Responsiveness-to-Intervention Symposium

December 4-5, 2003 * Kansas City, Missouri

The National Research Center on Learning Disabilities sponsored this two-day symposium focusing on responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) issues. The speakers, discussants, and participants assembled represented the wide diversity of individuals with a vested interest in LD determination issues. Advocates, instructional staff, researchers, and state-level education officials brought their collective and considerable expertise to the discussions.

Rollanda E. O'Connor of the University of Pittsburgh prepared this invited paper for the symposium. For links to other papers and materials, visit the main Symposium 2003 page.


Tiers of Intervention in Kindergarten through Third Grade

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Abstract

The goal of this study was to describe and measure the effects of continuous, as-needed intervention in reading for 92 children in Grades K-3 to determine whether the severity of reading disability (RD) could be significantly reduced in the catchment schools. Tier 1 consisted of professional development for teachers of reading that focused on findings from the National Reading Panel Report of the Subgroups (2000). Additional instruction was provided as early as kindergarten for children whose achievement fell below average. Tier 2 intervention consisted of small group reading instruction 3 times per week, and Tier 3 was daily instruction delivered individually or in groups of 2. Participating second and third grade teachers formed their own control, because their children were measured in the first and second years of the study, before their grade was included, and also in the following year, when their children were full participants in the treatment. A comparison of the reading achievement of third grade children showed significant differences favoring children in the treated years in decoding, word identification, fluency, and reading comprehension.

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The symposium was made possible by the support of the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs. Renee Bradley, Project Officer. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the U.S. Department of Education.