Even with a good guide such as IES has put together, "the most motivated educators will still run up against challenges," Whitmire explained. Indeed the RTI model certainly was given a boost in credibility in 2004 when Congress reauthorized the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; the act states that RTI can be used as part of a process for "diagnosing students with specific learning disabilities" (Samuels). A recent scholarly article in the Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin (Linder, 2009) reviews a new book by R.L. Allington that suggests that RTI is among the "major issues currently facing American educators." Allington's book offers a lot of information on the best strategies for helping students with reading problems, including making sure interventions such as RTI include large amounts of time "spent with authentic reading rather than other types of activities" (Linder). Allington believes in RTI, Linder notes, but Allington believes that "trained professionals" who are using "research-based reading practices" should be used with students who struggle with reading, and not "commercially-produced, packaged programs" for RTI.

An article in the journal Education and Treatment of Children (Harris-Murri, et al. 2006) sets out to promote RTI as an appropriate approach for "reducing disproportionate minority representation in Special Education Programs for Students with Emotional Disturbances." Harris-Murri and colleagues accept that the RTI model was originally intended for use in determining IDEA eligibility; but research that Harris-Murri reference demonstrates that one of the problems that now need to be addressed is that there is a disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse students special education.

What the authors suggest should happen now is a more culturally responsive RTI should be developed in order to balance out the apparent "disproportionate minority representation in the IDEA eligibility category of Emotional Disturbance" (Harris-Murri 781). "A response-to-intervention model necessitates using decision making methods that use graduated increases or decreased in intensity to demonstrate the initial and ongoing need for special services" -- (according to Barnett, Daly, Jones & Lentz, 2004). And...

But these are standardized expectations that schools use, the article continues, and without consideration of culturally responsive "instruction discipline," and interventions "within all stages of the RTI decision-making model," there is always the possibility of misinterpretation of a student's emotional well-being and student behavior. Hence, the point of the article is that while RTI serves a solid educational purpose, there need to be adjustments to account for cultural differences within the community of students who struggle with reading.
In conclusion, it is apparent to the alert researcher that RTI is the correct tool to use in evaluating the competencies when it comes to reading skills in students. For teachers and parents, finding out early that a child has literacy issues is pivotal to the child's development as a complete, educated individual. And what is extremely important vis-a-vis RTI is making sure that the child's problem is truly a reading problem, and not a result of cultural differences.

Works Cited

Education / Evolving. "Response to Intervention: An alternative to traditional eligibility

Criteria for students with disabilities." Center for Policy Studies and Hamline

University. (2005): 1-8.

Harris-Murri, Nancy, King, Kathleen, and Rostenberg, Dalia. "Reducing

Disproportionate Minority Representation in Special Education Programs for Students

With Emotional Disturbances: Toward a Culturally Responsive Response to Intervention Model. Education and Treatment of Children. 29.4 (2006): 779-799.

Linder, Roberta. "What Really Matters in Response to Intervention: Research-Based

Designs." The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin. (2009): 41-42.

National Center for Learning Disabilities. "A Parent's Guide to Response-to-

Intervention." Retrieved April 26, 2009, from http://www.LD.org.

Samuels, Christina A. "What Works' Guide Gives RTI Thumbs Up on Reading."

Education Week, 28.23 (2009): p. 7.