Reviewing the Roots of Response to Intervention: Is There Enough Research to Support the Promise?.

Abstract

In the United States, Response to Intervention (RtI) is used to promote the use of evidence-based instruction in educational institutions, with the goal of supporting general and specialized educators and enabling these professionals to work together in a comprehensive, integrated manner. In doing so, RtI provides a protocol for identifying students with specific academic deficits and who demonstrate the need for individualized forms of instruction. Specifically, professional educators utilize quantitative data accumulated from common student assessment scores, which is thought to reflect a student’s response to instruction in the general classroom, in addition to his or her response to more targeted forms of intervention. This article presents a conceptual overview of RtI and discusses key dimensions most salient to its development and implementation within the United States, while carefully reviewing the research supporting the effectiveness of this multi-tiered framework. As RtI gains prominence in other countries, this article serves to educate others on what may well become a more universal response to intervention.