ISSUE OF RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION

Issue RTI related to Early childhood education, Preschool, and special education at preschool level.



Issue RTI related to Early childhood education, Preschool, and special education at preschool level.

Introduction

Determining learning disabilities in students has been a controversial issue for many years. RTI, introduced as a method for monitoring student responses to academic intervention, was coupled with a system for slowing down and averting referrals to special education (Fairbanks, 2007). RTI brings regular, special education and AIS teachers into cooperative units to provide services for struggling students within the regular classroom, thereby averting the disabled designation. RTI includes all, and more of the support components that were available through the previous system within the special education resource room only to disabled students.

Body: Discussion and Analysis

RTI is an evidence-based initiative seeking to redefine LD identification and how it is dealt with in public schools. It uses tiers of intervention based on students' individual needs. There are three to four tiers of small groups within the classroom. Each tier increases the level of intensive, specialized instruction as decided by the RTI team at the local level. For instance, Tier 1 might consist of core reading instruction with the classroom teacher. Tier 2 might consist of those students who did not respond to Tier 1 intervention which would supplement the core reading program and provided by the general classroom teacher, special education teacher, or specially trained staff. Tier 3 might be small groups of three or less provided by a special education teacher with sessions of individualized, specialized instruction. The revisions of Section 614 of the Individual with Disabilities Education and Improvement Act (IDEIA) do not require a specific evaluation strategy, but do mandate broad parameters of assessment strategies. For example, test scores in a specific area of suspected disability can be compared to norms of same-age children in the same area to reveal the level of actual ability as opposed to the ability of same-age children in a national norm referenced group. The suspected LD child's scores are compared to typical performance indicating how well or how poorly the child performed. IDEIA 2004 permits using the discrepancy model but encourages the use of alternative methods of assessment to identify children with learning disabilities. (Dykeman, 2006)

RTI does not use a specific assessment tool but uses a number of different strategies to assess disabilities. Standardized, norm-referenced assessment can be included in RTI assessment. RTI is a multi-level strategy used as a pre-referral intervention to prevent many of the disabilities seen in the classroom. With RTI, the need for LD eligibility is many times not necessary. RTI is a test-treat-test approach to identify learning needs. Scientifically based curriculum is used to treat the need, and the child's response to that intervention is measured. (Dykeman, 2006) RTI uses a variety of assessment strategies including: functional assessment of early age children with suspected disabilities, authentic assessment, curriculum-based assessment, and play-based assessment. This assessment approach allows multiple and converging data sources that provide evidence in ...