Program catching on at secondary level

By René Hill

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 | 12:11 p.m.

In 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was reauthorized with a new provision to help students who are struggling learners.

While the intention of the law was to prevent an overreliance on special education services and, in some cases, misuse, it is proving helpful for a wide range of students.

The use of Response to Interventions, or RTI, has been well documented in elementary school, but its use on the secondary level is still being explored.

There is little RTI research that is specific to secondary schools, but its use is increasing. This is partly because it is required and partly because it is a means of maintaining the funds that school districts have for special education services in the dwindling pool of funding.

The instructional model links lessons, or "interventions," of increasing intensity with frequent monitoring of student progress. It is often represented by three tiers of intervention which include different levels of instruction by intensity. Progress is then monitored by short assessments that are used to determine if a more intensive intervention is necessary. Students are identified by teachers who find the child to be struggling with concepts and material covered in the regular classroom setting.

The model is beginning to catch on at the secondary level in the form of tutoring centers that are open and staffed during the school day. Students are able to attend regular classes and then go to the center if they need additional help or instruction.

High schools in Colorado are using the model extensively and are seeing promising results. According to administrators at Palmer High School in Colorado, an examination of grades for students in Integrated Algebra and Geometry showed that students who received intervention through tutoring centers were earning better grades after several weeks in the tutoring centers compared with their peers in the same course who did not use the center.

Preliminary findings are promising as students who struggle are now receiving the help they need. If a child is not found to have a learning disability by the time they are in secondary school, it is difficult to get help for them. RTI might be the key to reaching a wider range of struggling students.