comparable in terms of difficulty and conceptualization: Each form of the measure should be similar to every other form regardless of the time it takes to administer, which allows the teacher to ascertain genuine progress.
Program Evaluation
In order to understand whether RTI programs are having the desired outcomes, schools must be willing to fully evaluate the program model. There are many different indicators of a successful intervention model, and each indicator influences the method of data collection, data analysis, and decision-making rules that are used. Below are some of the most common intervention model success indicators.
Student Outcomes
Perhaps the most desired of success indicators for instructional intervention programs is increased student learning and achievement. Measures for such student outcomes can include higher proficiency scores on state assessments, higher graduation rates, or lower dropout rates. Additionally, since RTI programs also aim to address behavioral problems, lower rates of discipline or behavioral referrals are another measure for student outcomes.
Special Education Referrals
Another important goal of RTI programs is to reduce the number of special education referrals. If an RTI program is effective, fewer students will pass through all three tiers of increasingly targeted instruction which will result in fewer inappropriate special education referrals. Those students that do need special education instruction, however, will be more effectively identified through this more targeted model.
Percentage of Students Identified as At Risk
A diminishing percentage of students falling to meet benchmark criteria is another indicator of a successful RTI program. The goal for a traditional RTI program is to have around 80 percent of students reach or exceed benchmarks; changes in the curriculum or methods of instruction are recommended for rates below 80 percent.
Student Improvement Rates
Another indicator that schools often choose to use when determining success of RTI programs is students’ rate of improvement (ROI), which refers to a student’s progress on the same measure between two (or more) points in time.
In successful RTI programs, students’ attained ROI (their actual performance over the instruction period) meets or exceeds the targeted ROI (the benchmark goal set for the student).
Movement of Students Between Levels of Instruction
If an RTI program is successful, the number of students in the higher tiers of the aforementioned instructional pyramid should eventually diminish – meaning those students will come to require less intense levels of instruction. As the below illustration shows, the “effective model” on the left shows a greater proportion of students progressing downward than upward through the tiers; the “ineffective model,” however, shows a greater proportion of students rising through the tiers.
Data Analysis
With these success indicators in mind, making sound decisions is the final step for school administrations – and the basis for doing so is by analyzing RTI program data. Data can be analyzed effectively in many ways, depending on how it will be used:
Multiple levels: The same data can be analyzed at several different levels and used for several different purposes. For example, data may be analyzed at the classroom level to understand how the effectiveness of RTI programs varies by teacher, or at the district level to see how district resources are utilized. Data can also be aggregated, or collapsed, across several levels to provide an overall picture of the RTI program’s impact on outcomes of interest.
Change over time: Data can also be analyzed within years (e.g. change from the beginning to the end of the year) or across years (e.g. change from year one to year two). Comparing data points across years will indicate how well the program performs from year to year; while data analysis within the same year is ideal when student-level change data is desired.
Comparison: Data can also be compared across schools or districts. A common method is to compare student scores from schools that have RTI programs to the student scores of schools without RTI programs.
Response to Intervention programs serve as an example of how schools are thinking critically about providing quality instruction and improving achievement and outcomes for all students. And in order to cultivate successful RTI programs, program evaluation and research is essential towards meeting those ends.
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