PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS AND KNOWLEDGE OF RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION/MULTITIERED SYSTEMS OF SUPPORT

There has been considerable research that establishes the need to improve teachers’ knowledge of and ability to effectively implement response to intervention (RtI)/multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), and there is a scarcity of research examining interventions addressing these concerns. In a mixed methods study, we examined the perceptions and knowledge of the RtI/MTSS frameworks of undergraduate preservice teaching candidates enrolled in a dual certification program at a small, private Catholic university in Kentucky, before and after participating in a semester-long, experiential learning project. The project involved monitoring both the reading and mathematics progress of struggling elementary or middle school-aged students using validated Curriculum Based Measures. Preservice teachers worked in concert with the cooperating classroom teacher and their professor to score, graph, and interpret CBM results and make recommendations for high-quality, research-based intervention. Results from participants indicate their concern that not all teachers will enter the profession with knowledge of RtI/MTSS. Further, the experiential learning project intervention enhanced preservice teachers’ perceptions and knowledge of RtI/MTSS frameworks