RtI in Practice:
There are three key features of RtI:
Each feature is part of an interrelated process which should be applied to every student. Instructional practices are evaluated and adjusted based on results of reliable, valid, and sensitive indicators of important student outcomes. If any piece is missing, the process breaks down.
RtI represents a fundamental shift in how schools will identify and respond to students’ academic difficulties. RtI is more about how the job will get done and less about who will get it done. RtI requires educators to change how they view student difficulties and disabilities. RtI procedures turn attention away from identifying deficits within the student (e.g., processing difficulties) and toward evaluating child progress over time on the basis of age-based comparisons and rates of learning. Therefore, students’ academic performance is compared to the performance of other students in their school or district and student learning is evaluated based on how quickly that student acquires instructed material. The effect of this shift is that it forces educators to focus on how much and what types of instruction students need, which increases accountability for student learning.
- Scientific, research-based instruction and intervention;
- Assessment of the effects of instruction (i.e., child response data based on frequent progress monitoring); and
- Data-based decision making (i.e., using the child response data as the basis for decision making).
Each feature is part of an interrelated process which should be applied to every student. Instructional practices are evaluated and adjusted based on results of reliable, valid, and sensitive indicators of important student outcomes. If any piece is missing, the process breaks down.
RtI represents a fundamental shift in how schools will identify and respond to students’ academic difficulties. RtI is more about how the job will get done and less about who will get it done. RtI requires educators to change how they view student difficulties and disabilities. RtI procedures turn attention away from identifying deficits within the student (e.g., processing difficulties) and toward evaluating child progress over time on the basis of age-based comparisons and rates of learning. Therefore, students’ academic performance is compared to the performance of other students in their school or district and student learning is evaluated based on how quickly that student acquires instructed material. The effect of this shift is that it forces educators to focus on how much and what types of instruction students need, which increases accountability for student learning.
