A complete guide to understanding what is RTI in education…
As parents, worrying about your child’s progress or what they are learning in school is natural. Early identification of the special needs of your child is a task. They may struggle in the academic field or various such competitive areas. And once these issues are recognized, one should become even more supportive of the child’s needs and intervene when needed.
There are multiple acts to improve an average citizen’s life, one being the RTI in education. Here in this article, we’ll be exploring more about Response To Intervention (RTI) and when, as a parent, you should intervene.
📌 What is RTI in Education?
Not everyone is a born genius; every child has struggled to cope in school. Issues could arise anywhere in a competitive environment, whether in academics or social aspects. Such difficulties sometimes end up causing mental health problems, especially if the parents and teachers fail to identify the problem at an early age.
A general education classroom filled with so many students makes closer monitoring a difficult task for a classroom teacher. In situations like these, the teachers overlook cognitive disabilities and extra special needs to maintain a ‘fair environment.’
This is where the program Response to intervention (RTI) comes in handy in the United States. The main approach of this program is to identify learning disabilities in students early on and provide the support they need to thrive. The prime term here is ‘intervention,’ meaning when the school or the teachers should intervene to support the struggling child before they could fall far behind.
The program closely monitors student progress to identify students with needs. Teachers can then provide assistance or targeted teaching, called interventions, to these struggling learners and ensure that these students receive high-quality teaching from catching up to the rest of their mates.
RTI isn’t a specific type of teaching or program. It collects data and statistics, measures student skills, and decides which interventions to use.
📌 History of RTI
Response To Intervention (RTI) is said to have emerged from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reauthorization in 2004. However, the roots of RTI are found embedded in the field of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD)
In the seventies and eighties, psychologists worked on creating a new program to identify students requiring special education services and also the ones who required additional support but didn’t necessarily display any learning disability.
Researchers and teachers sat down to identify such difficulties in students. The results were monitored frequently for the growth of the student. When the students failed to succeed, they implemented further instructional methods.
The critical aspect of this framework was a team approach to systematizing student learning. The plan was not to have instructional interventions in the isolation of one general education classroom. Still, the teachers and some other members, like a school counselor, were to meet and identify these students and what kind of intervention methods they needed.
As the teachers applied these interventions, the team would study the collected data and discuss the student’s progress.
Implementation
The framework of RTI continued to grow. As the concept emerged, it was refined and brought to the surface. The model of RTI was seen as efficient as it helped provide specialized instructions to the child rather than sending them for special education services if what they needed was \ just special assistance and a greater opportunity to learn better.
The IDEA (2004) promoted using RTI as an alternative instead of the traditional methods. The act allowed for the funding to be used for interventions. RTI started appearing in more school districts to help children succeed.
📌 Progress Monitoring and Instructional Tiers
Progress monitoring is a set of assessment procedures that determines the productivity of the classroom teaching on the child and how much they benefit from it.
Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) determines the effectiveness of the classroom and what intervention procedure works best for the targeted student(s). Additional methods are also applied until the child starts to improve their skills. Students who still don’t respond or respond at a lower rate are considered to have some underlying learning disability.
There are three tiers of research-based interventions:
Tier I (Primary Instruction)
The first tier is simply a classroom where everyone is monitored. Teachers are required to do periodic checks and ensure the student is coping well. If minor difficulties arise, interventions in this tier are kept within the framework of a general education classroom.
Progress monitoring in this tier is measured by universal screening, which shows individual progress over time. From the collected data, children with difficulties are identified with the help of their scores. Afterward, the plan is devised, and the intervention is formulated to work for the whole class instruction.
Tier II (Secondary Intervention)
This second tier is for those students who have not been able to move out of the first tier, meaning those struggling learners who were observed to be still not doing well upon periodic monitoring. It aims to complement the primary tier, not replace it.
The second tier framework could be practiced both inside the general education classroom or outside in a smaller group. This type of targeted learning is practiced routine-wise for a period of time. Teachers must provide supplemental concepts in the areas where the student needs more attention.
The main purpose of progress monitoring in this tier is to determine whether the interventions being provided here are useful in helping students learn at a decent rate. Rules are created to tell when the student might no longer need intervention, when the intervention methods need to change, or when the child needs to be upgraded to the third tier.
Tier III
The third tier is for those who have not improved after the first and second tier either; they need intensive interventions at this stage. The intervention delivered here is provided on a daily for 9 to 12 weeks, and it is typically done outside of the general classroom.
All the programs and strategies are designed to supplement and enhance tier 1 and tier 2 intervention through remediation of relevant areas. If the child responds with no progress still, they are considered to be having a learning disability.
In a few cases, tier 3 is considered a special education program. These students need increased time and frequency from their teacher, where the instructions are provided in place of general education instructions. Depending on the progress, these special education instructions may be longer than 12 weeks. The criteria to exit this special education are specified, depend upon the student’s needs, and monitored to keep placement flexible
📌 Response and Criticisms to RTI
The core concern with RTI is that it delays accurately identifying children’s special needs or learning disabilities. RTI requires additional work for teachers and creates certain expectations from them and this, as a result, creates resistance to RTI.
Another concern is that while the theme provides effective education for all children, it does not necessarily account for gifted education.
As early as 2004, criticisms regarding the RTI started surfacing. It was felt that RTI was valuable for prevention. Still, they saw little empirical support for using RTI in determining learning difficulties, concerned that it aimed at denying children the special education that they needed.
📌 Warning Signs Parents Should Look Out For
Controversy is a staple in every society. But what must you as a parent do to make your child’s life in school easier? Following are some warning signs that you should look out for to determine whether your child is struggling in school.
- A chatty kid suddenly stops talking a lot. You might ask him how his day at school was, but he refuses to talk about it. This is especially true if they were talkative in the past and now behave strangely with you.
- Behavioral changes are common in these cases, but now you’re noticing physical symptoms. But of, these changes are inter-connected. For example, your offspring may display signs of stress, which could cause sleeping or eating problems. Youngsters often tend to want to please their elders, and they may worry that if they don’t do well in school, their parents will be disappointed in them.
- Your toddler may receive negative remarks from the teacher a lot.
- You might observe that your child’s performance graph is falling drastically along with all these signs.
- Your child may not always be the issue- often, a kid is seen spending more time than usual on homework. But if it becomes a regular, leaving little to no room for your child to go and play outside, maybe it is time for you to intervene and check whether it’s the school giving away so much homework.
📌Conclusion
Innocence and youth are a combination that doesn’t come back once lost. As the generations progress, society becomes far more competitive than yesterday. It is natural for a child at a tender age to struggle at times. All they require is your support and attention, not labels. Happy parenting!
