CEC's RTI Blog

Where does special education fit into RTI?

By Lynn Boyer
West Virginia Department of Education

In this final posting on RTI implementation from a state perspective, I want to reiterate three things.

First, a State Department of Education (SEA) may exert its considerable authority in directing systemic reform but will always do so through the vision and passions of the state schools’ chief. She or he must understand the potential that RTI has for changing the outcomes for all students and incorporate its use and language within the strategic plan that will guide the state’s work with the legislature, the state board of education, and the districts. For a state to use the premises of RTI and its established practices, the chief’s voice must be heard.

Staying the Course

By Lynn Boyer
West Virginia Department of Education

Across my postings, I’ve tried to convey the scope of implementing a complex school reform initiative such as RTI.  Those of us working this effort in West Virginia understand that our goal of implementation across all 55 districts in the state was attainable because of some unique aspects of the state, including the size of the student population -- there are approximately 280,000 students in all our schools -- and the culture of collaboration between the districts and the state department of education.

Preparing Educators and Parents for the Transition to RTI

By Lynn Boyer
West Virginia Department of Education

In my posting last week, I mentioned that the success of an RTI implementation plan depends on constant, ongoing, everlasting dialogue. The seemingly endless professional development that is inherent in this school reform movement reflects agreement and support for the time, money, and human resources necessary to change teacher practice, convince administrators and practitioners that expectations for students can justifiably be higher, and document the impact of the changes on student performance.

Making RTI Part of the State System

By Lynn Boyer
West Virginia Department of Education

IDEA 2004’s inclusion of response to intervention as a means of identifying a student with a specific learning disability (SLD) put a bright spotlight on this process at the national level. State department of education leaders recognized that this federal legitimacy for the process offered the rationale to explore this tiered process of instruction and intervention as a means of improving outcomes in both general and special education programs. In essence, RTI could be used as a process for identification only if the framework of tiers/levels, universal screening, research-based interventions, and progress monitoring protocols was established for the school as a whole.

What was also clear immediately was that, for this framework to be credible and appealing to local districts, it had to be developed and supported by all stakeholders in the state’s education system. RTI could not be a special education initiative. It had to be a collaborative effort that was presented as a way of addressing the needs of struggling learners who may or may not have IEPs. It needed to fit into the work of SEAs to teach to standards, improve achievement in state accountability systems, increase graduation rates, and contribute to the global economy workers who can access and consider information from many sources simultaneously.

Making RTI a Reality at the State Level

By Lynn Boyer
West Virginia Department of Education

CEC’s RTI Blog has been contributing to the national dialogue about the components of the RTI process, use of it in the determination of a learning disability, legal questions that are emerging, challenges of its application in secondary schools, and the traits of leaders who “light the fire.”  During February we are going to talk about aspects of RTI implementation from the perspective of State Departments of Education, which are commonly referred to as State Education Agencies (SEA). 

Let me provide some background on what happens at the state level in the aftermath of any reauthorization of IDEA and the subsequent publication of regulations and how, this time, those processes have contributed to the variation in RTI implementation across states.   I hope this blog helps us recognize the many forces that affect a national effort and understand how an initiative can have common elements but look very different from one state -– or district -– to another.