When RTI goes wrong
Response to Intervention (RTI) has been a hot topic for about 5-15 years in most schools, depending on when they decided to take the plunge. If your child has been flagged as requiring an intervention through RTI, you may have done some googling and found some rather unpleasant things written about RTI by other parents. Now you are wondering if this is something you should let the school continue doing with your child or whether you should insist on the good old fashioned evaluation that used to be done when a child was suspected of having a disability. The answer? It depends.
The theory of RTI is based on a medical model and has excellent research behind it. The idea is that if a child is showing signs of difficulty, we want to try to find what level of support he needs to be successful. So, your child may struggle, but may not require a self-contained classroom setting with other special education children. Maybe they just need a little help, not the whole enchilada. So RTI begins with the least restrictive amount of help, say 15 minutes twice a week. The teachers take data on whether this amount of help is successful. If it is, then your child may continue to get that amount of help and catch up to peers. Success story, over and out.
If this small amount of help doesn't give us the results we want, we may increase the amount of extra help to more times a week. We will add something more and continue to take data until we find the amount of help that your child needs. Often, a child is successful with minimal extra help and the needs certainly don't rise to the level of needing special education. Hooray and everyone is happy.
This is a grand idea in theory, but there are many variables that can make it very unsuccessful in schools.
Sometimes there is a lack of training for teachers and administrators regarding how RTI is supposed to work. If you don't know why you are doing something, how do you know you are doing it right? This is a problem. Find out who on the staff was trained in the tenets of RTI. If the teachers were trained on site that is a good way to get everyone up to speed, but at least a handful of teachers or administrators should have had in-depth training from a reputable person who is an expert in RTI. There are many opportunities for RTI training in Oklahoma through the SDE. If this hasn't happened at your child's school, this could be a sign that it is an unsuccessful RTI program setup.
Another problem is the belief that tutoring is the same as RTI. Tutoring provides repetitive practice in order to get mastery. Information may be presented in the same way it was presented in the classroom. In contrast, RTI is supposed to use in-depth assessment to find the missing pieces a child doesn't have, zero in on them, and provide a specific, tailored intervention to fill in the missing pieces. If the belief in your school is that RTI is the same as tutoring, this is a sign that it is not the program for your child. RTI is an investigation into your child's needs. It helps them while determining what methods are required for success and which ones don't work well.
Next, there should be good research supporting the methods used to help your child. I see lots of use of Guided Reading and Leveled Literacy kits. These are grounded in the Whole Language approach to reading. They support the idea that exposure will teach them to read instead of explicit instruction in the rules of reading. Teachers are often taught to use guided reading at their university programs, but it is not useful for struggling students. Additionally, schools have fallen prey to the big companies peddling a shiny "reading cure in a box." They plastered a sticker on it that says, "Great for RTI!" and the schools bought it because the sticker said it was what they needed and the teachers didn't receive the training to differentiate good help from not-so-good help. If you speak to your child's teacher and they utter the words "guided reading," this is a sign that your child may not be getting good instruction through RTI.
Another problem is trying to RTI an entire school. This happens when the screening reveals that the majority of students aren't reading at grade level. So they proceed to start providing extra interventions for the majority of the school. Attempting to help large numbers of children through interventions with not enough staff is just unproductive and can make things worse. If a school does not have at least 80% of their students reading on grade level, the problem is not the kids. The problem is the curriculum being used. Find out what percentage of the students are not at grade level. If more than 20% are not at grade level, this is a problem. It is a sign that curriculum in place at that school is not meeting the needs of most of the students. This is a problem.
Finally, we have a problem with personnel chosen to provide interventions. In schools with limited funds and/or staff, administrators will turn to paraprofessionals or teacher aides for help. These people can be enormous support for teachers, but providing interventions should not be one of their duties. If your child is struggling to read when provided with instruction from a certified teacher, how is providing more help from someone less qualified supposed to make things better? The children struggling the most should be receiving help from the most highly qualified people in the building. If your child is not receiving interventions from a certified teacher or specialist, request a change.
RTI is an excellent theory. I have seen good schools make excellent strides in helping children when provided the right supports from administration and continued training over the years. I have also seen what happens when training and administration support are not in place. RTI quickly devolves into a tutoring program helping some, but not usually the children with the most significant difficulties. The point of all of this is that RTI is a good idea and if done right, can be a great tool for helping your child. Give it a chance. Investigate the program the school has, asking the questions and checking into the points outlined in this article. If the RTI program that your child is getting does not check out, make a written request outlining your concerns and asking that your child receive an in-depth evaluation for a reading disability. The schools in Oklahoma are required to respond to your request in some manner within 10 school days.
Nicole Power received RTI training from a university professor in Oklahoma who has researched and published on the topic of RTI. She has presented trainings in RTI across the state for many school districts and for the State Department of Education. Ms. Power was an elementary RTI Coordinator in a public school for ten years.
The theory of RTI is based on a medical model and has excellent research behind it. The idea is that if a child is showing signs of difficulty, we want to try to find what level of support he needs to be successful. So, your child may struggle, but may not require a self-contained classroom setting with other special education children. Maybe they just need a little help, not the whole enchilada. So RTI begins with the least restrictive amount of help, say 15 minutes twice a week. The teachers take data on whether this amount of help is successful. If it is, then your child may continue to get that amount of help and catch up to peers. Success story, over and out.
If this small amount of help doesn't give us the results we want, we may increase the amount of extra help to more times a week. We will add something more and continue to take data until we find the amount of help that your child needs. Often, a child is successful with minimal extra help and the needs certainly don't rise to the level of needing special education. Hooray and everyone is happy.
This is a grand idea in theory, but there are many variables that can make it very unsuccessful in schools.
Sometimes there is a lack of training for teachers and administrators regarding how RTI is supposed to work. If you don't know why you are doing something, how do you know you are doing it right? This is a problem. Find out who on the staff was trained in the tenets of RTI. If the teachers were trained on site that is a good way to get everyone up to speed, but at least a handful of teachers or administrators should have had in-depth training from a reputable person who is an expert in RTI. There are many opportunities for RTI training in Oklahoma through the SDE. If this hasn't happened at your child's school, this could be a sign that it is an unsuccessful RTI program setup.
Another problem is the belief that tutoring is the same as RTI. Tutoring provides repetitive practice in order to get mastery. Information may be presented in the same way it was presented in the classroom. In contrast, RTI is supposed to use in-depth assessment to find the missing pieces a child doesn't have, zero in on them, and provide a specific, tailored intervention to fill in the missing pieces. If the belief in your school is that RTI is the same as tutoring, this is a sign that it is not the program for your child. RTI is an investigation into your child's needs. It helps them while determining what methods are required for success and which ones don't work well.
Next, there should be good research supporting the methods used to help your child. I see lots of use of Guided Reading and Leveled Literacy kits. These are grounded in the Whole Language approach to reading. They support the idea that exposure will teach them to read instead of explicit instruction in the rules of reading. Teachers are often taught to use guided reading at their university programs, but it is not useful for struggling students. Additionally, schools have fallen prey to the big companies peddling a shiny "reading cure in a box." They plastered a sticker on it that says, "Great for RTI!" and the schools bought it because the sticker said it was what they needed and the teachers didn't receive the training to differentiate good help from not-so-good help. If you speak to your child's teacher and they utter the words "guided reading," this is a sign that your child may not be getting good instruction through RTI.
Another problem is trying to RTI an entire school. This happens when the screening reveals that the majority of students aren't reading at grade level. So they proceed to start providing extra interventions for the majority of the school. Attempting to help large numbers of children through interventions with not enough staff is just unproductive and can make things worse. If a school does not have at least 80% of their students reading on grade level, the problem is not the kids. The problem is the curriculum being used. Find out what percentage of the students are not at grade level. If more than 20% are not at grade level, this is a problem. It is a sign that curriculum in place at that school is not meeting the needs of most of the students. This is a problem.
Finally, we have a problem with personnel chosen to provide interventions. In schools with limited funds and/or staff, administrators will turn to paraprofessionals or teacher aides for help. These people can be enormous support for teachers, but providing interventions should not be one of their duties. If your child is struggling to read when provided with instruction from a certified teacher, how is providing more help from someone less qualified supposed to make things better? The children struggling the most should be receiving help from the most highly qualified people in the building. If your child is not receiving interventions from a certified teacher or specialist, request a change.
RTI is an excellent theory. I have seen good schools make excellent strides in helping children when provided the right supports from administration and continued training over the years. I have also seen what happens when training and administration support are not in place. RTI quickly devolves into a tutoring program helping some, but not usually the children with the most significant difficulties. The point of all of this is that RTI is a good idea and if done right, can be a great tool for helping your child. Give it a chance. Investigate the program the school has, asking the questions and checking into the points outlined in this article. If the RTI program that your child is getting does not check out, make a written request outlining your concerns and asking that your child receive an in-depth evaluation for a reading disability. The schools in Oklahoma are required to respond to your request in some manner within 10 school days.
Nicole Power received RTI training from a university professor in Oklahoma who has researched and published on the topic of RTI. She has presented trainings in RTI across the state for many school districts and for the State Department of Education. Ms. Power was an elementary RTI Coordinator in a public school for ten years.
I wish you were in AZ. The “RTI” programs in so many schools do not meet criteria you mention for an appropriate RTI Program.
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