National Center on Response to Intervention
Increasingly, educators -policymakers, administrators, teachers,
and researchers - are viewing response to intervention (RTI) as an
essential method of integrating instructional and assessment
components into an effective prevention system. When educators
systematically monitor students' academic and behavioral progress
to make data-based instructional decisions, educators teach more
effectively and their students' achievement increases considerably.
This model, with its associated elements of screening, progress
monitoring, and tiered instruction (utilizing universal, secondary,
and tertiary interventions), has the potential to enhance student
achievement and to reduce the prevalence of reading and math
disabilities. Additionally, RTI holds promise that
disproportionality in special education may be effectively
addressed by integrating proven models for RTI with Early
Intervening Services (EIS) for minority students who are not
progressing in the general education curriculum.
However, significant challenges are contributing to the fact
that RTI/EIS are promising practices that are significantly
under-utilized. States and districts are sometimes implementing RTI
and EIS without the benefit of sound information about
evidenced-based tools, practices, and implementation strategies.
Further, many general educators remain unaware of proven models,
and too few families advocate for the use of these models with
their children. Effective technical assistance and dissemination
(TA&D) of evidenced-based RTI practices are indisputably
necessary, if not sufficient, to bridge research and practice.
Practitioners need information about how to translate research into
clear, concrete, and feasible practices that can be implemented
with fidelity. TA&D strategies must accommodate differences in
teachers' background, training, and beliefs as well as be
compatible with the nature and philosophy of existing instructional
programs and practices. This information must also be available in
a variety of usable formats and at different levels of
specificity.
To meet these challenges, the American Institutes for Research
and researchers from Vanderbilt University and the University of
Kansas -- through funding from the U.S. Department of Education's
Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) -- have established the
National Center on response to intervention. The Center's mission
is to provide technical assistance to states and districts and
building the capacity of states to assist districts in implementing
proven models for RTI/EIS. We have organized the Center's work into
four service areas:
- Knowledge production activities that include a rigorous
technical review to determine which tools, practices, and
implementation strategies are deemed scientifically valid and
appropriate for TA&D;
- Expert trainings and follow-up activities (both face-to-face
and at a distance) to drive implementation supports for RTI/EIS on
a broad scale;
- Information dissemination activities that will involve forming
partnerships and reaching out to target stakeholders via ongoing
communication, including web-based telecommunication; and
- A rigorous Center evaluation, with formative assessments to
help improve the delivery of our services in states and districts
across the country.
The Center is led by a team of nationally recognized Principal
Investigators. A distinguished National Advisory Committee will
provide conceptual support and feedback on the work of the Center.
We have formed partnerships with over 50 national organizations and
associations that represent the interests of the entire range of
general and special education practitioners and families. A
distinguishing feature of the Center's approach is AIR's ability to
capitalize on the three national TA&D centers we currently run
- the National Center on Student Progress Monitoring, the Access
Center, and the National High School Center. Through our efforts in
these and other centers, we have worked in each of the 50 states
and in scores of districts and schools. The Center's team itself is
diverse, with persons with disabilities, parents of children with
disabilities, and persons who are culturally and linguistically
diverse having key roles on the Center's team. Their involvement
will help ensure that our services are practical and will be
utilized to help improve results for children and families.