Response to Intervention: Impact on Special Education Referrals and Eligibility
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- March 20, 2019
- Creator
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Parnell, Melissa
- Affiliation: School of Education, School Psychology Graduate Program
- Abstract
- The Responsiveness to Instruction (RtI) model was originally intended as a means of data-driven intervention, not disability identification (Gersten & Dimino, 2006; Ikeda, 2012); however, under intense scrutiny and a realization that students’ needs were not being met, the federal government, in 2004, introduced the RtI model (IDEIA, 2004) as an alternate means for learning disabilities identification (Education Evolving, 2005). While research has been conducted regarding the essential components of the RtI model and the importance of implementation fidelity, limited research has examined the impact of the RtI model on the referral and identification of children suspected of having a disability. To that end, the present study compared the impact of the RtI model with that of a standard model on the proportion of children referred for special education, the number of children found eligible for special education, and the incidence of learning disabilities. Two school districts in the southeastern region of the United States provided extant data sets, and proportions were calculated for referrals to special education, eligibility for special education, and the incidence of learning disabilities. Results supported the hypothesized increase of referral proportions during the second year of RtI implementation with a leveling off during subsequent implementation years; however, results regarding overall reduction in referrals were inconclusive. Higher overall eligibility proportions were found when the RtI model was employed, but there was no difference in the proportion of students found eligible under the category of learning disability between schools implementing the RtI model and those using the standard model. These findings have implications for special education policy and practice, including resource conservation, earlier student intervention, and the conceptualization of disabilities identification and data collection.
- Date of publication
- May 2016
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Mason, Linda
- Knotek, Steven
- Evarrs, Sandra
- Simeonsson, Rune
- Mankowski, Jean
- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
- Graduation year
- 2016
- Language
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