General educators and special educators in Title I elementary schools perceive the relationships between principles of RTI and their state RTI framework, the implementation of RTI, and professional development received in RTI differently. A quantitative survey-based research methodology was employed including the use of Cronbach's alpha to…

The purpose of this study was to examine the level of implementation that preK-12 regular classroom teachers have achieved in using the educational innovation Response to Intervention (RTI) to deliver gifted education services in Colorado. The methodology used was a mixed methods approach utilizing the online Stages of Concern Questionnaire,…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a tiered instructional delivery framework developed to meet the needs of all students and has the potential to improve reading achievement, prevent reading problems, and improve identification accuracy for learning disabilities. Tier 1 typically occurs in the context of the general education classroom and is…

In the school setting, teams are abundant, often serving multiple purposes, having various titles, and consisting of diverse members. Teams are considered an essential component of Response to Intervention (RtI) and are the vehicle through which data-based decision making occurs at the school, grade, small-group, and individual student level.…

Although response to intervention (RTI) has been widely discussed in education literature and is increasingly being implemented in schools throughout the U.S., few studies provide empirical evidence of improved school-wide student outcomes. Presented here are data and an effect size analysis of school-wide student reading gains in five elementary…

This article presents a prototype reading assessment designed to measure and support component and integrated reading skills. The work is motivated by the need to create a new generation of assessments that are better aligned with the research in cognitive science, reading and learning. An assessment that synthesizes advances in these areas may…

District implementation of the response to intervention (RTI) model has occurred at a surprising rate. It appears that implementation of RTI has occurred rapidly and is being implemented with all students. Rapid implementation of RTI is occurring alongside continued controversy over the model and its intended uses. Although significant research…

The response-to-intervention model is predicated upon increasingly intensive tiers of instruction. The aim of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a Tier-2 small-group literacy intervention ("MiniLit") designed for young readers who are still struggling after experiencing whole-class initial instruction. A total of 22…

Eight years ago, the editors of this special issue published another special issue focused on the topic of response to intervention (RtI; Vaughn & Fuchs, 2003). At that time, there was considerable interest in the application of an RtI model for providing services to children at risk for learning disabilities. The potential benefits have led to…

Tier 1, the first level of instruction in the RtI (Response to Intervention) framework, is designed to meet the needs of 80% of students within the regular classroom. The only way to accomplish this goal is to use differentiation. Differentiation is not a singular process; it is rather a complicated process of adapting instructional strategies so…

No studies have investigated the cognitive attributes of middle school students who are adequate and inadequate responders to Tier 2 reading intervention. We compared students in Grades 6 and 7 representing groups of adequate responders (n = 77) and inadequate responders who fell below criteria in (a) comprehension (n = 54); (b) fluency (n = 45);…

The Common Core State Standards (2010) involve the demonstration of conceptual knowledge of numbers and operations. For students who struggle with mathematics and have not responded to instruction, it is important that interventions emphasize this understanding. In order to address conceptual understanding of numbers and operations in meeting the…

Tier 2 supplemental instruction within a response to intervention framework provides a unique opportunity for developing partnerships between speech-language pathologists and classroom teachers. Speech-language pathologists may participate in Tier 2 instruction via a consultative or collaborative service delivery model depending on district needs.…

This study compared the validity of progress monitoring slope of nonsense word fluency (NWF) and word identification fluency (WIF) with early first-grade readers. Students ("N" = 80) considered to be at risk for reading difficulty were monitored with NWF and WIF on a 1-2 week basis across 11 weeks. Reading skills at the end of first…

In this study, we tested the outcomes of access to a response to intervention (RtI) model in kindergarten or in first grade on end-of-Grade-2 reading achievement and placement in special education. Across five schools, 214 students who began having access to Tier 2 intervention in kindergarten or first grade were compared in Grades 1 and 2 with…