Response to Intervention is beneficial to all districts, big and small

Posted by Beth DuBose on Sep 15, 2008

Two recent articles show how a small district of 900 can have the same success with RTI as districts with over 300,000 students.

Response to Intervention is starting to be implemented in most districts across the country. Yet, some districts may not feel that RTI will benefit their size or demographics. I recently read two separate articles showing how RTI has been successful in school districts. One article looked at a small school district of 900 students in Iowa. The other at Miami-Dade Schools in Florida with over 350,000 students. Obviously two very different school districts in both size and demographics. But despite their differences, both school districts are seeing great success so far in their implementation of RTI.

The teachers in Lynnville-Sully, IA  knew they had struggling students but they did not know what to do once they identified them. The teachers would miss half of the school year before they found a way to reach the students. Acting on their concerns, the schools developed and implemented an RTI program in 2006. Since then the Heartland Area Education Agency (AEA), which includes Lynnville-Sully, has been cited often in research on RTI. The article goes on to describe how the AEA goes about implementing RTI within the schools and districts it serves. It gives great insight into some road bumps you might encounter along the way.

To read the full article, click here.

The other article can be found in Spectrum K12’s special report, Achievement Today, within District Administration. In 2004, Miami-Dade adopted RTI throughout the district. They knew that they would need to make changes within the district to be able to implement RTI successfully. One key item they made sure that they had was buy-in from the district cabinet. Their cabinet immediately saw the potential success that RTI could bring to their students. The district also knew that some individuals would need to take a more prominent role in RTI. This was the school psychologist who became the intervention team leader at the schools. For the past 4 years, Miami-Dade has continued to adjust and fine-tune their RTI process. Since the intiation of their implementation of RTI in 2004, Miami-Dade has seen the number of "F" grade schools decrease by half.

To download the Achievement Today special report, register here.