Investigating the implementation of the Response to Intervention initiative in an elementary school setting

This study investigated how one elementary school implement Response to Intervention (as mandated by IDEA 2004) in order to meet the needs of struggling readers in a Kindergarten through second grade setting, The target school identified a need for intense intervention groups for students who were not meeting grade level benchmarks. Educators at this site struggled with identifying students in need of additional support and creating appropriate intervention groups for those students across grade levels. Pre-intervention and mid-year performance on an early literacy monitoring assessment were compared and showed a reduction in the number of students who were at risk for reading difficulties. By the mid-year benchmark, the proportion of students who were in the at risk and some risk ranges were reduced, but not eliminated. These results demonstrate the importance of implementing a concrete intervention program for students who are at risk for reading failure in the primary grade levels. Key Words: Response to Intervention, special education prevention, early intervention in literac