RTI: A Capitol Idea

The timing was ripe earlier this summer when Lehigh's Ed Shapiro visited Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to talk with Senate staffers about methods of identifying and helping young children who have difficulties learning math and reading. 

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was just about ready to announce the second-round finalists for Race to the top funds, a pool of more then $3 billion put aside to promote innovation and reform in K-12 schools.

Shapiro, professor of school psychology and director of the College of Education’s Center for Promoting Research to Practice, had been invited to town to discuss one such educational innovation - Response to Intervention (RtI).

His visit, and those of other researchers, was sponsored by the Response to Intervention Action Network of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

RtI was endorsed as a new option for assessing learning disabilities in children as young as kindergarten age in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act passed by Congress in 2004. Since then, Shapiro had received a competitive grant in 2008 from the U.S. Department of Education to launch a national training program in RtI for school psychologists.

“RtI has really taken hold in all corners of the country as a proven method of assessment, early intervention and prevention of the development of learning and behavior problems” says Shapiro.

“RtI is mainly about matching instruction with student needs at all levels, without labeling children.”

According to RtI Adoption Survey 2010, 87 percent of K-12 school administrators surveyed say RtI has reduced the number of special education referrals, while more than 75 percent report gains in adequate yearly progress. “RtI is a national movement that has really come into its own in the past few years, and any legislation coming from Washington, D.C., needs to reflect that,” says Shapiro.