WHAT IS A SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST?

School Psychologists ...

• Assess and monitor cognitive, academic, affective, social and behavioral aspects of children's functioning.
• Develop individualized educational plans (IEP) and behavior management programs for children.
• Are knowledgeable about special education best practice.  

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      Response to Intervention (RTI)

By Mary Beth Klotz, PhD, NCSP, and Andrea Canter, PhD, NCSP, National Association of School Psychologists

A major concern for parents as well as teachers is how to help children who experience difficulty in school. All parents want to see their child excel, and it can be very frustrating when a child falls behind in either learning to read, achieving as expected in math and other subjects, or getting along socially with peers and teachers.

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-step approach to providing services and interventions to struggling learners at increasing levels of intensity. RTI allows for early intervention by providingacademic and behavioral supports rather than waiting for a child to fail before offering help. Some new federal laws have directed schools to focus more on helping all children learn by addressing problems earlier, before thechild is so far behind that a referral to special education services is warran ted. These laws include the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004. Both laws underscore the importance of providing high quality, scientifically-based instruction and interventions, and hold schools accountable for the progress of all students in terms of meeting state grade level standards.

RTI is a process designed to help schools focus on these high quality interventions while carefully monitoring student progress. The information gained from an RTI process is used by school personnel and parents to adapt instruction and to determine the educational needs of the child.

What Are the Essential Components of RTI?
“Response to Intervention” refers to a process that emphasizes how well students respond to changes in instruction. The essential elements of an RTI approach are: providing scientific, research-based instruction and interventions in general education; monitoring and measuring student progress in response to the instruction and interventions; and using these measures of student progress to shape instruction and make educational decisions. A number of leading national organizations and coalition groups, including the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities and the 14 organizations forming the 2004 Learning Disabilities (LD) Roundtable coalition, have outlined the core features of an RTI process as follows:
• High quality, research-based instruction and behavioral support in general education.
• Universal (school-wide or district-wide) screening of academics and behavior in order to determine which students need closer monitoring or additional interventions.
• Multiple tiers of increasingly intense scientific, research-based interventions that are matched to student need.
• Use of a collaborative approach by school staff for development, implementation, and monitoring of the intervention process.
• Continuous monitoring of student progress during the interventions, using objective information to determine if students are meeting goals.
• Follow-up measures providing information that the intervention was implemented as intended and with appropriate consistency.
• Documentation of parent involvement throughout the process.
• Documentation that any special education evaluation timelines specified in IDEA 2004 and in the state regulations are followed
unless both the parents and the school team agree to an extension.

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an array of procedures that can be used to determine if and how students respond to specific changes in instruction. RTI provides an improved process and structure for school teams in designing, implementing, and evaluating educational interventions.

Universal Screening is a step taken by school personnel early in the school year to determine which students are “at risk” for not meeting grade level standards or those who have behavioral or emotional problems that may interfere with their learning. Universal screening can be accomplished by reviewing recent results of state tests, or by administering an academic or behavioral screening test to all students in a given grade level. Those students whose test scores or screening results fall below a certain cut-off are identified as needing more specialized academic or behavioral interventions.
 

Student Progress Monitoring is a scientifically based practice that is used to frequently assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Progress monitoring procedures can be used with individual students or an entire class. Scientific, Research-Based Instruction refers to specific curricula and educational interventions that have been proven to be effective—that is, the research has been reported in scientific, peer-reviewed journals.

To read more about RTI see section "Resources"