Response to intervention (RTI) emerged from the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but the roots of RTI are found embedded within the history of the field of learning disabilities (LD) as well as other sources of influence. In what follows, we provide a brief history of LD and highlight the connection between…

Two recent changes in federal law have made an impact on reading instruction in the United States, particularly for students for whom learning to read is difficult. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), signed into law in 2002, requires that all students meet an achievement standard in reading by the year 2014. NCLB also recognizes that reading…

There has been much recent discussion among educators on the topic of implementing a response to intervention (RTI) framework to identify special education needs for students with specific learning disabilities. There is good reason for such discussion, as all students benefit from RTI when implemented with integrity and fidelity. The result of…

The renewal of IDEA (2004) produced a number of changes in the identification process for children with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs). The requirement that students must present a severe discrepancy between IQ and academic performance has been modified to allow for a more flexible problem-solving approach commonly labeled "Response to…

Because of recent legislation, students with mild disabilities frequently receive social studies instruction in the general education classroom. Therefore, middle school teachers have the challenge of teaching social studies to students with a wide range of abilities. Emphasis in the general education social studies curriculum is on high-level…

Ms. Thomas, the general educator, and Ms. Merced, the special education teacher, plan to co-teach mathematics classes during the upcoming school year. Based on previous interactions with students and knowledge of students' abilities from school records, they know that several students, including students with disabilities, struggle with…

Response to Intervention (RtI) has promise for helping students, particularly ones with disabilities, achieve higher levels of academic and behavioral success in the general education classroom. What does it mean for gifted students or for those who are gifted and have a learning disability, such as twice-exceptional students? How might current…

Education reform has been on a new path over the last 15 years; a path that leads to more accountability, more choice for students and parents, highly qualified teachers, as well as, best practices in instruction. In an effort to move along the path of reform and as a result of previous reform, the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA reviewed the field…

The recent reauthorization and regulations of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004) encourage the use of school-wide interventions including response to intervention (RTI; Bradley, Danielson, & Doolittle, 2007). RTI refers to a multi-tiered system that addresses the academic needs of all students by using…

Response to Intervention (RTI) was encoded into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, and is being adopted on a wide scale as an alternative approach to identification of students with learning disabilities. For RTI to be an effective mechanism for addressing disproportionate representation of culturally and…

As a result of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and the reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004, Response to Intervention (RTI) is now a mandated process for documenting the existence or nonexistence of a learning disability. For educators new to the RTI approach, this text presents an overview of key…

This paper presents the application of the problem-based learning (PBL) method as an innovative approach to teaching engineering. This paper supports the idea that the PBL method is aptly suited to teaching the engineering disciplines, as its methodology nurtures critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which are central to a graduate's…

Students with disabilities often have difficulty understanding expository history texts in high school. This article presents an integrated curriculum/instruction/assessment approach to teaching history that increases content comprehension and problem-solving skills of students with learning disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Concept-based…

The purpose of this article is to present an argument for the need for culturally responsive Response to Intervention (RTI) as an approach for reducing disproportionate minority representation in Special Education Programs for Students with Emotional Disturbances. We present an overview of the RTI model as initially intended for use in determining…

Response-to-intervention (RtI) models utilize a proactive, prevention approach that requires the implementation of a sophisticated, multi-tiered problem-solving process in the regular education environment. Effective and sustainable implementation of these models will necessitate a mechanism to support professional development, treatment fidelity,…