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Welcome to RTI_WIRE, your 'one-stop' directory of free, high-quality 'Response-to-Intervention' resources available on the Internet!

What is RTI? 'Response to Intervention' (RTI) is an emerging approach to the diagnosis of Learning Disabilities that holds considerable promise. In the RTI model, a student with academic delays is given one or more research-validated interventions. The student's academic progress is monitored frequently to see if those interventions are sufficient to help the student to catch up with his or her peers. If the student fails to show significantly improved academic skills despite several well-designed and implemented interventions, this failure to 'respond to intervention' can be viewed as evidence of an underlying Learning Disability.
One advantage of RTI in the diagnosis of educational disabilities is that it allows schools to intervene early to meet the needs of struggling learners. Another is that RTI maps those specific instructional strategies found to benefit a particular student. This information can be very helpful to both teachers and parents.

How do schools put RTI into practice? To implement RTI effectively, schools must develop a specialized set of tools and competencies, including a structured format for problem-solving, knowledge of a range of scientifically based interventions that address common reasons for school failure, and the ability to use various methods of assessment to monitor student progress in academic and behavioral areas.

Consult the links below for more information about RTI!

Internet Resources for 'Response to Intervention'

1. RTI: Understand the Model
For many educators, RTI represents a new and very different methodology for identifying Learning Disabilities. These websites provide an explanation of the theoretical model that underpins RTI:
Arizona RTI . Arizona has a useful page of RTI resources, including training modules, technical assistance papers, and other materials. || Report Broken Link
NRCLD: 2003 RTI Symposium . The National Research Center on Learning Disabilities held a symposium on RTI in December 2003. This web page contains papers, PowerPoint presentations, and brief video clips of nationally prominent RTI researchers. Speakers at the conference considered such issues as the basic feasibility of RTI in schools, operationalizing the concept of 'response to intervention', the number of 'Tiers' or levels of intervention that should be in place in the RTI model to identify and program for children at risk, and what other methods than RTI might be considered for identifying Learning Disabilities in children. || Report Broken Link
Project ACHIEVE . Project ACHIEVE is an innovative school reform and school effectiveness program. It uses a systematic, three-tiered Response-to-Intervention (RtI) approach--called the SPRINT (School Prevention, Review, and Intervention Team) process--for both academics and instruction, and behavior and positive behavioral support systems (PBSS). Project ACHIEVE's website (www.projectachieve.info) provides a comprehensive description of its components, strategies, evaluation approaches, and outcomes. It also provides an extensive array of free Technical Assistance Papers and PowerPoints on strategic planning, integrated general and special education services, PBSS, social skills training, school-based mental health services, and RtI processes.Project ACHIEVE was created by Dr. Howard M. Knoff. || Report Broken Link
RTI: Implementation in Schools . This web page from SchwabLearning.org explains Response to Intervention in plain language using a question/answer format that is accessible to all school stakeholders, including parents. || Report Broken Link
RTI Network . Educators who visit this website will find useful information about RTI including how to build support, tips on developing an RTI program, advice on implementation and evaluation, and planning checklists and forms. RTI Action Network has an extensive collection of RTI resources for educators including discussion boards, an “ask the experts” feature, professional development tools, podcasts, webinars, and many more resources broken down by grade level. || Report Broken Link
2. RTI: Use Teams to Problem-Solve
Schools that follow a structured problem-solving process to help at-risk learners are more likely to have positive outcomes under RTI. Many schools use a multi-disciplinary teams of educators to carry out the problem-solving model, because the combined expertise and knowledge of the group leads to better ideas and greater collaboration. Here are team problem-solving models from districts and state education departments around the country:
Intervention Assistance Teams (Pasadena, TX) . There are a variety of documents here for monitoring the Intervention Assistance Team (IAT) process. Examples include a form to go into the cumulative folder noting that the student was referred to the Intervention Team, an IAT progress report, and a sample letter notifying parents of the outcome of the IAT meeting. || Report Broken Link
SBIT Home Page (Syracuse, NY) . The School-Based Intervention Team (SBIT) project was successfully piloted in Syracuse, NY, and has been adopted by a number of other districts around the country. This page contains all of the team meeting forms and other helpful problem-solving resources. || Report Broken Link
SBIT Model (Albemarle County Schools, VA) . Starting with Syracuse SBIT model, the folks at Albemarle County (VA) Schools have added notable innovations, including creating forms and guidelines that explicitly tie the team process to Section 504 and Special Education referrals. || Report Broken Link
Student Assistance Teams (New Mexico Public Education Department) . Schools who want a comprehensive model for team problem-solving should investigate these SAT materials. There is a great illustration of the 3-Tier intervention model (with the SAT located in Tier II). Another strength of this manual is the section containing intervention ideas. And the forms are well-formatted and easy to use. || Report Broken Link
Student Support Teams (D.C. Public Schools) . Sponsored by the District of Columbia State Improvement Grant, this site contains resources for running a Student Support Team (SST). The site includes an attractively formatted, comprehensive training manual and an archive of all forms needed for the SST process. || Report Broken Link

3. RTI: Select the Right Intervention
The key objective in RTI is to select an instructional or behavior-management strategy that matches a student’s specific needs. Students with serious academic skill deficits, for example, require very different intervention strategies than those who lack motivation or are simply too disorganized to turn in assignments. Student intervention strategies should be scientifically based and feasible to carry out with the resources available to the teaching staff.
Cognitive Strategy Instruction . This website presents a series of interventions in which students are taught thinking strategies that they can use to perform better in reading, mathematics, writing, studying, and other areas. The site was created by Dr. Bob Reid and Torri Lienemann at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. || Report Broken Link
Discipline Help . Sponsored by The Master Teacher, Discipline Help describes itself as "a reference for handling over 117 misbehaviors at school and home." Student problem behaviors are categorized by profile (e.g., "The Fighter", "The Disrupter"). Each behavior description has explanations for why the behavior might be occuring and ideas for how the teacher or parent can effectively respond. || Report Broken Link
Dr. Mac's Amazing Site . 'Dr. Mac's Amazing Behavior Management Advice Site' serves up research-based behavior management strategies with a healthy dose of humor. But don't be fooled. The site's creator, Dr. Tom McIntyre, knows what he is talking about! He is a professor of special education at Hunter College of the City University of New York and a former public-school teacher. || Report Broken Link
Ideas to Boost Basic Academic Skills . This site, ‘Scientifically Based Research’, contains interventions that target reading, math, and writing. The strategies were written by Dr. Amanda VanDerHeyden of the University of Southern California at Santa Barbara and Dr. Joe Witt of Louisiana State University. || Report Broken Link
Intervention Central . Find lots of academic and behavioral strategies to choose from at Intervention Central. Browse through this site's many classroom management and instructional ideas that are drawn from current research on effective interventions || Report Broken Link
Least Restrictive Behavioral Interventions . The Utah State Office of Education has put online its series of 'Least Restrictive Behavioral Interventions'. The page contains a very useful collection of 'preliminary strategies' that represent good classroom management and can reduce the likelihood that misbehavior will occur. If students do misbehave, the site also provides two collections of intervention ideas: 'Positive Intervention Strategies' and 'Mildly Intrusive Contingent Procedures'. The expectation is that educators will first try positive interventions and only use the more intrusive techniques if misbehaviors are chronic or more serious. || Report Broken Link
Reading Interventions for K-1 . Created by the Florida Center for Reading Research, this site contains short, research-based student reading activities suitable for grades K-1. The activities cover phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. || Report Broken Link
Reading Strategies: A-Z . Visit the site 'Reading Rockets' to discover many articles with intervention and instructional ideas to help struggling readers. Reading Rockets is supported by WETA, the Washington, D.C. public television and radio station and is funded by a major grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. || Report Broken Link
Reading, Math, & Writing Interventions from MSU . Find pages featuring intervention ideas to improve reading comprehension, writing, and math skills on this site. It is sponsored by the School Psychology Program at Michigan State University. || Report Broken Link
4. RTI: Monitor Student Progress
When educators measure student progress frequently during an intervention, they can know within a few short weeks whether that intervention is successful. Methods appropriate for RTI progress-monitoring must be valid and reliable, of course, but should also be sensitive to short-term student gains. Learn more about progress-monitoring by visiting these on-line sites:
Behavior Report Cards: Create On-Line . Daily Behavior Report Cards (DBRCs) are an excellent method for collecting ongoing teacher ratings of students' behavior, work habits, and work completion. This site--The Behavior Reporter--allows you to create customized DBRCs in daily or weekly format, as well as ready-to-use progress-monitoring charts. || Report Broken Link
CBM: Comprehensive Resource Listing . Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) is the gold standard for measuring academic progress through RTI. This page, 'CBM Warehouse', has 'a world of CBM resources under one roof.' Here you will find directions and training materials for administering CBM in reading, math, and writing--as well as collections of CBM monitoring probes, links to other CBM websites, and more. || Report Broken Link
CBM: DIBELS Home Page . The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a widely used set of standardized, individual measures of pre-reading and early reading skills. This site allows you to download all of the DIBELS testing materials for free, and find instructions on administering and scoring the measures. || Report Broken Link
CBM: Math Worksheet Generator . The Math Worksheet Generator is an on-line application that allows you to create an endless series of Curriculum-Based Measurement math computation worksheets for the basic math operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. || Report Broken Link
Data-Based Behavioral Decision Making Tools . Look under the heading "Data-Based Decision Making" on this page for a wealth of tools for assessing student behaviors through event recording, momentary, partial- and whole-interval time-sampling, assessment of permanent [work] products, and more. These resources were developed by Special Connections, a project funded through the federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and coordinated through the University of Kansas. || Report Broken Link
National Center on Student Progress Monitoring . The National Center on Student Progress Monitoring is dedicated to the implementation of scientifically-based student progress monitoring for grades K-5. The Center works to provide technical assistance to states and districts and disseminate information about student progress monitoring practices proven to work in different academic content areas. The National Center on Student Progress Monitoring is a technical assistance and dissemination center funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. || Report Broken Link
5. RTI: Graph Data for Visual Analysis
Charts and graphs are essential RTI tools for transforming progress-monitoring data into visual displays. These displays show clearly whether an intervention plan is actually working. Time-series graphs in particular are widely used, as a positive trend-line demonstrates when the student is responding well to intervention.
Excel Graphs Made Easy . Download several Excel spreadsheets that have been pre-formatted to allow you to enter data and to create time-series graphs for common academic measures (CBM, DIBELS) and behavioral measures (time on task, frequency, BOSS). These spreadsheets were designed by Dr. Jim McDougal and student colleagues Karrie Clark and Jacklyn Wilson from SUNY College at Oswego. || Report Broken Link
Generate Time-Series Graphs On-Line . Enter your student data into the on-line application ChartDog to create time-series graphs that you can print and share with teachers, parents, administrators, and students. ChartDog allows you to mark phase changes that indicate changes to interventions, to plot trendlines, to save your data for future updates, and more. || Report Broken Link
Paper Charts . Do you prefer to chart your data by hand? You can find a large collection of blank time-series charts at CBM Warehouse that you can download and print immediately. || Report Broken Link
RTI 'BONUS' SITE: School-Home Behavior Report Card Worksheet. Designed for teachers, this 10-page worksheet gives instructions for creating a behavioral report card to be shared between school and home. A school-home report card can be an effective intervention, especially for children with ADHD, as it links parents and the classroom teacher to help the student to be more successful. The worksheet was created by the 'Comprehensive Treatment for ADD' organization (Dr. William Pelham and colleagues). ||Report Broken Link

The circus images used in the design of this page are provided courtesy of http://www.ilicon.com . You can view them on this page.