RTI Toolkit - Essential Parts

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a problem-solving process that identifies struggling students by doing screenings periodically through the year. Struggling students are then provided interventions that are based on research for a period of time. Screenings that monitor each student's progress identify students who need additional or different assistance. Data from monitoring a student's progress determine the interventions that will be used and further educational decisions.
A number of leading national organizations forming the 2004 Learning Disabilities (Learning Disabilities) Roundtable Coalition, outlined the core features of an RTI process as follows:
High quality, research-based instruction and behavior support in general education.
Universal (school-wide or district-wide) screening of academics and behavior in order to determine which students need closer monitoring or additional interventions.
Multiple tiers of increasingly intense scientific, research-based interventions that are matched to student needs.
Use a collaborative approach by school staff for development, interventions, implementation and monitoring of the interventions.
Continuous monitoring of student progress during the intervention, using objective information to determine if students are meeting goals.
Follow-up measures provide information that the intervention was implemented as intended with appropriate consistency
Documentation of parent involvement throughout the process.
Documentation that the special education evaluation timelines specified in IDEA 2004 and state regulations are followed unless both the parents and the school team agree to an extension.