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ERIC Number: ED529684
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2010-May
Pages: 12
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Addressing Response to Intervention within Personnel Preparation Programs: Six Approaches. inForum
Muller, Eve
Project Forum
Response to Intervention (RTI), as a model for improving services to all students, has been a growing phenomenon since the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004. The National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) defines RTI as "the practice of (1) providing high-quality instruction/intervention matched to student needs and (2) using learning rate over time and level of performance to (3) make important educational decisions" (NASDSE, 2006, p. 5). IDEA permits, but does not require, local education agencies (LEAs) to use an RTI model when determining the educational needs of a student with disabilities. Specifically, RTI may be used as part of the process for determining eligibility for special education services under the category of specific learning disabilities. As states and LEAs have begun to respond to this provision through funding, technical assistance and/or explicit mandates, institutions of higher education (IHE) programs are increasingly recognizing and responding to the demand for educational personnel prepared to implement an RTI model at both the system and individual student level. The purpose of this document is to describe how personnel preparation programs in six states currently incorporate RTI into their curricula. The degree to which RTI is incorporated into personnel preparation curricula, interdisciplinary collaboration is involved in developing and implementing RTI-related coursework and IHE faculty collaborate on SEA- and LEA-level RTI initiatives appears to vary from IHE to IHE. However, IHEs included in this study share a common commitment to the core principles of RTI and the importance of preparing education professionals to work within an RTI framework. Increasingly, school psychology and special education programs require familiarity with RTI on the part of their graduates and several general education as well as other programs are also requiring RTI-related coursework. Several special education and school psychology programs also require an RTI-related field placement experience. In addition to teaching courses that address RTI, most faculty members interviewed provide leadership to state- and local-level RTI initiatives and offer inservice trainings to LEA staff. Although challenges to the implementation of successful RTI curricula exist, particularly in terms of lack of buy-in on the part of general education faculty, interviewees identified a number of program strengths and generated several recommendations for other IHE programs planning to integrate RTI into their personnel preparation curricula. Perhaps most importantly, interviewees stressed the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the infusing of RTI-based concepts across the curriculum. (Contains 3 footnotes.)
Project Forum. Available from: National Association of State Directors of Special Education. 1800 Diagonal Road Suite 320, Alexandria, VA 22314. Tel: 703-519-3800; Fax: 703-519-3808; Web site: http://www.projectforum.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Office of Special Education Programs (ED/OSERS)
Authoring Institution: National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), Project Forum
Identifiers - Location: Colorado; Florida; Maine; Michigan; Oklahoma; Oregon
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A