RtI: Response to Intervention or Really Tough to Implement?

By now, unless you are living under a rock, or in Alaska (sorry Alaska) you have heard of RtI. The "t" is lower case as one doesn't capitalize "to". The acronym is short for, officially, Response to Intervention, but since so many people are writing about it there are new versions of it: Response to Instruction, Rejection of Instruction, Really Terrific Instruction, and my own, Really Tough to Implement. At the risk of repeating what you and your whole extended family have heard before, here's my two cents. This is a Really Terrific Idea! It is a paradigm shift, not just a new way of distributing resources. Here's how it works.

You can think of RtI in terms of a three tiered pyramid, with the bottom tier being what kind of instruction occurs across the school academically and behaviorally. This first tier is the basket where all the RtI eggs go, in that this process is predicated on general ed being the way to resolve lots of special ed issues and any other related special program concern. In this tier resides top quality, evidence-based instruction and data collection. This tier contains leveled reading and math, 6-8 week data review by a trained staff in grade level teams, social skills instruction, explicit instruction of school and classroom behavioral expectations, and a problem solving strategy that allows for constant adjustment of the delivery of services.

Above this first tier is the next egg basket, designed for those kids who do not respond well to the general ed instructional regime. In this tier, knows as the targeted tier to many, small groups are created and focused on more intensive versions of the core curriculum, be that reading or social skills.

On the top of the pyramid is the third tier, knows as the intensive tier to many. In this tier, we have 1:1 tutoring, intensive interventions, and special education. We also have individual behavior support plans.

The theory is that if we set up the school this way, we will have many fewer kids in special education and thus free up the resources to work with those kids who really do need it. This process is researched and developed to serve kids with reading issues primarily. The common wisdom these days is that over 50% of the kids in special ed are there due to poor reading instruction, not due to some neurological issues. The math is simple; teach them better and your rolls will halve! Nice way to improve the system!

So where is the downfall? Well, it's bloody hard to implement. The issues are manifold: you have to get a building's staff to buy in to doing things differently, as it's about changing what the adults do. You need to have good enough leadership at the site to allow for creative problem solving and flexibility in moving kids around. You need a good relationship with the union so this is built collaboratively. You need to work with the resources you have as no new funds are coming to assist this process.

But the potential payoff is fantastic!

Many of us have griped for years about the need for general ed to take more responsibility for special ed kids. Under RtI, there are no more "our" kids or "your" kids. They are all our kids. The discussions are about what to do within general ed instead of how do we get this kid to special ed. It's about time.