Amber E.

Glivens
RTI Summary
EDSP 5311: Diagnostic and Prescriptive Teaching for Exceptional Children
Dr. Diane Reed
Fall 2015

RTI in the Fort Bend Independent School District I defined as an organizational

system with increasing layers of intensity. It is about identifying a skill deficit and
intervening with a specified plan for the student using district approved resources.
RTI team roles involve: the classroom teacher, who provides tiered instruction,
conducts assessment, and collects data; the reading and math specialists who
provide tier 3 instruction and collects data; the counselor who collects behavior
data, and tiered interventions for behavior RTI; and the Campus Compliance
Coordinator (CCC) who oversees that the assessment, data collection, and
interventions are being provided correctly.
The students needs are based on scores from DRA2, PAPI, common formal
assessments, STAAR scores, and district benchmarks. The scores are documented
on a spreadsheet along with the tier that each student is in for academic or
behavior. If a student needs to be referred for RTI, then a Student Referral form
needs to be filled out, reporting their progress. If the need is academics, then there
is an RTI Documentation form for each core area: reading literacy, basic reading,
math, and written language. Each student has a student progress monitoring form
to record tiered interventions and progress. Tier 1 and 2 instruction is monitored for
12-18 weeks in academics while tier 3 instruction lasts for 6 to 9 weeks. In the area
of behavior, each tier is monitored for 6 to 9 weeks.
My personal review of the RTI process has both strengths and weaknesses. I
believe the revised criteria to move up to the next tier is a weakness. The criteria
has made the intensity of instruction harder to provide children with gaps. The
amount of time to monitor can also be a weakness for some students because if it is
a wide gap or deficit, it will take a longer time to intensify instruction.

The amount of time provided to monitor can also be a strength because it can
take time to develop good documentation that can lead to the right interventions
for success. Another strength of RTI is the data driven results for intervention. All
instruction should be data-driven. It provides areas to focus on during instruction,
and what areas should be addressed in a content area. Lastly RTI prevents an
overrepresentation of subgroups in 504 and special education. Instead of referral
for special education testing, RTI fills in gaps and refers students that arent making
progress with the interventions being provided.