What steps might the S-Team propose to help its struggling readers?
Click on the following movie to hear what the S-Team likes about both RTI approaches and to learn which one they finally choose (time: 0:40).
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Transcript: Considering Both RTI Approaches
RTI is conducted in multiple tiers or phases that increase in instructional intensity, regardless of the approach adopted. The S-Team at Rosa Parks Elementary School carefully considers both RTI approaches. They are encouraged that the problem-solving approach has been in use for several decades, and they really like the individualization it could provide to their students. On the other hand, they also like the consistency of implementation that would occur with the standard protocol, and they are impressed with the research findings that back its effectiveness. Eventually, the S-Team recommends, and the teachers and principal agree, to try the standard protocol approach.
Now that the S-Team is ready to move ahead with the standard protocol approach, they decide to look more closely at the implementation details. Here is what they learned.
The basic components to all RTI approaches are:
- Universal screening
- Tier 1: Class or school wide interventions
- Tier 2: Targeted interventions
- Tier 3: Intensive, individualized interventions/ disability classification/ special education placement
Let’s take a closer look at each component in the standard protocol approach.
Universal Screening
Every student is assessed using a brief screening tool. Here are a couple of options that schools might consider for universal screening:
- One-minute reading: Each student reads a set list of words aloud, with a one minute time limit. The teacher records the number of words that each student reads correctly during that one-minute reading sample. Students who perform below a pre-set score are considered to be at risk for reading failure.
- Standardized test: Two options for standardized tests include:
- Evaluating each student using a standardized achievement test in reading (such as the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test–Word Identification Subtest). Those students who fall below a pre-established norm-referenced cut-off score (such as the 25th percentile) are determined to be at risk for reading failure.
- Using scores from the previous year’s state or district wide high-stakes testing to determine which students are at risk for reading failure
Some advocates of RTI consider universal screening to be a separate component from Tier 1. Others include universal screening as part of the Tier 1 process.
Listen as Doug Fuchs discusses this issue (time: 1:27).
Doug Fuchs, PhD
Nicholas Hobbs Endowed Chair in Special Education and Human Development
Peabody College, Vanderbilt University
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Transcript: Doug Fuchs, PhD
We tend to make the distinction between what some people call a universal screen, and then Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. Some people say that all kids should be screened periodically, especially during kindergarten or first grade, because then you’re not just focusing on the at-risk group, which is what we tend to do. You’re focusing on all kids, which means that there may be some kids who initially were incorrectly designated as either “at risk” or “not at risk,” and you can then pick them up with a subsequent universal screen. Now if you are going to do a universal screen at various points throughout the year, then clearly that universal screen has got to be a very, very cost-effective, practical instrument. It can’t take very much time and effort because you’re screening everybody. But you know—to me at any rate—this is a relative detail, and is a universal screen given three, four times a year better than a screen that’s given only in the fall? I mean, there’s more than one way right now to skin the cat, and I don’t think that anybody should try to promote RTI as this one approach because there really are many different ways of doing it at this point, and we don’t know which approach is better than the other.
However it is conceptualized, the main point to remember is that universal-screening results should be used to guide teacher behaviors in the general education classroom (i.e., Tier 1), including student grouping and instructional decision making.
Tier 1: Class- or School-Wide Interventions (Primary Prevention)
Tier 1 Service Provider
Classroom teacher
Tier 2: Targeted Interventions (Secondary Prevention)
Students receiving Tier 2 instruction require more focused instruction than the typical classroom reading instruction provides, and it may happen in several ways:
- Provide additional instruction: Under this option, students receive their core reading program with their classmates and, in addition, receive reading instruction (often in a small-group format) that supports and reinforces the skills taught in the core reading program.
- Provide replacement instruction: With this option, which is not the preferred choice, students receive more intensive instruction outside of the general education classroom instead of their regular Tier 1 reading instruction. The disadvantage to this option is that students receive less total instructional time than they would if Tier 2 were added to Tier 1 instruction.
Click on the audio below to hear Sharon Vaughn discuss optimal Tier 2 instruction (time: 1:20).
Sharon Vaughn, PhD
Professor of special education
Director of the Vaughn Gross Reading Center
University of Texas, Austin
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Transcript: Sharon Vaughn, PhD
I think that over the next five to ten years we’re going to learn a lot of “craft knowledge” from the expert practitioners who are going to be doing this very hard work of implementing response-to-intervention. I also believe that over time we are going to refine how we define these various tiers and how many tiers there are. Based on what we know right now, my thinking about a Tier 2 intervention is that it should be long enough and intensive enough to give students who are at risk a real opportunity to improve but not so long and intense that it’s a substitute for special education. So, as a working principle, my model would be that Tier 2 gets framed and implemented in various academic areas, like reading and math, and across various grade levels like second grade or fifth grade or ninth grade, may differ. For example, in the primary grades, interventions may be relatively brief: 15 to 20 weeks. As children get older, the interventions may be longer. But we don’t want the Tier 2 intervention to be an alternative for special education, so that students with disabilities are in Tier 2 intervention for years rather than receiving the full benefits from the identification and placement in special education.
Tier 2 instruction may occur anywhere from several times a week to every day. Students whose progress monitoring data show improvement and whose skills are at adequate levels may return to receiving only Tier 1 services, or they may continue to receive Tier 2 intervention. Students whose progress monitoring data show insufficient progress receive Tier 3 intervention.
Tier 2 Service Provider
Any individual who has been trained in the appropriate instruction: classroom teacher, reading specialist, special education teacher, supervised paraprofessional, tutor, or trained volunteer.
Tier 3: Intensive, Individualized Interventions (Tertiary Preventions)
- Providing more intensive, individualized instruction
- Providing special education services
Listen as Sharon Vaughn discusses some considerations for professionals at Tier 3 (time: 0:52).
Sharon Vaughn, PhD
Professor of special education
Director of the Vaughn Gross Reading Center
University of Texas, Austin
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Transcript: Sharon Vaughn, PhD
It is important, from my perspective, that all of the safe guards associated with identification and placement in special education for individuals with learning disabilities are retained. And therefore, for me, Tier 3 is very likely to look like, and perhaps for many children be, special education. I am uncomfortable making that process automatic, as though it’s turnkey, meaning that as soon as students do not exhibit adequate progress in Tier 2, then they’re in special education. So my distinction has to do with the rights and privileges associated with it, as well as the second part of it has to do with the speed and a confidence we have in students closing the gap with respect to their learning problems based on their progress.
States and school districts may use different criteria to qualify students for Tier 3 special education services. For example, some schools or districts may use an abbreviated formal assessment to qualify students for special education. Others may recommend a comprehensive evaluation.
Tier 3 Service Provider
Special education personnel or other professional (e.g., reading specialist) with specific expertise and knowledge of more intensive interventions.