Responsiveness to Intervention

Abstract

Prereferral intervention is a modification of instruction before referral to accommodate underachieving students and reduce the number of inappropriate special education placements. This article reports on evaluation of a Tier 3 responsiveness to intervention (RTI) program in an urban school district with 96% minority (mostly Hispanic) students. Conducted by speech–language pathologists and resource teachers, the 45-hr intensive instructional program was based on the National Reading Panel's 5 building blocks of reading. Using a paired t test, investigators found that 123 students made significant reading progress (p = .01), with moderate effect sizes of 0.60 (Year 1) and 0.40 (Year 2). The majority of students also demonstrated improvement on the statewide assessment, which was used as an external measure of RTI effectiveness. Only 8 of the original 123 students required special education service 2 years later.