RTI Practices

Core Principles that Represent Recommended RTI Practices

1. Use all available resources to teach all students.  RTI practices are built on the belief that all students can learn.  One of the biggest changes associated with RTI is that it requires educators to shift their thinking: from the student---to the intervention.  This means that the initial evaluation no longer focuses on “what is wrong with the student.”  Instead, there is a shift to an examination of the curricular, instructional, and environmental variables that change inadequate learning progress.  Once the correct set of intervention variables has been identified, schools must then provide the means and systems for delivering resources so that effective teaching and learning can occur.  In doing so, schools must provide resources in a manner that is directly proportional to students’ needs.  This will require districts and schools to reconsider current resource allocation systems so that financial and other support structures for RTI practices can be established and sustained.
   
   
2. Use scientific, research-based interventions/instruction.  The critical element of RTI systems is the delivery of scientific, research-based interventions with fidelity in general, remedial and special education.  This means that the curriculum and instructional approaches must have a high probability of success for the majority of students.  By using research-based practices, schools efficiently use time and resources and protect students from ineffective instructional and evaluative practices.  Since instructional practices vary in efficacy, ensuring that the practices and curriculum have demonstrated validity is an important consideration in the selection of interventions.  In the absence of definitive research, schools should implement promising practices, monitor their effectiveness, and modify implementation based on the results. 
   
   
3. Monitor classroom performance.  General education teachers play a vital role in designing and providing high quality instruction. Furthermore, they are in the best position to assess students’ performance and progress against grade level standards in the general education curriculum.  This principle emphasizes the importance of general education teachers in monitoring student progress rather than waiting to determine how students are learning in relation to their same-aged peers based on results of state-wide or district-wide assessments. 
   
   
4. Conduct universal screening/benchmarking.  School staff conduct universal screening in all core academic areas and behavior.  Screening data on all students can provide an indication of an individual student’s performance and progress compared to the peer group’s performance and progress.  These data form the basis for an initial examination of individual and group patterns on specific academic skills (e.g., identifying letters of the alphabet or reading a list of high frequency words) as well as behavior skills (e.g., attendance, cooperation, tardiness, truancy, suspensions, and/or disciplinary actions).  Universal screening is the least intensive level of assessment completed within an RTI system and helps educators and parents identify students early who might be “at-risk.”  Since screening data may not be as reliable as other assessments, it is important to use multiple sources of evidence in reaching inferences regarding students “at risk.” 
   
   
5. Use a multi-tier model of service delivery.  A RTI approach incorporates a multi-tiered model of service delivery in which each tier represents an increasingly intense level of services associated with increasing levels of learner needs.  The system described in this manual reflects a three-tiered design.  All multi-tiered systems, regardless of the number of levels chosen, should yield the same practical effects and outcomes.