The current state of Response to Intervention

Posted by Beth DuBose on Oct 29, 2009

Former Board of Education chairman of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System and current senior vice president of McGraw-Hill Education’s Urban Advisory Resource, Arthur Griffin Jr., has written a position paper on the state of the Response to Intervention (RTI) Process. He states how RTI was initially designed to be more accurate way of determining which students should be identified has having a specific learning disability. Yet what educators have found is that the RTI process has also been beneficial to any student who may be struggling in the classroom. The Response to Intervention process provides them with extra help to make sure they do not fall too far behind. Griffin also explains how RTI, unlike many other educational fads, can be a successful program because it is designed to evaluate its own effectiveness on an ongoing basis.

Griffin gives a brief overview of the RTI process that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System used, and provides three key factors to implementing a successful RTI program:



1. High and consistent standards for achievement;

2. Ongoing, scientifically based assessments and instructional practices that are continually evaluated and adjusted for efficacy; and

3. Teachers and teacher aides who have been trained properly in the implementation of the RtI assessment and intervention process.



He goes on to say how if any of those three factors are missing, the process will not succeed.



The paper also includes a definition and history of Response to Intervention, along with the current state of RTI, sighting the RTI Survey conducted by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), Spectrum K12 School Solutions and State Title 1 Directors.

To read Griffin’s position paper, go to http://www.mheducation.com/uar/RtI_White_Paperfinal.pdf