Response to Intervention (RTI) and Mathematics

In January, I posted an interview with Nancy Goosen, Director of Special Services at Edmond Public Schools that focused on how they have implemented Response to Intervention (RTI) within their school system. (The above graphic is from NASDSE: National Association of State Directors of Special Education).

Today, I found an article in Education Week, "Response to Intervention and Mathematics" that I thought would be a great follow-up to our previous interview.

The article states, "The federal Institute of Education Sciences recently released a practice guide for educators who would like to know some of the best practices for using a response to intervention framework for math education.

(You can learn more about response to intervention as a whole here and here.)

The guide (pdf) does not offer an endorsement of any particular program. Instead, it talks about the features that a good response to intervention program should have.

For example, one recommendation is that at least 10 minutes of an intervention session should be built on reinforcing retrieval of basic arithmetic facts. Weak arithmetic skills makes it harder to teach students more advanced concepts, the guide said. The guide also includes a number of examples and sample questions, which should make it a good resource for teachers and trainers. "