High Schools Try Out RTI

Using the framework with older students poses challenges, but shows promise, educators say.

Colorado Springs, Colo.

“Response to intervention” as a model for boosting student achievement has taken off like wildfire.

When it comes to research on how best to implement the process for students in middle and high school, though, the flame abruptly fizzles out. There’s little RTI research that is specific to secondary schools, although it has been well studied at the elementary level.

But many schools are forging ahead. In Colorado, spurred by a state law that promotes RTI—an instructional model that links lessons, or “interventions,” of increasing intensity with frequent monitoring of student progress—they’re taking on the challenge of making RTI...