Response to Intervention (RTI) is almost a self-explanatory term that provides intervention at a multi level and prevention for students at risk - those not meeting grade level standards and those with learning disabilities. RTI put simply means 'early diagnosis and the right interventions'. The intensity and type of interventions provided are based on the student responsiveness to learning, how well or how successful is the student responding to the interventions or instructional strategies.
RTI is a relatively new approach for diagnosing and supporting students with learning disabilities or academic delays. The focus is on early intervention and specific researched based instructional strategies (or evidenced based) to benefit the specific needs of the student. Monitoring is key to success, the monitoring of the interventions must be valid and reliable and ensure both long and short term gains.
A key question for educators to ask themselves as they implement high quality, research based, differentiated instruction is:
'Is it working and how do I know?
There are a few things to note about RTI. First of all, it's implemented differently depending on your school or educational jurisdiction and sometimes it will be referred to as the problem solving process. Teachers will implement an intervention which will vary depending on the need and measure the response for success, these measures will vary also.
Tier 1 - All students. General. Universal. Enhanced
Tier 2 - Some students. Supplementary Targeted
Tier 3 - A few students. Specialized Intensive