Project Activities
Research question
- How did Response to Intervention practices for early grade reading vary across schools?
- How did schools experienced with RtI vary the intensity of reading instruction for children at different reading levels?
- What were the effects on Grade 1–3 reading achievement of providing reading interventions to children who fell just below school-determined standards for each grade on screening tests?
Structured Abstract
Design
The evaluation relied on a combination of descriptive data collection from school staff and regression discontinuity methods to address the research questions, and focused on practices in place during the 2011–12 school year in a sample of 146 elementary schools from 13 states.
Key findings
- Full implementation of the RtI framework in Grade 1–3 reading was reported by 86 percent of the experienced elementary schools sampled for in-depth study, compared with 56 percent of a random sample of elementary schools from the same 13 states.
- The schools sampled for in-depth study of their RtI practices provided more intense small-group instruction and more reading intervention services for groups of students reading below grade level than for groups of students reading at or above grade level. However, these schools' implementation of RtI differed in some ways from descriptions in the prior literature. In Grade 1, 45 percent of schools provided intervention services to some groups of students at all reading levels, rather than only for reading groups below grade level. In Grade 1, 67 percent of schools provided at least some reading intervention during the core reading block, rather than only in addition to the core.
- Grade 1 students who scored just below school-determined benchmarks on fall screening tests, and who were assigned to reading interventions, had lower spring reading scores than similar students in the same schools who were not assigned to those interventions. Unexplored, but plausible, factors that may be related to these negative effects include incorrect identification of students for intervention and a mismatch between the interventions provided and these students' instructional needs. No statistically significant effects of assignment to reading interventions were found for students in Grades 2 or 3.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
A report, titled Evaluation of Response to Intervention Practices for Elementary School Reading, was released in November 2015.
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
