intervention (RTI) like targeted individualized interventions and regular progress monitoring are occasionally missed due to the lack of fidelity to best practices and recommended guidelines based on evidence-based instructional strategies. As a future director of special education, I would ensure that RTI is responsive and responsible, first by developing standard procedures for progress monitoring. Research on specific learning disability shows that the tiered structure of RTI can be especially helpful but only when RTI is defined specifically because vagueness leads to inconsistent and unreliable results with children (Hauerwas, Brown & Scott, 2013). There is no "clear national definition of what specific RTI data a local multidisciplinary team must have in hand to make a determination of" specific learning disabilities (Hauerwas, Brown & Scott, 2013, p. 102). Stahl (2016) also found that schools "were implementing RTI on their own without the support of a research team or external funding," leading to the lack of fidelity to professional standards of competency (p. 659). Therefore, I would ideally like to work in the realm of public policy in education to help evolve federal standards for RTI that could help educators better implement research-based practice.Another important issue in increasing the use of effective progress monitoring and the use of research based instructional strategies by classroom teachers would be to mobilize both human and fiscal resources. As Stahl (2016) points out, schools need to be made more accountable for their resources allocation strategies. I would make sure my school not only followed the best practices evident in recent research on RTI and cognitive science but also to follow best practices for accountability and professional standards. Stahl (2016) recommends distinguishing differentiation from intervention, allocating resources according to student need, and tracking tier movement at the grade level, all of which are feasible interventions in any particular school.
References
Hauerwas, L.B., Brown, R. & Scott, A.N. (2013). Specific learning disability and response to intervention. Exceptional Children 80(1): 101-120.
Stahl, K.A.D. (2016)....
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