RTI for Elementary & Middle Schools

According to the IES Practice Guide Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for  Elementary and Middle Schools (NCEE 2009-4060), RtI (or RTI) is “an early detection, prevention, and support system that identified struggling students and assists them before they fall behind.”

This Practice Guide highlights the following recommendations and level of evidence in support of these recommendations as follows:

Recommendation [Level of evidence]
Tier 1
1. Screen all students to identify those at risk for potential mathematics
difficulties and provide interventions to students identified as at risk. [Moderate]
Tiers 2 and 3
2. Instructional materials for students receiving interventions should
focus intensely on in-depth treatment of whole numbers in kindergar-
ten through grade 5 and on rational numbers in grades 4 through 8.
These materials should be selected by committee. [Low]
3. Instruction during the intervention should be explicit and systematic.
This includes providing models of proficient problem solving, verbal-
ization of thought processes, guided practice, corrective feedback, and
frequent cumulative review.  [Strong]
4. Interventions should include instruction on solving word problems
that is based on common underlying structures. [Strong]
5. Intervention materials should include opportunities for students to
work with visual representations of mathematical ideas and interven-
tionists should be proficient in the use of visual representations of
mathematical ideas. [Moderate]
6. Interventions at all grade levels should devote about 10 minutes in each
session to building fluent retrieval of basic arithmetic facts. [Moderate]
7. Monitor the progress of students receiving supplemental instruction
and other students who are at risk. [Low]
8. Include motivational strategies in tier 2 and tier 3 interventions. [Low]

In Pennsylvania, the RTI term has expanded to include Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTII). As defined by Pennsylvania’s Training and Technical Assistance Network (www.pattan.net), RTII is “a comprehensive, multi-tiered, standards aligned strategy to enable early identification and intervention for students at academic or behavioral risk.”  A key component of RTII is appropriate Tier 1 interventions, also known as the core curriculum. One might posit that these principles and recommendations for Tiers 2 & 3 should also be generously applied to core instruction ,and the targeted curriculum and textbook selection should clearly embrace these recommendations as well.