A Validation Study of the Colorado Department of Education Response to Intervention Implementation Rubrics

Measuring the effectiveness of the Response to Intervention (RtI) framework has become a more urgent need in the broader context of educational policy and the high stakes associated with school improvement. In order to meet these needs, the systematic development of a series of RtI rubrics was initiated within the state of Colorado to support districts, schools, and educators with the implementation of the RtI framework. Although the staff of the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) invested significant time and resources into developing the RtI implementation rubrics, they did not conduct an evaluation of the internal validity of the tools. The purpose of this research is to engage in such as study. This study has the capacity to greatly expand the understanding of systemic RtI implementation as defined in the state of Colorado. Through factor analysis, it was determined what the validity of the CDE School Level RtI Implementation Rubric is in order to identify whether there are six distinct components for RtI implementation, and the relationships between those components. This information can be utilized by the Department\u27s staff to prioritize professional development offerings and to understand the role component plays in the overall implementation of RtI. An additional benefit was to reduce the number of items on the measure to create a more streamlined tool. With the dearth of tools available to measure fidelity of RtI implementation, it is challenging to determine whether the framework has achieved the ultimate goal of improving academic and behavioral outcomes for students. Through this exploratory factor analysis, the CDE RtI Implementation Rubrics have been determined to be a viable option for measuring the systemic implementation of the RtI framework. After future research conducting confirmatory factor analysis has been conducted, and larger sample size is gathered, it should be possible to determine whether the framework has achieved the ultimate goal of improving academic and behavioral outcomes for students