Response To Intervention (RTI)

Why should I do it:

RTI is an academic based intervention addressing primarily academics rather than behavior
Many kids act out and exhibit emotional and coping problems in school due to being behind academically and not understanding the work and concepts
RTI addresses these academic deficits that lead to acting out
Reduces behavior problems and increases coping skills
Improves grades and achievement
Boosts student confidence, work completion, and willingness to work
Improves student’s self concept
Increases student’s independent working and responsibility

When should I do it:

When student’s act out due to being unable to do the work
When it appears a student is avoiding work
When a student seems to act out or behave as the class clown in correlation to having to begin and work on academic tasks
When a student displays work refusal, withdraws from group and pairs work, and seems to make excuses for not doing academic tasks and it is known the student has low scores or low ability in the academic area or an area related to the ability to do the task

How do I do it:

In a nutshell, RTI is a 3 tiered system where each tier of intervention targets more specific academic deficits and more individual students, such that tier 1 interventions target a whole class, tier 2 small groups or pairs, and tier 3 individual students
The basic idea is:
- Determine the academic deficit areas
- Test these areas to get a baseline
- Implement an academic intervention targeting the specific academic deficit area
- Test the student again after delivering the intervention
- If there is progress, continue this intervention
- If there is not progress, try the intervention again or a different one and then test
- If you try the same intervention again and it does not work, try a different one and then test
- Continue this process until you find an intervention the student responds to

Resources & Support for technique: