The Limits of RTI

In this Reading Research Quarterly article, Jennifer Gilbert, Donald Compton, Douglas Fuchs, Lynn Fuchs, Laura Barquero, and Eunsoo Cho (Vanderbilt University) and Bobette Bouton (University of Georgia/Athens) report on their study of the impact of Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 instruction in first-grade classrooms. Of the 649 students studied, 212 were not successful after Tier 1. A randomly selected subset of those students received Tier 2 small-group supplementary tutoring for 14 weeks and made significantly higher word reading gains than those who continued in Tier 1. However, the long-term achievement of many of these students was still problematic: by third grade, 47 percent weren’t reading in the average range. The students who didn’t succeed at Tier 2 and received more-intensive one-on-one Tier 3 instruction didn’t do any better than students who continued with Tier 2, and their downstream results were no more impressive. 

For the students with the greatest needs, say the authors, a more individualized, problem-solving, resource-intensive approach (perhaps special education if the student has an identified disability) is needed in which assessment and intervention are tailored to the needs of the child.

These results, say Gilbert and her colleagues, “challenge the preventive intent of short-term, standard protocol, multi-tiered supplemental tutoring models… We infer that the supplemental preventive programs associated with RTI may need to span multiple years to accomplish the preventive intent… We believe that early prevention is important because it potentially affords students identified as at risk for future reading problems greater potential to benefit from regular classroom instruction.” 

The authors identify four other dimensions not covered in the study that may be important: (a) enhancing the quality of Tier 1 instruction; (b) having the most-experienced and effective teachers provide Tier 3 instruction; (c) providing Tier 3 instruction for the highest-risk students earlier, without spending valuable instructional time at Tier 2; and (d) having those students spend more time at Tier 3. 

“Efficacy of a First-Grade Responsiveness-to-Intervention Prevention Model for Struggling Readers” by Jennifer Gilbert, Donald Compton, Douglas Fuchs, Lynn Fuchs, Bobette Bouton, Laura Barquero, and Eunsoo Cho in Reading Research Quarterly, April/May/June 2013 (Vol. 48, #2, p. 135-154), http://1.usa.gov/13sVVGy; Gilbert is at Jennifer.k.gilbert@vanderbilt.edu

From the Marshall Memo #485