Print this page

When Congress reauthorized IDEA, they changed the law about how children with specific learning disabilities will be identified.

IDEA 2004, Research Based Intervention & Response to Intervention (RTI)

“In determining whether a child has a specific learning disability, a local educational agency may use a process that determines if the child responds to scientific, research-based intervention…” (Section 1414(b)(6)(B)). (Wrightslaw: IDEA 2004, page 88)

Schools “shall not be required to take into consideration whether a child has a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skill, reading comprehension, mathematical calculation, or mathematical reasoning.” (Section 1414(b)) (Wrightslaw: IDEA 2004, page 88)

What IS Response to Intervention?

Response to Intervention (RTI) calls for giving each student the type and intensity of research based instruction necessary to teach the child to read, write and spell on grade level.

There are dozens models for RTI programs and most call for grouping children by ability and/or or providing individualized instruction, and frequent assessments to guide instruction.

Sounds like a perfect plan.

But you have to wonder - if the teachers in our schools knew how to teach children to read, why aren't they doing so now?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, most children are not being taught to read proficiently.

Only 31 percent of 4th graders and 31 percent of 8th graders are proficient readers. Minority students score lower - just 16 percent of African American and 22 percent of Hispanic 12th graders are proficient readers. (U.S. Department of Education, Achievement Trends in Reading, 1992-2005)

Twenty-five percent of 4th graders have not been taught to read at the most basic level.

Reading, math and science performance has not improved in 30 years. Graph

"Average reading scores were 2 points higher in 2005 compared to 1992 at both grades 4 and 8." The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2005

Your state's report cards in reading: Reading 2005 State Snapshot Reports for Grade 4

Reading 2005 State Snapshot Reports for Grade 8

We can reconfigure classrooms. We can assess students more often. How will this increase our teachers' ability to teach children to read? If our teachers had the skills they need, they would be using these skills now.

We need to face the uncomfortable fact that our teachers do not know how to teach at least 25% of our students to read at the most basic level.

What Research Tells Us

Research tells us what children need in order to learn to read. Children need research based programs that meet their unique needs.

Children need teachers who are trained to teach research based programs.

Children need enough instructional time to learn reading skills to at least mastery.

Basic skills must be learned to a level beyond mastery. These basic skills must be learned so well that they become automatic.

No one is teaching these skills to at least 25% of our students.

What Teacher Preparation Programs Aren't Teaching About Reading - and What Elementary Teachers Aren't Learning

On May 22, the National Council on Teacher Quality will release What Teacher Preparation Programs Aren't Teaching About Reading--and What Elementary Teachers Aren't Learning.

You can receive a copy of this report by filling out this form. More publications by the National Council on Teacher Quality

Find Teacher Training Programs here

What Teachers of Reading Need to Know

To educate and inform you about these issues, we gathered publications from many diverse sources including the American Federation of Teachers, the International Dyslexia Association, and the National Association of School Psychologists.

Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science, What Expert Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do by Louisa Moats, published by the American Federation of Teachers.
URL: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/downloads/teachers/rocketsci.pdf

Informed Instruction for Reading Success: Foundations for Teacher Preparation - A Position Paper of the International Dyslexia Association - prepared by Susan Brady, Ph.D., and Louisa Moats, Ed.D
URL: http://www.interdys.org/pdf/Teacher_pos_paper.pdf

Reading Disabilities: Why Do Some Children Have Difficulty Learning to Read? What Can Be Done About It? by G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D. BAD LINK

Whole Language Lives on, The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction, Louisa Moats, Ed.D. (2000)
URL: http://www.edexcellence.net/library/wholelang/moats.html

When Older Students Can't Read by Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D. Students and educators become frustrated when students beyond 3rd grade have reading difficulties. Dr. Moats describes research-based reading strategies that can build a foundation for reading success in students of all ages.
URL: http://www.cdl.org/resources/reading_room/older_read.html

A Child Becomes a Reader: Proven Ideas for Parents from Research -- Kindergarten through Grade Three from the National Institute for Literacy.
"The road to becoming a reader begins the day a child is born and continues through the end of third grade. At that point, a child must read with ease and understanding to take advantage of the learning opportunities in fourth grade and beyond. This booklet offers advice for parents of children from grades K-3 on how to support reading development at home, and how to recognize effective instruction in their children's classrooms."
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/pdf/low_res_child_reader_K-3.pdf

Preventing Early Reading Failure by Joseph K. Torgeson. "We now have tools to reliably identify the children who are likely destined for early reading failure. Most importantly ... we can say with confidence that if we intervene early, intensively, and appropriately, we can provide these children with the early reading skills that can prevent almost all of them from ever entering the nasty downward spiral ..."
URL: http://www.focusonlearning.org/howtocatch.pdf

What Principals Need to Know

Leading Learning Communities: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able to Do - Executive Summary from the National Association for Elementary School Principals
URL: http://web.naesp.org/nprc/description.php?II=45&UID=2006050712394966.189.94.36&naespid=LLC-OL

What You Need to Know about Response to Intervention (RTI)

Responsiveness to Intervention and Learning Disabilities - This paper, prepared by the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, represents organizations concerned about individuals with learning disabilities. Member organizations include:

            American Speech-Language-Hearing-Association (ASHA)
            Association for Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD)
            Association of Educational Therapists (AET)
            Council for Learning Disabilities (CLD)
            Division for Communicative Disabilities and Deafness (DCDD)- CEC
            Division of Learning Disabilities (DLD)- Penn State University
            International Dyslexia Association (IDA)
            International Reading Association (IRA)
            Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA)
            National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning             Disabilities
            National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
            National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD)

Responsiveness-to-Intervention: A New Method of Identifying Students with Disabilities -
by the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (presented at Council for Exceptional Children annual convention, April 2005 - PowerPoint presentation)
URL: http://nrcld.org/presentations/CEC_April2005.ppt

Response to Instruction in the Identification of Learning Disabilities: A Guide for School Teams from the National Association of School Psychologists.
URL: http://www.nasponline.org/publications/cq325instruction.html

Responsiveness to Intervention: A Blueprint for Practitioners, Policymakers, and Parents from
Teaching Exceptional Children.
URL: http://www.advocacyinstitute.org/resources/TEC_RtIblueprint.pdf

The Need for Response to Instruction Models for Learning Disabilities by Jack M. Fletcher, Ph.D. Reprinted with permission from Perspectives (Winter 2006), the quarterly periodical from the International Dyslexia Association.
docs/RTIfletcher.pdf BAD LINK

Diagnosing the Learning Enabled: The Promise of Response to Interventions by W. David Tilly, III, Ph.D. - Reprinted with permission from from Perspectives (Winter 2006), the quarterly periodical from the International Dyslexia Association.
docs/RTIdiagnosingenabled.pdf BAD LINK

Three Tier Intervention Research Studies: Descriptions of Two Related Projects by Sharon Vaughn, Ph.D. and David Chard, Ph.D. Reprinted with permission from Perspectives (Winter 2006), the quarterly periodical published by the International Dyslexia Association.
docs/RTI3tier.pdf BAD LINK

Identifying Learning Disabilities with RTI - by Lynn S. Fuchs, Ph.D. and Douglas Fuchs, Ph.D. Reprinted with permission from Perspectives (Winter 2006), the quarterly periodical published by the International Dyslexia Association.
docs/RTIidentifyingld.pdf BAD LINK

What You Need to Know about Research-Based Instruction

Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children from the National Research Council
URL: http://www.nap.edu/catalog/6023.html

The Report of the National Reading Panel - Summary of the Report - Read about the National Reading Panel
URL: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs_details.cfm?from=nrp&pubs_id=88

Put Reading First - The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read published by The Partnership for Reading, a collaborative effort of the National Institute for Literacy, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of this publication is to make evidence-based reading research available to educators, parents, policy-makers, and others with an interest in helping all people learn to read well. The findings and conclusions in this publication were drawn from the 2000 report of the National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction--Reports of the Subgroups.
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first1.html

The Partnership for Reading - Bringing Scientific Evidence to Learning
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/

Why Children Succeed or Fail at Reading - Research from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Program in Learning Disabilities.
URL: http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/nichdbrochure.html

Using Research and Reason in Education - How Teachers Can Use Scientifically Based Research to Make Curricular & Instructional Decisions by Paula J. Stanovich and Keith E. Stanovich, published by the Partnership for Reading (May 2003)
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/pdf/Stanovich_Color.pdf

Databases You Can Use

Database of evidence-based research on reading instruction - A searchable database offered by the Partnership for Reading, an initiative of the National Institute for Literacy, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Department of Education
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/explore/index.html

What Works Clearinghouse - U.S. Department of Education
URL: http://www.w-w-c.org/

ERIC Database - ERIC is the world's largest source of education information, with more than 1 million abstracts of documents and journal articles on education research and practice. The database is updated monthly and provides access to ERIC Document citations from 1966 through February 2004 and ERIC Journal citations from 1966 through January 2004. URL: http://www.eduref.org/Eric/

National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities - Includes information about:
• Specific disabilities
• Early intervention services for infants and toddlers
• Special education and related services for children in school
• Resources and connections in every state
• Individualized education programs
• Parent materials
• Disability organizations
• Professional associations
• Education rights and what the law requires
• Transition to adult life
URL: http://www.nichcy.org/

To Top

Created: 05/16/06
Revised: