Press Releases

For Immediate Release: 8 December 2009

Study Finds Support for Response to Intervention in New England and New York

Boston, Mass. — A new REL Northeast and Islands Issues & Answers Report published by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) finds that the six New England states and New York support Response to Intervention (RTI) as an overall school instructional improvement approach or as an approach to determining special-education eligibility at the local level. The report also finds that documents collected from the states’ education agency websites address the eight core features of RTI as defined by the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities.

“Features of State Response to Intervention Initiatives in Northeast and Islands Region States” was produced by the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) in response to requests from state officials for information on RTI policy across the Northeast and Islands Region. The report includes narrative descriptions of the seven states’ approaches to RTI.

RTI is a data-based approach to instruction, assessment, and intervention that enables early identification of students who are experiencing academic or behavioral difficulties. RTI was introduced into federal policy through the reauthorization of the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as a means of early identification of students with specific learning disabilities. RTI is increasingly promoted as an overall approach to school improvement.

“States are required to permit the use of RTI in special-education determination and research has shown that RTI has the potential to improve instruction for all students, thus state education leaders are eager to know as much as they can about RTI policies and implementation to inform their own policies and practices,” said study co-directors Natalie Lacireno-Paquet and Kristin Reedy.

Between July and September 2008, REL-NEI researchers systematically reviewed publicly available RTI-related documents on state education agency (SEA) websites in REL-NEI’s nine jurisdictions: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and U.S. Virgin Islands. Researchers found no documents addressing RTI on the Puerto Rico or Virgin Islands SEA websites, but this is not evidence that these two jurisdictions do not permit the use of RTI in the special-education eligibility determination process.

Of the seven states found to have publicly available documents that support RTI initiatives, all allow local districts to use RTI to determine students’ eligibility for special education. In addition, since July 2009 Connecticut has required use of RTI to determine eligibility under the specific learning disability category, and New York will do so by 2012.

Researchers also found that all seven states require or recommend a three-tiered model of intervention; five states require or recommend use of a readiness self-assessment or plan (Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont); and four have appropriated funds for RTI pilot or demonstration sites (New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont).

The study does not show how much RTI is used at the local level in the seven states, nor does it examine RTI effectiveness. Rather, the report is intended to inform some of the decisions state education officials might need to make as they consider whether to adopt an RTI approach.

For more information about this report, contact Ashley Gaddis: agaddis@edc.org.

The Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) is led by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) in partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and WestEd’s Learning Innovations program. REL-NEI is one of 10 Regional Educational Laboratories funded by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. REL-NEI provides rigorous research that is relevant to national education priorities, responsive to local needs, and usable for policy and practice. Visit www.relnei.org.

This project has been funded at least in part with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education under Contract Number ED-06-CO-0025. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) is a global nonprofit organization that develops, delivers, and evaluates innovative programs to address some of the world’s most urgent challenges in education, health, and economic development. Visit www.edc.org.