CORA – 10/21/14
Ashley Thornton
Initially, RtI was just a K-12 initiative, but RtI is now being introduced to ECE. It was
discovered that the core principles of RtI align with the recommended practices of ECE. Before
RtI, the common practice was a “wait to fail” method for discovering disabilities and delays.
Then, if it was discovered that a child has a learning delay or disability, the teaching a child
received in the general education classroom was not usually considered part of the problem.
Those who developed RtI were not formally trained in ECE. The developmental needs of
younger children are much different than school age children. The ECE world demands a much
broader range of assistance for children than that of the K-12 world, but RtI can be adapted to fit
the needs of younger children.
When using the RtI approach, the goal is to provide “high-quality teaching and
responsive caregiving through the delivery of differentiated support for all young children.”
There are three tiers to teaching and caregiving and they are depicted using a pyramid (as RtI is a
pyramid model of intervention). Tier 1 is on the bottom of the pyramid and Tier 3 is at the top.
As you get higher on the pyramid, the instructional interventions become more individualized,
specialized, intensive, and frequent. Tier 1 represents the high-quality teaching and responsive
caregiving that we hope is available to all children, universally, through ECE programs. It is
hoped that all children are able to learn through the use of a UDL based curriculum, but that is
not always the reality. Sometimes children need more support. Tier 2 represents more targeted
outcomes and supports for children. These are the children who may need some differentiation,
but do not have a delay or disability that requires an extremely individualized approach. Tier 3
involves highly individualized outcomes and supports for children. This tier is for children who
need specific supports and need interventions that are highly intensive and frequent. In order to
determine whether or not interventions are necessary, teachers must gather data regarding a child
from multiple sources over a period of time. They must analyze this data to find patterns and
make decisions about the child. Then, teacher must work to implement high quality instruction
and evaluate how the child responds to the instructional efforts implemented. Many parts of
instruction can be changed in order to find what is suitable for the child. These changes include
what is taught, where the child is taught, when the child is taught, and how the child is taught.
RtI framework can be applied to infant/ toddler programs and preschool because of the
overlap in practices. The ECE world is very familiar with research based tiered models for
teaching and caregiving. Tier models can be used for a variety of practices, but the basic
concepts remain the same. The bottom tier is universal instruction/care and higher on the
pyramid is more differentiated and individualized instruction/care. It is important to remember
that instead of just placing a child on a tier and labeling them that way, the interventions are
specific to that child’s needs. A child may only need Tier 1 instruction/care for most things, but
needs Tier 3 support in a specific developmental area. In ECE, it is important that no matter what
the tier placement is for a child, they receive instruction/care that is developmentally appropriate
and engaging. RtI’s Tier 1 is meant to ensure high-quality instruction for all students. In ECE it
is expected that all children are able to participate in a curriculum that allows for a sufficient
number of learning opportunities within their routines and activities during the day. On-going
assessment is another aspect of RtI that is also found in infant/toddler programs and preschool.
Assessment is used in ECE to determine whether or not a child requires more support, to
compare a child’s status to that of his/her peers, to decide whether differentiation of instruction is
necessary, and to rate the overall success of a program. In RtI, universal screening determines if
a child is “falling behind” and compares a child’s success to a benchmark or other standard.
Assessment in ECE is used for developmental evaluation whereas universal screening is used to
determine a child’s performance related to outcomes, but the concept of on-going assessment is
the same within both ECE and the RtI model. Progress monitoring is the overarching principle
here. Progress monitoring is used to inform decisions about the instruction/care a child is
receiving. Determining whether or not best practice is being used and also deciding whether or
not interventions are necessary for a child. The final largely overlapping principle of RtI as it
compares to ECE is the idea of collaboration. In ECE, there is a great emphasis placed on the
importance of relationships with families. Partnerships between program personnel, families, and
other community members are essential. For RtI, the data collected about a child is better when
more resources are available and decisions should be made with the opinions of all parties
involved accounted for. The goal is to make the child as successful as possible and in order for
that to happen, all gaps must be bridged (between school, the home, and any other outside
supports). All parties must collaborate to track progress and determine the next steps for a child.
Along with these overarching principles, it is important to mention a few misconceptions
about RtI that clouds the connection between it and ECE. The first is that RtI delays referral to
special education services. A child does not have to “fail” through RtI intervention before being
referred to special education. RtI is just meant to provide more immediate intervention and can
be used until special education services are available to a child. The second misconception is that
RtI is only for academics. The RtI model can be used in developmental learning as well, it is just
a method of determining the level of intervention and support a child needs. It is believed that
RtI promotes developmentally inappropriate methods of teaching for ECE. RtI contains the same
principles that ECE does and simply determines levels of intervention, the framework embodies
characteristics of intentional teaching and developmentally appropriate practice that are very
similar to ECE. Another misconception is that RtI promotes ability grouping. Some small-group
activities may be present throughout the day that are specialized for children in a specific tier,
but for the most part, RtI is an inclusive approach to learning. Small-group sessions are reserved
for more intensive support. The final misconception is that the top tier of RtI is special education.
RtI is meant to meet a child’s specific learning needs, it is not connected to special education. A
child might eventually need special education and a support team may make a referral, but RtI is
not meant as a way to identify a delay or disability.