I really don’t know much about RTI, or in general reading intervention of any kind at schools, except what happens to E.L.L.’s. So this article helped me understand a little better about what RTI is. After reading the article I was still confused about what the difference between RTI and the discrepancy model is? I know then they are not tying it to an IQ test, but in the end how is the intervention different between these two different kinds of intervention?
Of course the article presents and ideal model of how RTI should look, I do wonder how it really looks at a school that is using it and not part of a research site (although the authors do mention this as a limitation). If you are teaching at a school that has a high amount of struggling readers, how could this response be possible?
The article also mentions that a LD can not be diagnosed if appropriate instruction, socioeconomic status, culture, sensory issues, emotional issues or English Language Learners are of a concern. Well, that counts for most of the struggling reader population, so how do they recommend that a LD be determined if a learner has some of those mentioned issues? They do not make alternate suggestions for that.
This article in general just left me more confused, even though it is a clearly written and supposedly easy to understand piece of writing. I may be missing the necessary background knowledge to understand this article very well, but I don’t see the difference between RTI and what the alternative is. Kids are still working on deficits. Maybe somebody can explain to me what I have missed here.
