Response to Intervention (RtI): Some call it a paradigm shift; others call it educational reform. I call it what many of us have been calling it for years — differentiated instruction. RtI is about using assessment data to inform instruction rather than placing students in special-education classes after perhaps years of failure. It is well-known that nearly 80 percent of children labeled as learning disabled, simply have a lack of success with reading.
Differentiating instruction to address the needs of these mislabeled students is what RtI is all about. It is also what Reading A–Z and all the Learning A–Z websites are all about. We recognize that teachers need lots of tools to address the needs of all the students in a typical classroom, yet teachers do not have the financial resources to acquire all the tools they need. As the International Reading Association (IRA) states in one of its position statements, "making a difference is about making it different." I like to think that we at Learning A–Z help teachers make a difference by offering thousands of affordable, downloadable resources for differentiated instruction. And, it is important that teachers know they can differentiate instruction with quality, research-based resources, even on a small budget.
Response to Intervention appears to be more than stated above. Reading disabilities are real and failing to read is a societal problem. Special Education is about 75 years behind regular education with funding that was transparent. Now the need for services is mushrooming like an atomic cloud. The bottom line, however,is that there are few people who are highly trained to do the job and a growing population of multi-symptomatic diabilities. RTI is mearly a movement to bring budgets together and make people in control document that something is making a difference. Data is not going to make the difference in the dignity of the services. Only people can do that.