Glossary - Response to Intervention

Many of the unfamiliar terms you will find in this glossary have to do with evaluation and teaching strategies. These terms are included here so that you have a comprehensive place to find their educational meaning. Find out what AYP, IEP, Section 504, and many other abbreviations and words mean in this glossary of frequently used terms.

Accommodation - Techniques and materials that allow individuals with disabilities to complete school or work tasks with greater ease and effectiveness. Examples include spellcheckers, tape recorders, calculators, and expanded time for completing assignments.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) - An individual state's measure of yearly progress toward achieving state academic standards. "Adequate Yearly Progress" is the minimum level of improvement that states, school districts and schools must achieve each year.

Affix - Part of word that is "fixed to" either the beginnings of words (prefixes) or the endings of words (suffixes). The word disrespectful has two affixes, a prefix (dis-) and a suffix (-ful).

Age Equivalent Score - In a norm-referenced assessment, individual student's scores are reported relative to those of the norming population. This can be done in a variety of ways, but one way is to report the average age of people who received the same score as the individual child. Thus, an individual child's score is described as being the same as students that are younger, the same age, or older than that student (e.g. a 9 year old student my receive the same score that an average 13 year old student does, suggesting that this student is quite advanced).

Alphabetic Principle - The basic idea that written language is a code in which letters represent the sounds in spoken words.

Alternative Education Placement (AEP) - An alternative classroom setting used to improve classroom behavior and address needs that cannot be met in a regular classroom setting.

Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) - A federal law that gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications.

Analogy-based Phonics - In this approach, students are taught to use parts of words they have already learned to read and decode words they don't know. They apply this strategy when the words share similar parts in their spellings, for example, reading screen by analogy to green. Students may be taught a large set of key words for use in reading new words.

Analytic Phonics - In this approach, students learn to analyze letter-sound relationships in previously learned words. They do not pronounce sounds in isolation.

Assessment - Assessment is a broad term used to describe the gathering of information about student performance in a particular area. See also formative assessment and summative assessment.

Assistive Technology - Equipment that enhances the ability of students and employees to be more efficient and successful.

Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - Developmentally inappropriate behavior, including poor attention skills, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. A person can be predominantly inattentive (often referred to as ADD), predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, or a combination of these two.

Auditory Discrimination - Ability to detect differences in sounds; may be gross ability, such as detecting the differences between the noises made by a cat and dog, or fine ability, such as detecting the differences made by the sounds of letters "m" and "n."

Auditory Figure-ground - Ability to attend to one sound against a background of sound (e.g., hearing the teacher's voice against classroom noise).

Auditory Memory - Ability to retain information which has been presented orally; may be short term memory, such as recalling information presented several seconds before; long term memory, such as recalling information presented more than a minute before; or sequential memory, such as recalling a series of information in proper order.

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) - An inability to accurately process and interpret sound information. Students with APD often do not recognize subtle differences between sounds in words.

Base Words - Words from which many other words are formed. For example, many words can be formed from the base word migrate: migration, migrant, immigration, immigrant, migrating.

Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) - A plan that includes positive strategies, program modifications, and supplementary aids and supports that address a student's disruptive behaviors and allows the child to be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE).

Bilingual Education - An educational program in which two languages are used to provide content matter instruction. Bilingual education programs vary in their length of time, and in the amount each language is used.

Blend - A consonant sequence before or after a vowel within a syllable, such as cl, br, or st; it is the written language equivalent of consonant cluster.

Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) - A disorder that occurs when the ear and the brain do not coordinate fully. A CAPD is a physical hearing impairment, but one which does not show up as a hearing loss on routine screenings or an audiogram. Instead, it affects the hearing system beyond the ear, whose job it is to separate a meaningful message from non-essential background sound and deliver that information with good clarity to the intellectual centers of the brain (the central nervous system).

Cloze Passage - A reading comprehension exercise in which words have been omitted in a systematic fashion. Students fill in the blanks, and their responses are counted correct if they are exact matches for the missing words. Cloze exercises assess comprehension and background knowledge, and they are also excellent indicators of whether the reading level and language level of the text are appropriate for a given student.

Collaborative Writing - Collaborative writing is an instructional approach in which students work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit compositions.

Comprehension Strategies - Techniques to teach reading comprehension, including summarization, prediction, and inferring word meanings from context.

Comprehension Strategy Instruction - The teaching of techniques that are particularly effective for comprehending text. The steps of instruction include direct explanation, teacher modeling ("think aloud"), guided practice, and application. Some strategies include direct explanation (the teacher explains to students why the strategy helps comprehension and when to apply the strategy), modeling (the teacher models, or demonstrates, how to apply the strategy, usually by "thinking aloud" while reading the text that the students are using), guided practice (the teacher guides and assists students as they learn how and when to apply the strategy) and application (the teacher helps students practice the strategy until they can apply it independently).

Connected Instruction - A way of teaching systematically in which the teacher continually shows and discusses with the students the relationship between what has been learned, what is being learned, and what will be learned.

Context Clues - Sources of information outside of words that readers may use to predict the identities and meanings of unknown words. Context clues may be drawn from the immediate sentence containing the word, from text already read, from pictures accompanying the text, or from definitions, restatements, examples, or descriptions in the text.

Continuous Assessment - An element of responsive instruction in which the teacher regularly monitors student performance to determine how closely it matches the instructional goal.

Cooperative Learning - A teaching model involving students working together as partners or in small groups on clearly defined tasks. It has been used successfully to teach comprehension strategies in content-area subjects.

Curriculum-based Assessment - A type of informal assessment in which the procedures directly assess student performance in learning-targeted content in order to make decisions about how to better address a student's instructional needs.

Decoding - The ability to translate a word from print to speech, usually by employing knowledge of sound-symbol correspondences. It is also the act of deciphering a new word by sounding it out.

Developmental Aphasia - A severe language disorder that is presumed to be due to brain injury rather than because of a developmental delay in the normal acquisition of language.

Developmental Spelling - The use of letter-sound relationship information to attempt to write words (also called invented spelling).

DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic early Literacy Skills) - A set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills.

Differentiated Instruction - An approach to teaching that includes planning out and executing various approaches to content, process, and product. Differentiated instruction is used to meet the needs of student differences in readiness, interests, and learning needs.

Direct Instruction - An instructional approach to academic subjects that emphasizes the use of carefully sequenced steps that include demonstration, modeling, guided practice, and independent application.

Direct Vocabulary Learning - Explicit instruction in both the meanings of individual words and word-learning strategies. Direct vocabulary instruction aids reading comprehension.

Dyscalculia - A severe difficulty in understanding and using symbols or functions needed for success in mathematics.

Dysgraphia - A severe difficulty in producing handwriting that is legible and written at an age-appropriate speed.

Dyslexia - A language-based disability that affects both oral and written language. It may also be referred to as reading disability, reading difference, or reading disorder.

Dysnomia - A marked difficulty in remembering names or recalling words needed for oral or written language.

Dyspraxia - A severe difficulty in performing drawing, writing, buttoning, and other tasks requiring fine motor skill, or in sequencing the necessary movements.

Early Intervening Services (EIS) - A provision of IDEA 2004 that allow 15% funding from IDEA funds to provide services that emphasizes early assistance to children in grades K-3, however EIS may also be used with children in grades 4-12.

ELL - An English Language Learner is a person learning English whose primary language is a language other than English.

Embedded Phonics - In this approach, students learn vocabulary through explicit instruction on the letter-sound relationships during the reading of connected text, usually when the teacher notices that a student is struggling to read a particular word. Letter-sound relationships are taught as part of sight word reading. If the sequence of letter-sounds is not prescribed and sequenced, but is determined by whatever words are encountered in text, then the program is not systematic or explicit.

Emergent Literacy - The view that literacy learning begins at birth and is encouraged through participation with adults in meaningful reading and writing activities.

English As A Second Language (ESL) - English learned in an environment where it is the predominant language of communication.

English Language Learner (ELL) - Students whose first language is not English and who are in the process of learning English.

Exceptional Students Education (ESE) - Refers to special education services to students who qualify.

Experimental Writing - Efforts by young children to experiment with writing by creating pretend and real letters and by organizing scribbles and marks on paper.

Expressive Language - The aspect of spoken langauge that includes speaking and the aspect of written language that includes composing or writing.

Family Educational Right To Privacy Act (FERPA) - A federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.

Fluency - The ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with proper expression and comprehension. Because fluent readers do not have to concentrate on decoding words, they can focus their attention on what the text means.

Formal Assessment - The process of gathering information using standardized, published tests or instruments in conjunction with specific administration and interpretation procedures, and used to make general instructional decisions.

Formative Assessment - Formative assessments are designed to evaluate students on a frequent basis so that adjustments can be made in instruction to help them reach target achievement goals.

Formative data - Provides information about the process of an intervention, instructional mode, etc., and provides information that allows staff to modify or "fine tune" an intervention (including instruction) as it is being implemented.

Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) - A requirement of IDEA; all disabled children must receive special education services and related services at no cost.

Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) - A problem-solving process for addressing student problem behavior that uses techniques to identify what triggers a given behavior(s) and to select interventions that directly address them.

Grade Equivalent Scores - In a norm-referenced assessment, individual student's scores are reported relative to those of the norming population. This can be done in a variety of ways, but one way is to report the average grade of students who received the same score as the individual child. Thus, an individual child's score is described as being the same as students that are in higher, the same, or lower grades than that student (e.g. a student in 2nd grade my earn the same score that an average forth grade student does, suggesting that this student is quite advanced).

Grapheme - A letter or letter combination that spells a single phoneme. In English, a grapheme may be one, two, three, or four letters, such as e, ei, igh, or eigh.

Graphic And Semantic Organizers - Graphic and semantic organizers summarize and illustrate concepts and interrelationships in a text using diagrams or other pictorial devices. Graphic organizers are often known as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters. Semantic organizers are graphic organizers that look somewhat like a spider web where lines connect a central concept to a variety of related ideas and events.

Graphic Organizers - Text, diagram or other pictorial device that summarizes and illustrates interrelationships among concepts in a text. Graphic organizers are often known as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters.

Guided Practice - Refers to a teacher-led activity that the class completes together. Guided practice occurs prior to any independent practice. It should be conducted in small steps with intense supervision that should prevent the development of consistent error patterns and inappropriate practices.

Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) - An evaluation conducted by a qualified examiner, who is not employed by the school district at the public's expense.

Indirect Vocabulary Learning - Vocabulary learning that occurs when students hear or see words used in many different contexts – for example, through conversations with adults, being read to, and reading extensively on their own.

Individualized Education Program (IEP) - A plan outlining special education and related services specifically designed to meet the unique educational needs of a student with a disability.

Individualized Transition Plan (ITP) - A plan developed by the IEP team to help accomplish the student & parents goals for the student's transition from high school into adulthood.

Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) - The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the law that guarantees all children with disabilities access to a free and appropriate public education.

Informal Assessment - The process of collecting information to make specific instructional decisions, using procedures largely designed by teachers and based on the current instructional situation.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) - A measure of someone's intelligence as indicated by an intelligence test, where an average score is 100. An IQ score is the ratio of a person's mental age to his chronological age multiplied by 100.

Intervention - The intervention is the academic or behavioral program employed to improve the skills of students identified as "at risk."

Intervention Integrity - Integrity refers to the extent to which the implementation of the intervention in your school matches the specifications in the manual or research base for the intervention.

Intervention Fidelity - The intervention with a student is used faithfully as the developers of that particular intervention had intended. See "Intervention Integrity."

Intervention Frequency - How often the intervention is to be administered. For example, two times per week.

Intervention Intensity - Intensity usually refers to group size or adult to student ration (usually written as interventionist: student, such as 1:5). For example, the intervention is to be administered with a ratio of 1:3-5 means that 1 adult is to provide the intervention to between 3 and 5 students. It is important to note that in this protocol, not only is a group size of 6 unacceptable, but also a group size of 2 is unacceptable. A smaller ratio is not always better.

Intervention Duration - How long will the intervention last? This term refers to both the duration of each session (e.g., 30 minutes) and the overall duration of the intervention (e.g. 12 weeks).

Language Learning Disability (LLD) - A language learning disability is a disorder that may affect the comprehension and use of spoken or written language as well as nonverbal language, such as eye contact and tone of speech, in both adults and children.

Learning Disability (LD) - A disorder that affects people's ability to either interpret what they see and hear or to link information from different parts of the brain. It may also be referred to as a learning disorder or a learning difference.

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) - A learning plan that provides the most possible time in the regular classroom setting.

Limited English Proficient (LEP) - The term used by the federal government, most states, and local school districts to identify those students who have insufficient English to succeed in English-only classrooms. Increasingly, English language learner (ELL) or English learner (EL) are used in place of LEP.

Listening Comprehension - Understanding speech. Listening comprehension, as with reading comprehension, can be described in "levels" – lower levels of listening comprehension would include understanding only the facts explicitly stated in a spoken passage that has very simple syntax and uncomplicated vocabulary. Advanced levels of listening comprehension would include implicit understanding and drawing inferences from spoken passages that feature more complicated syntax and more advanced vocabulary.

Literacy - Reading, writing, and the creative and analytical acts involved in producing and comprehending texts.

Literacy Coach - A reading coach or a literacy coach is a reading specialist who focuses on providing professional development for teachers by providing them with the additional support needed to implement various instructional programs and practices. They provide essential leadership for the school entire literacy program by helping create and supervise a long-term staff development process that supports both the development and implementation of the literacy program over months and years.
For more information visit the International Reading Association website.

Local Education Agency (LEA) - A public board of education or other public authority within a state that maintains administrative control of public elementary or secondary schools in a city, county, township, school district or other political subdivision of a state.

Metacognition - Metacognition is the process of "thinking about thinking." For example, good readers use metacognition before reading when they clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text.

Monitoring Comprehension - Readers who monitor their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. Students are able to use appropriate "fix-up" strategies to resolve problems in comprehension.

Multiple Intelligences - A theory that suggests that the traditional notion of intelligence, based on IQ testing, is far too limited. Instead, it proposes eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist.

Multisensory Structured Language Education - An educational approach that uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile cues simultaneously to enhance memory and learning. Links are consistently made between the visual (what we see), auditory (what we hear), and kinesthetic-tactile (what we feel) pathways in learning to read and spell.

Naming Speed - The rate at which a child can recite "overlearned" stimuli such as letters and single-digit numbers.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) - The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education act of 1965. The act contains President George W. Bush's four basic education reform principles: stronger accountability for results, increased flexibility and local control, expanded options for parents, and an emphasis on teaching methods based on scientifically-based research.

Nonverbal Learning Disability - A neurological disorder which originates in the right hemisphere of the brain. Reception of nonverbal or performance-based information governed by this hemisphere is impaired in varying degrees, causing problems with visual-spatial, intuitive, organizational, evaluative, and holistic processing functions.

Norm-referenced Assessment - A type of assessment that compares an individual child's score against the scores of other children who have previously taken the same assessment. With a norm-referenced assessment, the child's raw score can be converted into a comparative score such as a percentile rank.

Occupational Therapy (OT) - A rehabilitative service to people with mental, physical, emotional, or developmental impairments. Services can include helping a student with pencil grip, physical exercises that may be used to increase strength and dexterity, or exercises to improve hand-eye coordination.

Office Of Special Education Programs (OSEP) - An office of the U.S. Department of Education whose goal is to improve results for children with disabilities (ages birth through 21) by providing leadership and financial support to assist states and local districts.

Oral Language Difficulties - A person with oral language difficulties may exhibit poor vocabulary, listening comprehension, or grammatical abilities for his or her age.

Orthographic Knowledge - The understanding that the sounds in a language are represented by written or printed symbols.

Orton-Gillingham - A multi-sensory approach to remediating dyslexia created by Dr. Samuel Orton, a neuropsychiatrist and pathologist, and Anna Gillingham, an educator and psychologist.

OSPI (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) - The State Agency in Washington State that provides regulation and instructional support to local school districts.

Other Health Impairments (OHI) - A category of special education services for students with limited strength, vitality or alertness, due to chronic or acute health problems (such as asthma, ADHD, diabetes, or a heart condition).

Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) - The category of special education services for students with delays or deviance in their social/language/motor and/or cognitive development.

Phoneme - The smallest unit of speech that serves to distinguish one utterance from another in a language.

Phonemic Awareness - The ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. An example of how beginning readers show us they have phonemic awareness is combining or blending the separate sounds of a word to say the word (/c/ /a/ /t/ – cat).

Phonics - Phonics is a form of instruction to cultivate the understanding and use of the alphabetic principle. It emphasizes the predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds in spoken language) and graphemes (the letters that represent those sounds in written language) and shows how this information can be used to read or decode words.
See also: Analogy-based phonics, Analytic phonics, Embedded phonics, Onset-rime phonics instruction, Phonics through spelling, Synthetic phonics, Systematic and explicit phonics instruction.

Phonological Awareness - A range of understandings related to the sounds of words and word parts, including identifying and manipulating larger parts of spoken language such as words, syllables, and onset and rime. It also includes phonemic awareness as well as other aspects of spoken language such as rhyming and syllabication.

Physical Therapy (PT) - Instructional support and treatment of physical disabilities, under a doctor's prescription, that helps a person improve the use of bones, muscles, joints and nerves.

Pre-reading - Pre-reading activities are activities used with students before they interact with reading material. They're designed to provide students with needed background knowledge about a topic, or to help students identify their purpose for reading.

Prefix - A word part added to the beginning of a root or base word to create a new meaning. The most common prefixes include dis- (as in disagree), in- (as invaluable), re- (as in repeat), and -un (as in unfriendly).

Prewriting - Any activity designed to help students generate or organize their ideas before writing.

Print Awareness - Basic knowledge about print and how it is typically organized on a page. For example, print conveys meaning, print is read left to right, and words are separated by spaces.

Problem Solving Team - A group of professionals with specific areas of expertise, who will guide decision-making process on a campus (different districts may call this team by different names).

Reading Disability - Another term for dyslexia, sometimes referred to as reading disorder or reading difference.

Reading First - Reading First is a federal program that focuses on putting proven methods of early reading instruction in classrooms. Through Reading First, states and districts receive support to apply scientifically based reading research and the proven instructional and assessment tools consistent with this research to ensure that all children learn to read well by the end of third grade.
For more information visit the USDOE website.

Receptive Language - The aspect of spoken language that includes listening, and the aspect of written language that includes reading.

Reciprocal Teaching - Reciprocal teaching is a multiple-strategy instructional approach for teaching comprehension skills to students. Teachers teach students four strategies: asking questions about the text they are reading; summarizing parts of the text; clarifying words and sentences they don't understand; and predicting what might occur next in the text.

Rehabilitation Act – Section 504 - Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a national law that protects qualified individuals from discrimination based on their disability. The Section 504 regulation requires a school district to provide a "free appropriate public education" (FAPE) to each qualified student with a disability who is in the school district's jurisdiction, regardless of the nature or severity of the disability. FAPE consists of the provision of regular or special education and related aids and services designed to meet the student's individual needs.

Repeated And Monitored Oral Reading - In this instructional activity, students read and reread a text a certain number of times or until a certain level of fluency is reached. This technique has been shown to improve reading fluency and overall reading achievement. Four re-readings are usually sufficient for most students. Students may also practice reading orally through the use of audiotapes, tutors, peer guidance, or other means.

Response To Intervention (RTI) - A process whereby local education agencies (LEAs) document a child's response to scientific, research-based intervention using a tiered approach. In contrast to the discrepancy criterion model, RtI provides early intervention for students experiencing difficulty learning to read. RtI was authorized for use in December 2004 as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Reliability - The degree to which an instrument measures the same way each time it is used under the same condition with the same subjects.

Research-Based Interventions - Research involving the application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs.

Responsive Instruction - A way of making teaching decisions in which a student's reaction to instruction directly shapes how future instruction is provided.

RIOT - Review, Interview, Observe, and Test – A problem-solving approach to the Four Content of Assessment Domains.

Root Word - Words from other languages that are the origin of many English words. About 60 percent of all English words have Latin or Greek origins.

Scaffolding - The instructional technique of using teacher support to help a student practice a skill at a higher level than he or she would be capable of independently. The opportunity to practice the skill at this level helps students advance to the point where they no longer need the support and can operate at this high level on their own.

Scientifically Based Research - To meet the common educational definition of "scientifically based," research must:

Self-advocacy - The development of specific skills and understandings that enable children and adults to explain their disabilities to others and cope positively with the attitudes of peers, parents, teachers, and employers.

Self-monitoring - The mental act of knowing when one does and does not understand what one is reading.

Sentence Combining - An instructional approach that involves teaching students to combine two or more simple sentences to form a more complex or sophisticated sentence.

Sight Words - Words that a reader recognizes without having to sound them out. Some sight words are "irregular," or have letter-sound relationships that are uncommon. Some examples of sight words are you, are, have and said.

Slope of Improvement - Refers to the student's progress based on graphed curriculum-based measurement data. Changes in the student's slope of improvement indicate the student's response to the intervention.

Small Learning Communities - an increasingly popular approach for teaching adolescents. This approach uses personalized classroom environments where teachers know each individual student and can tailor instruction to meet their academic and social/emotional needs. The goal is to increase students' sense of belonging, participation, and commitment to school.

Social English - Often referred to as "playground English" or "survival English", this is the basic language ability required for face-to-face communication, often accompanied by gestures and relying on context to aid understanding. Social English is much more easily and quickly acquired than academic English, but is not sufficient to meet the cognitive and linguistic demands of an academic classroom. Also referred to as Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS).

Special Education (SPED) - Services offered to children who possess one or more of the following disabilities: specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, visual impairments, autism, combined deafness and blindness, traumatic brain injury, and other health impairments.

Specific Learning Disability (SLD) - The official term used in federal legislation to refer to difficulty in certain areas of learning, rather than in all areas of learning. Synonymous with learning disabilities.

Speech Impaired (SI) - A category of special education services for students who have difficulty with speech sounds in their native language.

Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) - An expert who can help children and adolescents who have language disorders to understand and give directions, ask and answer questions, convey ideas, and improve the language skills that lead to better academic performance. An SLP can also counsel individuals and families to understand and deal with speech and language disorders.

State Education Agency (SEA) - Agency primarily responsible for the state supervision of public elementary and secondary schools.

Story Structure - In story structure, a reader sees the way the content and events of a story are organized into a plot. Students learn to identify the categories of content (setting, characters, initiating events, internal reactions, goals, attempts, and outcomes). Often students recognize the way the story is organized by developing a story map. This strategy improves students' comprehension and memory of story content and meaning.

Striving Readers Act - Striving Readers is aimed at improving the reading skills of middle school- and high school-aged students who are reading below grade level. Striving Readers supports the implementation and evaluation of research-based reading interventions for struggling middle and high school readers in Title I eligible schools that are at risk of not meeting or are not meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP) requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act, or that have significant percentages or number of students reading below grade level, or both.
For more information visit the USDOE website.

Suffix - A word part that is added to the end of a root word. The four most frequent suffixes account for 97 percent of suffixed words in printed school English. These include -ing, -ed, -ly, and -es.

Summarizing - A process in which a reader synthesizes the important ideas in a text. Teaching students to summarize helps them generate main ideas, connect central ideas, eliminate redundant and unnecessary information, and remember what they read.

Summative Assessment - Summative assessment is generally carried out at the end of a course or project. In an educational setting, summative assessments are typically used to assign students a course grade.

Supplemental Services - Services offered to students from low-income families who are attending schools that have been identified as in need of improvement for two consecutive years. Parents can choose the appropriate services (tutoring, academic assistance, etc.) from a list of approved providers, which are paid for by the school district.

Syllable - A part of a word that contains a vowel or, in spoken language, a vowel sound (e-vent, news-pa-per).

Text Comprehension - The reason for reading: understanding what is read by reading actively (making sense from text) and with purpose (for learning, understanding, or enjoyment).

Tiered Interventions - As used in Response to Intervention, identify a process to help students who have difficulty in some part of their learning.

Transition - Commonly used to refer to the change from secondary school to postsecondary programs, work, and independent living typical of young adults. Also used to describe other periods of major change such as from early childhood to school or from more specialized to mainstreamed settings.

Universal Design For Learning (UDL) - UDL provides a framework for creating flexible goals, methods, materials, and assessments that accommodate learner differences.
For more information visit the Center for Applied Special Technology website.

Vocabulary - Refers to the words a reader knows. Listening vocabulary refers to the words a person knows when hearing them in oral speech. Speaking vocabulary refers to the words we use when we speak. Reading vocabulary refers to the words a person knows when seeing them in print. Writing vocabulary refers to the words we use in writing.

Word Attack - An aspect of reading instruction that includes intentional strategies for learning to decode, sight read, and recognize written words.

Word Parts - Include affixes (prefixes and suffixes), base words, and word roots.

Word Roots - Words from other languages that are the origin of many English words. About 60 percent of all English words have Latin or Greek origins.

These terms and definitions were collected from the following sources: Dr. Jean Lokerson, ERIC Digest; Southwest Educational Laboratory (SEDL); Dr. Linda Wilmshurst and Dr. Alan Brue, A Parent's Guide to Special Education, American Management Association, 2005; The Partnership for Reading; Learning Disabilities Council; Dr. Don Deshler, University of Kansas.

Glossary - Response to Intervention
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Glossary of Terms

Glossary - Response to Intervention Information for Families

Glossary of Terms

Glossary - Response to Intervention
Information for Families