universal design for learning: tipping points from research to practice cec 2008 strand b, thursday, april 3, 2008

1. 1 Universal Design for Learning: Tipping Points from Research to Practice CEC 2008 Strand B, Thursday, April 3, 2008

2. 2 RTI for Preventing and Identifying Learning Disabilities: An Overview Douglas Fuchs Vanderbilt University

3. 3 Responsiveness-To-Intervention? Responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) integrates assessment and intervention within a multi-level prevention system to identify and reduce risk for academic failure.

4. 4 Typical RTI Procedure

5. 5 Typical RTI Procedure Secondary Prevention For at-risk students, a second level of prevention is implemented using standard research-validated tutoring protocols. Student progress is monitored throughout intervention, and students are re-tested following intervention. Growth/performance is dichotomized as responsive or unresponsive. Students who respond well return to this primary prevention, with ongoing progress monitoring.

6. 6 Typical RTI Procedure Tertiary Prevention Those who do not respond receive a multidisciplinary team evaluation and are identified for individualized programming in special education (LD, BD, MR). Tertiary prevention represents a reformed special education where Individual student goals are set ambitiously. Ongoing progress monitoring is used in a formative and recursive way to formulate individualized programs that are effective. Ongoing progress monitoring is also used to identify when students have met benchmarks that permit flexible return to secondary or primary prevention (with progress monitoring so re-entry to tertiary prevention occurs as needed), making special education a flexible service.

7. 7 The Origins of RTI The notion of a multi-level prevention system is borrowed from the health-care system.

8. 8 Health Care Analogy High blood pressure (HBP) can lead to heart attacks or strokes (like academic failure can produce serious long-term negative consequences). At the annual check-up (primary prevention), HBP screening (like annual fall screening for low reading or math scores). If screening suggests HBP, then monitoring over 6-8 weeks occurs to verify HBP (like PM to ([dis]confirm risk). If HBP is verified, secondary prevention occurs with relatively inexpensive diuretics, which are effective for vast majority, and monitoring continues (like small-group secondary preventive tutoring, using a standard treatment protocol, with PM to index response). For patients who fail to respond to secondary prevention (diuretics), then tertiary prevention occurs�experimentation with more expensive medications (e.g., ACE inhibitors, beta blockers), with ongoing monitoring to determine which drug or combination of drugs is effective (like individualized instructional programs inductively formulated with progress monitoring).

9. 9 The Origins of RTI The notion of a multi-level prevention system is borrowed from the health-care system. Reading First incorporates a multi-level prevention system. This represents one press to consider a multi-level prevention system. The second press to consider a multi-level prevention system emanates from the federal law on disabilities and procedural innovations in identifying learning disabilities.

10. 10 Across Methods:�Signature� Characteristic of LD Unexpected and Specific Learning Failure The child with unexpected learning failure (or underachievement) is perceived by parents and teachers as generally competent. The learning difficulty is surprising and puzzling. Specific learning failure suggests neurological dysfunction and processing deficits, which are presumed to cause severe problems in reading, writing, or math.

11. 11 IQ-Achievement Discrepancy In regulations accompanying Education of All Handicapped Children Act (1975), �underachievement� has been operationalized as IQ-achievement discrepancy.

12. 12 Criticisms of IQ-Achievement Discrepancy

13. 13 Number of Students Identified as LD Under IDEA by Age 1999-2000 School Year

14. 14 The Prominent Alternative: Defining LD in Terms of Severe Low Achievement RTI LD as nonresponders to validated instruction (unexpected underachievement). Assumption: If a child does not respond to instruction that is effective for the vast majority of children, then there is something different about the child causing the nonresponse. RTI eliminates poor instructional quality as a viable explanation for learning difficulty.

15. 15 Twin Purposes of RTI

16. 16 Newest IDEA (Federal Law) Cites Two Methods for LD Identification 1. IQ-Achievement Discrepancy 2. RTI

17. 17

18. 18 Advantages of RTI Approach

19. 19 For Additional Information Contact: Flora Murray flora.murray@vanderbilt.edu Vanderbilt University 328 Peabody College Department of Special Education Nashville, TN 37203 (615) 343-4782