Chapter 2: Response-to-Intervention
A New Approach to Helping Students
Most At-Risk for LD
Who is this for? This chapter is for parents who know their child is struggling in school, but are unsure whether or not their child has a learning disability.
Why is this important? The pre-referral services and programs outlined in Chapter 1 can provide helpful support for struggling students. This chapter describes Response-to-Intervention (RTI) - a comprehensive, multi-step process that closely monitors how students are responding to different types of services and instruction. RTI provides an improved process of pre-referral interventions.
What can parents do? Parents can first find out if their school district uses an RTI process. If the answer is yes, then parents can learn more about RTI and ask key questions about how it will be used to help their child.
Words and Terms to Know
Response-to-Intervention (RTI): A comprehensive, multi-step process that closely monitors how the student is responding to different types of services and instruction.
Progress monitoring: A scientifically based practice used to assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Progress monitoring can be implemented with individual students or an entire class.
Curriculum based measurement (CBM): Tools for measuring student competency and progress in the basic skill areas of reading fluency, spelling, mathematics and written language.
Scientific, research-based instruction: Curriculum and educational interventions that are research based and have been proven to be effective for most students
Universal screening: A step taken by school personnel early in the school year to determine which students are "at risk" for not meeting grade level standards. Universal screening can be accomplished by reviewing a student's recent performance on state or district tests or by administering an academic screening to all students in a given grade. Students whose scores on the screening fall below a certain cut-off point are identified as needing continued progress monitoring and possibly more intensive interventions.
Note: The IDEA Parent Guide was created to provide a basic understanding of the key requirements of the federal law under IDEA. The information presented here is not legal advice and should not be used as a legal resource.
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