RTI: The Connecticut Dept. of Education's Research Based Intervention

If you have a question or concern about special education law, school administration, federal standards, or the overall rights of a student, please feel free to call the expert education law attorneys at Maya Murphy, P.C. in Westport today at (203) 221-3100 .

Federal laws have issued clear expectations for schools regarding their obligations to educate diverse groups of students well. This legislation includes the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA). NCLB aims to ensure the academic growth and achievement of all students regardless of their race, ethnicity, fluency in English, disability or socioeconomic status. IDEA 2004 continues the federal mandate, in effect since 1975, for schools to provide all children with disabilities a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE), and also contains some important revisions with clear implications for general as well as special education. These revisions encourage the implementation of research-based interventions that facilitate success in the general education setting for a broad range of students. In particular, school districts are allowed to use a process known as Response to Intervention (RTI) as part of identification procedures for learning disabilities, by far the largest category under which K-12 students in special education are served, roughly half of all special education students nationwide (see www.ideadata.org).

RTI models grew out of research suggesting that traditional approaches to identifying learning disabilities are seriously flawed and that students sometimes end up in the special education system not due to genuine disabilities, but other factors, such as inadequate general education practices and limited opportunities for extra help for struggling students (e.g., Fletcher et al., 1994; Lyon, 1996; Spear-Swerling and Sternberg, 1996), including those students acquiring English. RTI involves providing scientific, research-based instruction and intervention matched to student needs, with important educational decisions based on students’ levels of performance and learning rates over time. Rather than limiting the provision of instructional and social/behavioral supports for those students classified under a particular label or program, supports are provided to all students, based on individual needs.

Key Principles

The basic principles underlying RTI hold considerable promise for helping Connecticut schools to improve education for all students and address the large disparities in performance within the state. These basic principles have been embraced by the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) for a number of years, as well as supported by state legislation and policy. Furthermore, numerous ongoing projects and initiatives in Connecticut, such as those involving collaborations among researchers, teacher educators and public schools, provide a strong foundation for the implementation of RTI.

Important elements of SRBI include the following:

• Core general education curriculums that are comprehensive in addressing a range of important competencies in each academic domain, culturally relevant and research-based to the extent that research exists to inform their selection or development.
• A schoolwide or districtwide comprehensive system of social-emotional learning and behavioral supports.
• Strategies for assuring that educators are modeling respectful and ethical behaviors, fostering student engagement/connectedness to school and assessing the quality of the overall school climate so that students experience physical, emotional and intellectual safety.
• The use of research-based, effective instructional strategies both within and across a variety of academic domains.
• Differentiation of instruction for all learners, including students performing above and below grade level expectations and English language learners (ELLs).
• Common assessments of all students that enable teachers to monitor academic and social progress, and identify those who are experiencing difficulty early.
• Early intervention for students experiencing academic and/or behavioral difficulties to prevent the development of more serious educational issues later on.
• Educational decision-making driven by data involving students’ growth and performance relative to peers; data are carefully and collaboratively analyzed by teams of educators (e.g., data teams, early intervention teams), with the results applied not only to inform instruction for individual students, but also to evaluate and improve core general education practices and the overall efficacy of interventions.
• A continuum of support that is part of the general education system, with increasing intensity and/or individualization across multiple tiers.
• A systemic approach to core educational practices in which teachers within a grade use the same sets of common assessments for all students, address the same curricular competencies, and share the same behavioral expectations; assessments, curricular competencies and behavioral expectations also are wellcoordinated across grades.

If you have a child with a disability and have questions about special education law, please contact Joseph C. Maya, Esq., at 203-221-3100, or at JMaya@mayalaw.com, to schedule a free consultation.

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Source- Conn. Dept. of Education, Using Scientific Research-Based Interventions: Improving Education for All Students, (Feb. 2008), http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/Pressroom/RTI_Executive_Summary.pdf