Back Cover

Front Cover

Ways to involve and report to the parents during the RTI process is constant and continuous communication. Communication is crucial to assuring consistency in a students life. Communication can be in the form of letters, phone call or meetings. Other Way to Communicate:
Send personalized invitations: Have your students create invitations in class for special activity days or parent conferences and then parents can attend. Send positive notes home/school: Make it a habit to write about positive features of their childrens school life. Send newsletters home: Newsletters are a good means of communication. Students can create a newsletter in class as part of a communications genre study or the teacher can provide one to send home with the students, this way parents can stay informed. Use a rebus or graphics: Supplement notes going home with a rebus or graphics to give parents general idea of the message Have students create calendars: At the beginning of each month, have the students create a calendar with pictures and a few of the important events happening during that month.

Parent Brochure:
Response to Intervention (RTI) Model Brochure SPE557 Jan. 23, 2013

Green Team
Debra Caramillo, Trebor/Jeff Doneson, Emily Lacks, Jeana Lim & Jessie Johncock

References:

http:nichcy.org/schools-administrators/rti RTI State Database. (2013). State RTI Snapshot. Retrieved from: http://state.rti4success.org/index.php?option=com_state&stateId=146. RITAP.org. (2013). RTI FAQs. Retrieved from: http://www.ritap.org/rti/about/faq.php#faq01. Wright, P. (2010). Is RTI Equivalent to Special Education? Retrieved from: http://www.wrightslaw.com/blog/?p=4060. Hamilton, K. & Mulligan, E. (n.a.). Getting Clear on Response to Intervention (RTI). NICHCY. Retrieved from http://nichcy.org/getting-clear-on-rti Education Northwest. (n.a.). Mathematics Interventions: What Strategies Work for Struggling Learners or Students with Learning Disabilities? Retrieved from http://educationnorthwest.org/resource/1679 http://www.rti4success.org/pdf/what_is_rti.pdf

Response to Intervention (RTI) What is that?

RTI is a systematic approach to at-risk students, academically or behaviorally, that allows a school to implement different levels of support based on how the student progresses.

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Why Implement the RTI Model?

The reason for RTI is to help identify at-risk students and to determine if a student has an actual learning disability as opposed to just not getting the right instruction format. RTI can either keep a student out of special education because of finding a support level that works for that student or help identify the student for special services by determining that the RTI was not enough help/support for the student.

How to Best Utilize the RTI Model:

The three tiers of RTI increase in the intensity of instructional support for a student with tier 1 being the least intense and tier 3 being the most intense. Tier 1 support would typically be a small-group or even class-wide intervention lasting up to a couple of months. Tier 2 is more intense with a smaller group where the focus is on the area(s) that the student is having difficulty. Tier 2 also typically lasts a longer period of time than Tier 1. Tier 3 is the last level of RTI and also the most intense. Tier 3 typically boils down to pretty much one-oninterventions. If the student does not respond to the interventions at this level, they usually are a strong candidate for full-blown special education services.

What Makes RTI Effective?

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an effective, multi-tier response to students who are struggling academically or behaviorally. The reason this response is effective is because it allows the students the opportunity to receive early intervention before they are evaluated or approved for special education interventions. The students are provided with high level of intensive interventions to help with their learning or behavior and are placed in tiers. The students then move through the tiers when they show that no improvements are made, however, if a student improves the student is not moved on to special education interventions and can continue in the RTI model of instruction.

What is the RTI Timeframe?

Response to Intervention (RTI) is used normally before a student is recommended for special education evaluations under IDEA (2004), therefore, the timeframe that is required for implementations may vary depending on the skill level of the academics or behavior, the age of the student, and the grade level of the student. The RTI interventions for the student is normally reached at a faster rate than if a student would be evaluated for special education services. Once the student reaches Tier 2 the parents would be sent a written notice and once the written consent is signed by the parents then the evaluation must be conducted within 60 days of the parental permission for special education services.

Who is Involved with RTI?

In the RTI process, there are many people involved. First, the need must be recognized by someone, a general educator, a special educator, a parent, a specialist, or an administrator (RITAP, 2013). Once the need has been detected it is up to the person who first discovered the need to either start the process or speak to the appropriate people about getting the process started (RITAP, 2013). If the school in which the child attends has a Teacher Support Team (TST), then the TST will be a part of the process also whether that be through evaluation or problemsolving (RITAP, 2013).

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What are the Different RTI Levels?

The focus of all three levels of RTI is to improve student achievement. In each level student progress is closely monitored in an effort to determine who might be a candidate for the next tier of intervention. As a student works down the tiers, the intensity of the intervention(s) increases as the instruction moves from the whole class to small group down to one-onone interventions. Students become labeled as at-risk after tier one and tier two starts with more diagnostic interventions. If students don't respond well enough to the tier 2 help, they move on to tier 3, which is essentially one-on-one. It is from tier 3 that students can be identified as candidates for special educations services.

RTI Intervention Tier Flowchart:

How RTI Works

Sources for Reading Interventions:

Assisting students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practice_guid es/rti_reading_pg_021809.pdf#page=25 Utilize the following methods both at home and school and encourage reading skill development : Choral Reading Repeated Reading Previewing Programs that Restrict the Memory Load Patterned Books Reading Recovery Peabody Rebus Reading Program

Sources for Mathematic Interventions:

Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RTI) for Elementary and Middle Schools. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide.aspx?si d=2 Best Evidence Encyclopedia http://www.bestevidence.org/ Effective Strategies for Teaching Students with Difficulties in Mathematics http://www.nctm.org/news/content.aspx?id=8452 Math Education Practices for Students with Disabilities and Other Struggling Learners: Case Studies of Six Schools in Two Northeast and Island Region States. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp ?projectID=161&productID=110 Math Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities or Difficulty in Learning Mathematics: A Guide for Teachers http://www.centeroninstruction.org/mathematicsinstruction-for-students-with-learning-disabilitiesor-difficulty-learning-mathematics-a-guide-forteachers

How is RTI Connected with Special Education?

RTI can be used to determine the eligibility of a student for special education services. According to Wrights Law, RTI is a method of determining if a child has a specific learning disability that would make them eligible for special education services (Wright, 2010). However, RTI is not special education service and therefore cannot be used to replace special education (Wright, 2010). While the school may use the RTI method to determine a childs eligibility for special education services, the school must also complete a comprehensive evaluation. While the child is going through the RTI method to determine eligibility the school may use the comprehensive evaluation as part of the RTI method (Wright, 2010).

Response to Intervention State, District and School RTI Initiatives and Resources
Council of Administrators of Special Education and Spectrum K-12 School Solutions www.spectrumk12.com/rti_survey_results This is a web survey of K-12 school administrators in which it tracks the rate of adopting the RTI model within their districts

National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), Project Forum State Eligibility Requirements for Specific Learning Disabilities, July 2008 www.projectforum.org/docs/StateEligibilityRequirementsforSpecificLearningDisabilities.pdf National Implementation of RTI: Research Summary, August 2008 http://nasdse.org/Portals/0/NationalImplementationofRTI-ResearchSummary.pdf National Center on Response to Intervention RTI State Database http://state.rti4success.org/

Regional Resource and Federal Center Network (RRFC) www.rrfcnetwork.org RTI: State Activities, Policies and Guidance

NASP. (n.a.). Response to Intervention State, District and School RTI Initiatives and Resources. Retrieved from http://www.nasponline.org/advocacy/rtistatedistrict.pdf