Core Concepts of RTI

In discussions about RTI with school district staffs and others, having a common frame of reference might be helpful. For our purposes, the core concepts of RTI include the following:

  • Students receive high quality instruction in their general education setting
  • General education instruction is research-based
  • General education instructors and staff assume an active role in students' assessment in that curriculum
  • School staff conduct universal screening of academics and behavior
  • Continuous progress monitoring of student performance occurs
  • Continuous progress monitoring pinpoints students' specific difficulties
  • School staff implement specific, research-based interventions to address the student's difficulties
  • School staff use progress-monitoring data to determine interventions' effectiveness and to make any modifications as needed
  • Systematic assessment is completed of the fidelity or integrity with which instruction and interventions are implemented
  • The RTI model is well described in written documents (so that the procedures and criteria used in schools can be compared to the documents)
  • Sites can be designated as using a "standardized" treatment protocol or an individualized, problem-solving model

RTI models have also been implemented with variations. Some attributes common to many RTI implementations include the following:

  • the concept of multiple tiers of increasingly intense student interventions
  • implementation of a differentiated curriculum
  • instruction delivered by staff other than the classroom teacher
  • varied duration, frequency, and time of interventions
  • categorical or noncategorical placement decisions
  • severity levels for placement decisions
  • use a problem solving model or standardized treatment protocol for addressing students' difficulties

RTI models can be distinguished by whether the student's intervention is individualized. In some RTI models, the student's deficits are addressed by implementing a research-based intervention that is specially designed for that student (i.e., problem-solving model) and for which implementation integrity is uniquely assessed. An alternative RTI model involves students with similar difficulties (e.g., problems with reading fluency) who are given a research based intervention that has been standardized and proven effective for students with similar difficulties (i.e., standard treatment protocol approach) and has a standard protocol to assess implementation integrity.

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