In November 2004, IDEA was again re-authorized and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA).The reauthorized law expands on the positive changes started with IDEA-97 in terms of the focus on bringing the regular classroom and the special education program together. IDEIA addressed what many education leaders have been recommending for some time…that being the reliance on I.Q. testing as a required component of the identification of children with learning disabilities needed to be removed. In New York State most districts are using the RTI model

The RTI model is based on research conducted by some of this nation’s leading educators and researchers. It clearly lays the groundwork for bringing a new focus on enhancing the performance of all students including those with disabilities through a common system in which classroom teachers, special education teachers and other specialists can work together. The results of implementing an RTI model will not only be reduced paperwork and Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) more focused on the attainment of learning standards, but it also provides a new focus on improving student performance in collaboration with all of those delivering educational services for these children.”

Students can no longer just be referred out of the classroom. Sound evidence that research-based instructional interventions have been initiated and data verifying the impact of these interventions are key components to the RTI evaluation and decision-making model.

Student performance data is gathered frequently and is immediately available to teachers, psychologists and others. They provide information to those delivering instruction as to the effectiveness of that instruction. Based on these data, instruction must be modified or changed.

Robert J. Wedl (former Commission of Minnesota Education)