Using RTI Data to Inform Eligibility

1. Using RTI Data to Inform Eligibility Dr. Evelyn Johnson Boise State University

2. What is the National Center on RTI? The National Center on RTI is a 5 year Technical Assistance (TA) Center funded through a cooperative agreement with the Office of Special Education Program (OSEP)’s Research to Practice Division and is part of OSEP’s National Technical Assistance and Dissemination Network

4. NCRTI Mission To build state capacity and support for implementing RTI in local districts and schools by serving as a central source of knowledge, expertise, and research-based information for educators, administrators, and parents.

5. Defining RTI Response to intervention (RTI) integrates assessment and intervention within a multi‑level prevention system to maximize student achievement and reduce behavioral problems. (National Center on Response to Intervention)

6. Genesis of RTI – Public Health Model

7. Purposes of RTI • School reform framework • Early identification and prevention • Disability determination

8. What are we trying to prevent? Instructional casualties – Working to ensure that students receive effective instruction to prevent learning difficulties that later become intractable.

9. Federal Definition of SLD A specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. (34 CFR Sec. 300.8 (c)(10))

10. One State’s Approach to Operationalizing the SLD Definition

11. What is RTI Data? • Screening to initially identify students at-risk and establish effective core • PM data to determine response and establish interventions are effective • Outcome data to establish instructional program efficacy

12. Standards for Data

13. A Case Study: Cedric This data helps establish that the core instructional program is generally effective for most students.

14. A Case Study: Cedric This data describes the intensity, frequency and duration of the Tier 2 intervention.

15. Progress Monitoring Reviewing the collective progress of the group of students who receive intervention demonstrates that many of the students are benefitting from Tier 2 intervention.

16. Individual Data Shows a Lack of Response

17. What RTI Data Tells Us About Cedric • Has not achieved grade level performance standards • Core instruction is generally effective • Was not responsive to an intervention • Requires further assessment to determine the nature, extent and underlying causes • Informs individualized instructional planning

18. Questions? • National Center on Response to Intervention • www.rti4success.org • Evelyn Johnson, Ed.D. • evelynjohnson@boisestate.edu