The Role of RTI in LD Identification

An RTI Action Network National Online Forum

Moderated byDoris McMillon

Featuring

Dr. Don DeshlerGene A. Budig Professor of Special Education at the University of Kansas

Dr. Jack FletcherDistinguished University Professor of Psychology at the University of Houston

Dr. Rick WagnerAlfred Binet Professor of Psychology at Florida State University

Associate Director of the Florida Center for Reading Research

How have learning disabilities (LD) traditionally been identified?

• LD is often difficult to define and measure.

• Traditionally, LD has been defined through exclusions – accepting or eliminating factors for low-achievement and then presuming remaining difficulties must be LD. This method is unsatisfactory.

• For the past 30 years, the prominent idea has been unexpected underachievement, or the discrepancy between IQ and achievement. Research shows that this is pretty weak in terms of its relevance for identification.

How have learning disabilities (LD) traditionally been identified? (cont.)

• Learning disabilities manifest over the lifespan of an individual. Even though a difficulty has gone underneath the radar screen early on, it may manifest itself later.

• Clear problems with the traditional approach:– It is called a “wait to fail” approach in the sense that children aren’t

identified soon enough.– Referral bias: There is a ratio of boys to girls of 4:1 in special education

classrooms, but research shows that the actual ratio is about 1:1. Nearly as many girls are struggling with reading problems as boys.

How does RTI change things?

• The focus moves to how a child learns.

• It provides valuable information.– It tells us what changes should be made to improve instructional

outcomes.

• Rather than looking at labels, emphasis shifts to what can be done on a day-to-day basis to ensure children’s academic growth.

How does RTI change things? (cont.)

• Although new, it seems RTI can potentially help solve some problems, including “wait to fail” and gender bias, because it tracks the progress of all children from the start.

• When it’s done well, it keeps track of all students. Kids who are falling behind can get some help early on.

Are there good examples of identification practices from RTI models?

• Iowa and Long Beach Unified Schools are examples of successful large-scale implementations.

• Vail, Colorado is an example of a smaller scale RTI project.

• A characteristic of successful RTI:– Referrals to special education go down, and achievement levels for all

students go up. – RTI enhances outcomes for all students, not just students with

disabilities.

Are there good examples of identification practices from RTI models? (cont.)

• Identification of LD is a by-product of an RTI system. RTI, per se, does not diagnose learning disabilities.

• With RTI, there is a conceptual shift from the historical idea of unexpected underachievement to the idea that LD is a persistent inability to master an academic skill.

• With RTI’s base of high-quality instruction and ongoing assessment, it’s much easier to zone in on those children who are not responding as hoped.

Will RTI be a way for schools to delay a special education evaluation?

• No, that should not be the case.

• Ideally, how well a child responds to instruction is part of the evaluation for special education services.

• Realistically, it isn’t clear that RTI will help a lot with very early identification.– This is because evaluation depends on a child having high-quality

reading instruction first.

How will RTI impact over-identification?

• The high-quality instruction that RTI insists on gives educators the means to deal with children’s achievement challenges. In the past, the teacher might have referred those students for special education services.

• With a base of solid instruction, there are many instances where referral numbers go down.

How will RTI impact over-identification? (cont.)

• A referral model still operates in RTI. The legislation that governs RTI indicates that evaluation and referral must be available to students.

• IDEA 2004 is clear that RTI should promote flexibility in referral practices and types of evaluations. It tries to move special education away from mandates and one-size-fits-all evaluations.

What exactly does IDEA say about RTI?

• RTI is not mandated at a federal level – a little known fact.

• State must write rules for an RTI model.

• Districts have some choice in terms of the type of identification model that they actually implement, tempered by state rules.

How can districts implement new recommendations?

• To start an RTI model, there must first be a dialogue: – Up and down different levels of the school district hierarchy: central

office administrators, teachers, principals, etc.

• What are the options for identification models? Adopt an RTI model. Continue with an IQ discrepancy model. Adopt some sort of alternative research-based model. Consider the impact on state and local rules of your model choice.

How can districts implement new recommendations? (cont.)

• Dialogue doesn’t lend itself to quick solutions, so it’s almost counterintuitive. But the time invested is well spent.

If a school isn’t doing RTI, how should it assess the quality of instruction?

• At the heart must be the notion of high-quality instruction.

• Fidelity of implementation of instruction is also vitally important.

• Good instruction and being responsive to children’s needs goes well beyond RTI.

If a school isn’t doing RTI, how should it assess the quality of instruction? (cont.)

• IDEA 2004 says that a child cannot be identified with a learning disability if his or her low achievement is the result of inadequate instruction in reading or math or limited English proficiency.– There must be data on the quality of instruction and on the child’s

response to that instruction.– The data have to be provided to the parent.– This applies to any identification used. So even if a district chooses to

continue an IQ/achievement discrepancy model, they still have to have data on the quality of instruction and data on the child’s instructional response prior to qualifying that child as having LD.

What test scores should be used to make special education eligibility determinations?

• RTI can be one component in forming our understanding of how a student is performing, by providing an ongoing record of a student’s achievement or lack thereof.

• The determination to provide special education services must be made using multiple measures.

• We must call on a broad array of measures, including and beyond RTI, to make decisions.

Why assess cognitive processes? How would it inform intervention planning?

• If a student does not respond to instruction over time, there is a need to move beyond the skill-based measures.

• Cognitive processes assessment allows deeper understanding of the student’s unique profile as a learner. This can help refine decisions about good intervention.

• Assessments of cognitive processes that specifically involve reading and writing, math, and other areas of achievement are very useful.

Why assess cognitive processes? How would it inform intervention planning? (cont.)

• Controversy arises from cognitive process assessments that try to gauge memory, learning styles, or things of that sort. They haven’t been shown to be tightly linked with intervention outcomes.

• A multi-hour battery of tests looking at short-term memory, processing speed, simultaneous processing, etc., is not tightly linked to intervention outcomes.

• Multiple sources of information and flexibility are best.

Why assess cognitive processes? How would it inform intervention planning? (cont.)

• We clearly need to assess things other than reading and writing, even though improved reading and writing are the goal. The assessments must be directly related to reading and writing. – There are good measures of phonological processing (an important

component of learning to read and write) in preschool children. So children likely to have a weakness in this area can be identified even before they’ve been taught to read by assessing something that’s not reading, but will be relevant to their ability to learn to read.

– Another example is assessing vocabulary. If a child is struggling with reading comprehension, it’s really important to know if it is a vocabulary issue or an English language learner (ELL) issue or something else.

Why assess cognitive processes? How would it inform intervention planning? (cont.)

• Time for instruction is limited. There’s no time to waste teaching students underlying processes that are not related directly to giving them the kinds of skills and strategies they need to respond to the demands of the curriculum.

When should parents be informed that their child is receiving supplemental instruction or intervention within an RTI framework?

• Ideally, parents should be involved in all aspects of their child’s education.

• The best RTI schools:– take specific steps to create ongoing conversations and dialogues with

parents.– provide parents with mechanisms that they can use to engage with

schools on an ongoing basis.

When should parents be informed that their child is receiving supplemental instruction or intervention within an RTI framework? (cont.)

• No one cares more for a child than his or her parents.

• Anytime supplemental education is being offered or a change is being provided in a child’s educational program, parents will want to know and should be informed.

What sort of information should schools be providing to parents when an intervention is initiated?

• Inform parents at the outset. In a full RTI model, every child is basically in an ongoing surveillance system: – universal screening– identify students at risk – monitor progress– make decisions based on data

What sort of information should schools be providing to parents when an intervention is initiated? (cont.)

• Parents should also:– receive additional information if and when their child has been identified

as having risk characteristics.– be provided with examples of the data and how to interpret it.– be informed if the nature of the intervention changes because the

progress monitoring data indicate that the child needs a more intensive intervention (more time on task, etc.).

– be actively involved in the process. There’s a complementary aspect to the kinds of knowledge that parents and educators bring to the table.

– be aware of the things that are being emphasized in instruction so they can carry those activities into home activities as well.

What sort of information should schools be providing to parents when an intervention is initiated? (cont.)

• If a child continues not to respond to different sorts of increasingly intense interventions in the RTI surveillance system, the child may need a referral to special education to take advantage of the power and flexibility of IDEA.

• The child may need an intervention that can’t only be provided in the context of the RTI model. Parents must be a part of this process.

Will RTI delay parents’ ability to request an evaluation for their child?

• This is a source of confusion for a lot of people.

• Basically, the referral process can operate independently of the RTI model. A child can be referred for an evaluation at any time in the RTI process.

• A school’s policies (e.g., requiring some sort of observation or pre-referral intervention) would still be in play.

Will RTI delay parents’ ability to request an evaluation for their child? (cont.)

• IDEA 2004 promotes flexibility, which is important. For example:– A child with a reading problem has a speech impediment of some sort.

The child ought to be referred for a speech and language evaluation.– A child has a reading problem that is contributing to a behavioral

problem, and the child is having a lot of trouble controlling him or herself in the classroom. The child may need a behavior plan or referral into special education to get the due process protections that are built into IDEA.

What can parents do to encourage their district to adopt RTI?

• The first step is information. A very rich set of information is available at the RTI Action Network website.– www.rtinetwork.org

• Parents can arm themselves with key pieces of information so they are conversant with RTI and what other schools are doing.

What can parents do to encourage their district to adopt RTI? (cont.)

• Make allies – some of the best are people from your school: your child’s teachers, the principal, etc.

• Start at the school level and then, together with allies, move onto the district level to make the case for RTI’s advantages.

How does RTI affect IEPs?

• If the child has an individualized education plan (IEP), IDEA says that no changes can be made without convening the interdisciplinary team. So, technically, interventions should not change just because a school implements an RTI model.

• Sometimes when people bring in RTI models, they bring in new interventions. It may be desirable for the child to participate in a new type of intervention, in which case the IEP would be rewritten in order to do that.

How does RTI affect IEPs? (cont.)

• RTI can help enrich interdisciplinary team meetings by providing new data and information.

• RTI requires ongoing feedback, which is often a benefit to children receiving special education services. Too often there’s very little monitoring of progress, e.g., only yearly when the IEP is rewritten or every three years when eligibility evaluation is revisited.

• Frequent monitoring of progress is key for effective instruction of students with disabilities.

What are the general principles that guide the interventions for students with LD?

• More time and more repetitions are key.

• Increasing intensity is about the best thing to do to help students.

• Greater intensity and more time on task will really help children who just can’t keep up under the normal circumstances.

What are the general principles that guide the interventions for students with LD? (cont.)

• Ongoing progress monitoring is also important – if we’re repeating something, we want to make certain that it is working.

• When giving students practice on particular skills, continually check that the skills tie back to and link to the regular curriculum.

What do you do when a child doesn’t respond to interventions provided at the most intensive level under RTI?

• It is vital to know what that “most intensive level of RTI” entailed. Parents and educators need to know what’s been tried in order to figure out what strategies remain.

• Children (two or three percent) that really don’t respond to instruction definitely need specialized instruction.

• An important upside to RTI is targeting limited resources to those kids.

What do you do when a child doesn’t respond to interventions provided at the most intensive level under RTI? (cont.)

• Under the old paradigm, the only way teachers could get help for struggling students was to refer them to special education. Soon, special education services became overloaded.

• There is some evidence of reduced referral rates with RTI models.

• Currently some six percent of U.S. students are in special education. Most of those are there because of a high-incidence learning disability that causes lowered academic achievement.

What do you do when a child doesn’t respond to interventions provided at the most intensive level under RTI? (cont.)

• With high-quality instruction, the number of kids who have achievement problems goes down. The children left are a much smaller percentage and can really benefit from a less-crowded special education system.

Are there reasons to refer a child to special education before RTI steps are completed?

• Yes. You could identify a problem in a child that might warrant an intervention not directly addressed in the RTI process, e.g.:– speech and language evaluation– occupational therapy– due process issues for children with behavior or discipline problems

How do you know when a child has made significant progress?

• Regular progress monitoring:– What is the student’s current level of performance?– Is he or she making progress?

• As RTI goes on, schools are developing “local norms.”– How are students within their school performing?– Local norms allow comparisons among peers.

How do you know when a child has made significant progress? (cont.)

• Critical benchmarks need to be laid out very clearly in the surveillance system. Parents and teachers need to be aware of what these benchmarks are.

• In addition to local norms, national norms should be considered as well.

• National norms can help indicate if a child’s rate of growth is too slow.

Why isn’t RTI alone sufficient to diagnose LD?

• LD is a very complex condition. One measure alone, or one set of measures, is not sufficient to make a determination.

• The law requires multiple measures and an interdisciplinary team to weigh the evidence to make certain an informed decision is being made for placement.

Why isn’t RTI alone sufficient to diagnose LD? (cont.)

• RTI is not a method of identification in and of itself; it is a framework of delivering services to students.

• RTI defines the rules by which all instruction is going to take place and how we’re going to judge the instruction.

What is the hybrid model for identifying LD?

• The hybrid model is a three-step process based on recommendations that were made by a group of researchers after the 2002 OSEP Learning Disability Summit.

• First step…assess instructional response (often via progress monitoring).– You can’t say a child has a learning disability unless it has been

demonstrated that their instructional program has been adequate.– Need to ask:

Is there a disability? What is the nature of the disability?

What is the hybrid model for identifying LD? (cont.)

• Second step … establish low achievement.– Often via norm-referenced assessments of achievement– Validation of progress-monitoring measures

What is the hybrid model for identifying LD? (cont.)

• The third step… evaluate for disability and contextual factors that might impact achievement.– Make sure that there’s not another disability that explains low

achievement.– Exclude other contextual factors for low achievement (behavior, limited

English proficiency, etc.).– Some kids may have both behavioral and academic problems.– Some kids may have mental retardation or autism.– The RTI surveillance system should give observers clues about the

kinds of assessment to undertake.

What is the hybrid model for identifying LD? (cont.)

• Difference in RTI model: assessments are made in order to plan instruction. So assessments are chosen based on what you know about the child. In many instances, this means the evaluation process is shortened and simplified.

• Assessing instructional response is a formal way of assessing “opportunity to learn.”

• Becomes an inclusionary model

How are the data collected during RTI incorporated in a comprehensive evaluation? How much data should we be collecting?

• The data that come through RTI are rich data on how a student is responding to instruction and adjustments in instruction.

• These data about how a student is performing as a learner are very useful in a comprehensive evaluation.

• Many schools feel like they’re drowning in data. Be judicious in terms of data collected.

How are the data collected during RTI incorporated in a comprehensive evaluation? How much data should we be collecting? (cont.)

• Make certain that support mechanisms are in place to help teachers manage the data and use it in wise ways.

• A well-designed RTI program really yields very useful information, and there’s not a lot of excess.

• Schools must provide mechanisms to use data:– They need to establish a good way to store data, to return to it in an

efficient way and make effective use of it.

What are the primary elements that you need for solid identification?

• Even in a non-school setting, identifying school problems – by looking at response to instruction – is key.

• In a clinical setting, assessments often include:– a norm-referenced achievement test– a screen for behavior or emotional problems– assessments for other disabilities or factors as needed

• Each child is unique, so no child will get the same battery of tests.

What are the primary elements that you need for solid identification? (cont.)

• You can’t diagnose somebody with a learning disability unless you can demonstrate that they have poor instructional response, meaning low achievement in reading, writing, and/or arithmetic. Then you have to demonstrate that it’s not due to limited English proficiency, another disability, problems at home, or other factors of that sort.

• A big change in identification protocol means reliance on school-based data rather than a battery of psychological tests.

If a student must fall two grade levels behind to qualify for an IEP, will RTI help?

• The problem with special education is the use of formula-based decision making.– Children in special education are individuals.– If a school has a rule such as the student must be two grade levels

behind to qualify for an IEP, it’s not consistent with IDEA.

• RTI could help because such rules would not be relevant in an RTI model.– Lack of progress is relevant.

What would best practices in LD evaluation look like with RTI?

• Progress monitoring data to assess instructional response

• Selected norm-referenced tests– for multiple criteria

• Hypotheses-based evaluation of contextual factors and other disabilities

Are there training programs to help all involved professionals to work together?

• There’s a delay in preparing professionals for the move to RTI.

• Professionals are not only learning new skills but also taking on some new roles.

How does curriculum-based monitoring take place within the RTI process?

• Elementary schools need progress monitoring assessments more frequent than once every three months and more frequent than just the screening assessments.

• Minimum for an at-risk student should be once a month.

• As intensity of intervention increases, so should frequency of progress-monitoring assessments.

Why are most school systems still using basal series?

• The newer basal programs usually incorporate explicit phonics components or active intentional instruction on the part of the teacher.

If data show a below average IQ, when would a student be labeled LD in the RTI process?

• The only way to know that somebody is a slow learner is to put them in an intervention and measure their response.

• There are major problems with the use of IQ tests as aptitude indicators.– IQ is not a good predictor of prognosis, intervention response, etc.

• Consider various capacities of children so we are not under-educating or setting expectations too low.

What should parents do if they suspect that RTI is delaying specialized services?

• Request an evaluation.

• Talk with the principal and other school professionals about their operation of RTI.

What should the amount of state-level guidance be in LD identification?

• A focus on outcomes is most important.

• Worry less about the process and how things are done so long as there’s data on how well things are working.

How does the role of the school psychologist change?

• There is a real opportunity for the school psychologist to lead RTI in school.

• The school psychologist should:– learn important new skills– help lead the school’s RTI effort

What do you do if RTI means that a student doesn’t have the IQ documentation necessary in order to receive ACT or SAT accommodations?

• It’s challenging to get the documentation you need to meet the criteria that are being laid out by the ACT or SAT requirements.

• Go in with the criteria and request the evaluation.

• It is ultimately the school’s decision if they proceed with the evaluation request.

What will RTI look like at the secondary level?

• Same principles described for elementary grades are operable.– Tiered system that has varying levels of intensity of instruction.– Provided instruction is integrated and coordinated.

• To reduce fragmentation, secondary schools need to attempt integration and to revisit the issue of what the respective roles of teachers should be within the RTI setting.

• All teachers have responsibility to ensure student success in reading within the curriculum.

What is the difference between special education services and RTI Tier 3?

• Interventions in special education extend beyond what is typically provided in a general education framework.

• We need to give attention to what uniquely defines instruction at each tier.– This gives us clear criteria for moving students into and out of a tier.

What is the difference between special education services and RTI Tier 3? (cont.)

• An effective RTI system needs integrity at each of the tiers within the system.

• Main problem is that we know:– a lot more about what Tier 1 should look like– a little about what Tier 2 should look like

• What Tier 3 should look like is an open question.

Is a parent’s comprehensive evaluation request in conflict with RTI?

• RTI data should naturally be part of a comprehensive evaluation system.– If you’re in an RTI network, the data exist in terms of instructional

response.

• This has been a problem in a traditional referral model because there is no record of response to instruction.

What core RTI components need to be in place for eligibility determinations?

• There’s a lot we still don’t know about RTI.– Learning by doing

• We have an evidence base that supports different components to different degrees of RTI, and the issue is scaling up. – Scaling up: how to implement RTI across every classroom in a district– How do we scale up and implement it?

• Until we have legislation that allows it, it won’t get scaled up.

Is a twelve-week requirement of RTI as comprehensive evaluation a delay of services?

• The most effective RTI programs:– understand the importance of flexibility– are responsive to the needs of the child, school, and district so that the

program makes sense

• Within an RTI Model, the student is receiving the intervention.– Why interrupt the intervention and take the child out for testing when it

may not be useful?

What is the difference in interventions for an LD child versus a child needing extra help?

• Effective intervention programs:– are more intense– have a higher chance to deliver the material successfully

• Intervention programs have not been designed specifically for Tier 3.

• We need to give more attention to Tier 3 as a field.

What is the difference in interventions for an LD child versus a child needing extra help? (cont.)

• There are not programs specifically designed for an identified student. It is how:– we design and orchestrate instruction– we take what was used at Tiers 1 and 2– that gets reframed, structured, and modified because of the unique

needs of children at Tier 3.

Dr. Wagner’s final thoughts

• RTI rolled out without us knowing some important things about it.

• There is an important role for research.

• We need to learn by doing.

Dr. Fletcher’s final thoughts

• RTI models are about all students and enhancing outcomes.

• The key to identification is being able to identify kids who are not making progress in a well-functioning educational system.

Dr. Deshler’s final thoughts

• We have the greatest opportunity now to make significant gains for all children, including those with LD.

For more information about how you can help struggling learners, please visit the RTI Action Network online at:

www.rtinetwork.org