District Administration - October 2008 - (Page 73)

Professional oPinion • By Douglas & lynn fuchs implementing rTi Response-to-Intervention is an ambitious and complex process that requires administrators choose the right model. R esponse-to-InteRventIon was created by the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities education Improvement Act. Because RtI was put forth more as an idea than as a plan in the special education law, administrators were left to create their own models of it. While in principle RtI identifies which students have disabilities early in their education, decreases the number of students referred to special education programs, and reduces the overidentification of minority students to special education, it is an ambitious and complex process. District leaders implementing RtI must be organized and knowledgeable. A small handful of state departments of We recommend three tiers of instruction, with general education, including those in Iowa, Min- educators conducting the first two. nesota, oregon, pennsylvania and West virginia, have created full-scale, statewide implementations of RtI, and other states ly in terms of providing prevention and tier’s format, nature, and intensity should advocate for using more than three tiers. permit general educators, including readare piloting programs in select districts. In order to implement RtI, various others, according to research in School ing teachers, speech clinicians, or school procedural features must be chosen: How Psychology Review, see RtI tiers as part psychologists, to implement it without exmany tiers of intervention will be used? of a more comprehensive and traditional tensive training and ongoing support. What is the nature of preventative inter- evaluation. They regard RtI as consisting vention at tier 2? How do administrators of early intervention, and identification Preventative intervention There are two prominent models of predefine nonresponsiveness? What is the and classification processes. We recommend three tiers of instruc- ventative intervention at tier 2: problem role of special education? tion—with general educators conducting solving and standard treatment protocol. How Many Tiers? the first two and the third managed by Most practitioners conducting RtI use The first feature to pinpoint is the number special educators. We recognize the dif- the former, while researchers, by contrast, of tiers of increasingly intensive instruc- ficulty in designing more than one tier favor the latter. tion. The “regular” classroom is con- of intensive, preventative instruction beAs part of Iowa’s statewide reform, sidered the first tier. subsequently, RtI yond the first tier (the regular classroom) Heartland staff members developed a frameworks may vary considerably, from and believe that a second tier of instruc- four-level problem-solving model partly three tiers to as many as seven tiers. some tion should be implemented so that once to “provide educational assistance in a practitioners, like Jeff Grimes, former ad- students respond, they can benefit from timely manner.” According to unpubministrator in the Heartland (Iowa) edu- instruction in the regular classroom. Un- lished reports on Heartland’s reform efcation Agency, and his colleagues, view responsiveness at the second tier would forts prepared by Martin Ikeda, director of these tiers as a substitute for a traditional mean those students need the most inten- special education in the Iowa Department evaluation of all children suspected of sive instruction, the third tier, which spe- of education, at level 1, a teacher confers having disabilities. They view RtI most- cial education would provide. The second with a student’s parents to try to resolve www.DistrictAdministration.com October 2008 73 http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2008

District Administration - October 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology
Facilities & Construction
Inside the Law
District Profile: Englewood (N.J.) School District
Choose to Stay
A Cure for Monolingualism
Virtual Worlds for Educators
DA Web Seminar Leadership Series
School Libraries Renewed
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
New Products
Curriculum Books
Professional Opinion
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - October 2008