REMEDIATING READING DIFFICULTIES IN A RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION MODEL WITH SECONDARY STUDENTS

Area of Science:

• Education
• Educational Psychology
• Literacy Interventions

Background:

• Research on Response to Intervention (RtI) for secondary students is scarce.
• A large-scale, multiyear RtI implementation with middle school students provides valuable data.
• This study focuses on a 3-year intensive, tiered reading intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To overview findings from a 3-year RtI reading intervention for middle school students.
• To discuss the efficacy of enhanced primary (Tier 1), secondary (Tier 2), and tertiary (Tier 3) interventions.
• To explore the logistics of implementing an RtI model in secondary settings.

Main Methods:

• A 3-year tiered reading intervention was implemented with middle school students.
• Students received Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions in Year 1.
• Minimal responders advanced to subsequent tiers (Tier 3 in Year 2, Tier 4 in Year 3) for continued intensive instruction.

Main Results:

• The study tracked student responsiveness to intervention over three years.
• Efficacy of each tier (enhanced primary, secondary, tertiary, individualized intensive) was evaluated.
• Implementation logistics for secondary RtI were examined.

Conclusions:

• Findings inform practices and future research directions for RtI with secondary students.
• Student responsiveness is key for advancing to more intensive intervention tiers.
• The study highlights the potential of multi-year, tiered interventions for improving reading outcomes.