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Shepherd/Linn, Behavior and Classroom Management in the Multicultural Classroom
Chapter 12
Response-to-Intervention
The Evolution of Response-to-Intervention
• Previously, children with learning disabilities were identified through the use of a
discrepancy model if there is a severe difference between the child’s potential and the
child’s achievement.
• Response-to-intervention (RTI) is a multitiered approach to the provision of interventions
and services at increasing levels of intensity for students with academic and behavior
problems.
• Response-to-intervention is an outgrowth of earlier prereferral intervention strategies in
which interventions were made in the general education classroom before students were
referred for special education services.
Components of RTI
• The major components of response-to-intervention include universal screening, early
intervention, problem solving with emphasis on continuous progress monitoring, and
increasingly intensive interventions at different levels.
• The three different levels or tiers of RTI provide interventions and services at progressive
levels of intensity for students with academic and behavioral problems. The three levels
are known as the primary, secondary, and tertiary tiers.
Primary Tier
o The primary tier involves all students and has three functions:
1. Culturally responsive teachers provide high-quality instruction and effective
classroom management within the general education classroom.
2. Universal screening is used to identify students who are at risk for academic,
behavioral, and social difficulties.
Shepherd/Linn, Behavior and Classroom Management in the Multicultural Classroom
Secondary Tier
o A student who does not show adequate progress at the primary tier is provided more
intensive intervention at the secondary tier. The secondary tier provides specific
o Along with smaller instructional groups, four additional strategies at the secondary
tier include:
2. More frequent instruction
4. Inclusion of educational personnel with greater expertise in specific areas.
o Teachers need to determine whether students’ inappropriate behaviors stem from skill
deficits or performance deficits when trying to decide on interventions. A student
who has a skill deficit does not have the ability to perform the appropriate behavior or
skill. A student who has a performance deficit has the ability to perform the
appropriate behavior or skill but chooses not to do so.
Tertiary Tier
o At the final level of response-to-intervention, the tertiary tier, students are provided
intensive, individualized interventions.
RTI and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
• Teachers need to determine whether students with academic and behavioral difficulties,
particularly culturally and linguistically diverse students, are receiving adequate
instruction in the general education classroom.
• Teachers need to understand that might believe that since assessments and instructional
practices are scientifically based, they are not effective for all students. Culturally and
Shepherd/Linn, Behavior and Classroom Management in the Multicultural Classroom
Concerns of RTI
• Little empirical research has been conducted on the efficacy of RTI.
• Teachers assume that instruction and interventions embedded in RTI programs are
evidenced based, but these instructions and interventions may not be effective for all
students and reduces RTI to a deficit-based model similar to the discrepancy model.
• RTI cannot differentiate specific learning disabilities from emotional and behavioral
disorders, intellectual disabilities, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or other
disabilities.
• The essential elements of a successful RTI program include:
1. A scientifically based method of screening a large number of students who are at risk
for academic, behavioral, and social difficulties
2. Teachers who have the knowledge and pedagogy to provide high-quality core
academic instruction and effective behavior and classroom management strategies
