Response to Intervention

            Response to Intervention (RTI) is a program that helps bring students up to the academic standard by using a series of steps, called tiers. RTI helps identify students who may be at risk for academic failure. All the students in the particular grade are screened to see what their learning capability is. In tier 1 an assessment is given to see if students are meeting the standards or not. Tier 2 takes the students who are below grade level are given various instructional activities to help improve their skills. As their skills improve the students receive less support until they succeed in the general education classes on their own. Tier 3 is for the students who do not make significant progress in tier 2. Tier 3 uses evaluations and the data from the previous tiers to find out why the student is lower than the typical students in that grade level. RTI provides extra assistance and support to help prevent a child from being placed in special education. Response to Intervention not only helps the students, but it helps the teachers. If many of the students are performing below grade level, it may be because the teacher is not meeting the student’s needs with the curriculum they are implementing. Response to Intervention helps separate those students with learning disabilities and those who just need extra support for the curriculum.

            Response to Intervention differs from special education, because special education deals with disabled students who need extra services that cannot be met in the traditional classroom. Response to Intervention prevents academic failure by giving additional support and finding the best ways to teach disabled students or those who are struggling within the classroom. The purpose of RTI is to lessen the amount of students who receive special education by raising achievement levels of students. RTI also helps develop the way the curriculum and instruction is organized based on the students screening tests.

            Overall, RTI is an important service to schools because it helps close the gap between special education and traditional education. It helps teachers understand what a student may be struggling with in the curriculum and then the student can get extra assistance.