RTI for Secondary Schools: Implementing a Schoolwide System

Response to Intervention (RTI) is definitely an educational buzzword and concept right now, but that does not mean it is a fad that will soon pass. As a powerful educational concept, similar to Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), RTI provides educators with an effective model that assists schools in identifying and providing levels or tiers of intervention for students struggling to learn a skill, content or even appropriate behaviors.

There are many books, websites, and professional development strands on RTI that delve into the need, process, and positive results of utilizing the RTI model. However, the problem that many educators have with fully embracing and implementing RTI at their school, especially at the secondary school level, is finding the time during the school day and managing the logistics involved for providing such levels or tiers of intervention.

The purpose of RTI for Secondary Schools: Implementing a Schoolwide System is to provide steps, guidelines, and lessons learned to assist schools in implementing a schoolwide program, similar to our Advisory program, that provides a framework for a myriad of nonintrusive (“nonintrusive” meaning that students are not pulled out of one class in order to receive interventions for another) support and intervention opportunities in the middle of the school day that the school can implement as needed. In essence, the Advisory program provides the skeleton for the RTI or Pyramid of Intervention models to add to.