Evaluation of Response to Intervention Practices for Elementary School Reading

Contractors: MDRC, SRI International, Instructional Research Group, and Survey Research Management

Background/Research Questions

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) is the most recent authorization of a law passed in 1975 to promote a free appropriate public education for children with disabilities. Funded at $12.5 billion in FY 2011, IDEA supports early intervention services for infants and toddlers, special education services for children ages 3 through 21, and early intervening services for students not in special education but in need of academic or behavioral support. IES is conducting studies under Section 664 of IDEA 2004 to assess the implementation and effectiveness of key programs and services supported under the law.

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a multi-step approach to providing early and more intensive intervention and monitoring within the general education setting. In principle, RtI begins with research-based instruction and behavioral support provided to students in the general education classroom, followed by screening of all students to identify those who may need systematic progress monitoring, intervention, or support. Students who are not responding to the general education curriculum and instruction are provided with increasingly intense interventions through a "tiered" system, and they are frequently monitored to assess their progress and inform the choice of future interventions, including possibly special education for students determined to have a disability. IDEA 2004 (P.L. 108-446) permits some Part B special education funds to be used for "early intervening services" such as RtI, and also permit districts to use RtI to inform decisions regarding a child's eligibility for special education.

This evaluation, occurring under the National Assessment of IDEA 2004, will address the following questions:

• What are the effects on academic achievement of providing intensive secondary reading interventions to elementary school children who have been identified as at risk for reading difficulties compared with children just above the cut point for providing intervention?
• How do academic outcomes, including reading achievement and special education identification, vary with elementary schools' adoption of Response to Intervention practices for early grade reading?
• How do Response to Intervention practices for early grade reading vary across schools?

Design:

The evaluation will rely on a combination of regression discontinuity methods, time series comparisons, and descriptive data collection from school staff to address the research questions.

Cost/Duration: $14,314,916 over 60 months (March 2008 to March 2013)

Current Status:

The contractor has developed plans to collect extant and new data from districts and schools participating in the evaluation. Site recruitment is occurring in 2011 and early 2012, and new data collection is scheduled for spring 2012. The report for this study is scheduled for release in 2013 and will be announced on http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/.