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Coordination of General and Special Education: Response to Intervention
References and Resources Updated November, 2010
Tom Green, Director of School Transformation, Alum Rock School District
Thomas.green@arusd.org; trenwickgreen@gmail.com
408-928-6526; 650-759-4643
My reference list for this work is extensive. The Response to Intervention model is undergoing
significant development at a rapid rate, yet there is no clearly established model for school sites or
districts at the state or federal levels. As with all educational reforms, the publishing industry generates
a massive volume of “authoritative” or “can’t miss” material on Responses to Intervention. Be carefulmost of it is expensive and of little value. Below is a short list of authoritative sources, followed by core
references on the issue of effective instruction, support and intervention for below grade level students.
It is important to read the original state and federal source documents since there is so much
misinformation and incorrect assumption regarding what is legal and what is not. Upon request, I am
happy to provide references for any particular aspect of this work.
Federal source documents:
Ed.gov. Title I- Improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged. Retrieved
July 30, 2006, from http://www.ed.gov/
Ed.gov. Individuals with disabilities education improvement act of 2004. Retrieved July
30, 2006, from http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/
Ed.gov. Final regulations IDEA Part B. Retrieved August 10, 2006, from
http://www.ed.gov.
California Department of Education (CDE) source documents:
California Department of Education. Determining Specific Learning Disability Eligibility Using Response to
Intervention And Intervention (RtI2). Sacramento, 2009.
California Department of Education. Service Delivery for Students with Disabilities. Sacramento, March
27, 2009.
California Department of Education. Response to Instruction and Intervention. Sacramento, November
14, 2008.
The National Association of State Directors of Special Education has taken a leading role, and their
website www.nasdse.org is probably the best source of current information. Two of their recent
publications are particularly useful to the reader interested in coordination:
Griffiths, J.; Parson, L., Burns, M. K., VanDerHeyden, A., & Tilly, W. D. (2007). Response to
intervention: Research for practice. National Association of State Directors of Special Education,
Inc.
Kurns, S. & Tilly, W. D. (2008). Response to intervention: Blueprints for implementation.
National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc.
The National Center on Response to Intervention is the leading source for current information at
http://www.rti4success.org/. A good summary from them, available on the website is: Essential
Components of RtI: A Closer Look at Response to Intervention. April, 2010.
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Effective instruction, support, and intervention for below grade level students require targeted,
effective assessment and instructional tools in addition to core assessment and instruction materials.
Some of the most commonly used and well studied materials are listed below.
The latest book that we are using is:
Next Steps in Literacy Instruction: Connecting Assessments to Effective Interventions
By Susan M. Smartt, Ph.D., & Deborah R. Glaser, Ed.D.
Assessment and Progress Monitoring:
AIMSweb. www.aimsweb.com.
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) www.dibels.uoregon.edu.
Alternative Core or Intervention Reading Instruction:
Corrective Reading
Language!
Language for Learning
Phonics for Reading
Read Naturally
Read 180
Read Write and Type
Alternative Core or Intervention Mathematics Instruction:
Math Triumphs
TouchMath
Do the Math
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A Basic List of Key References:
American Association of School Administrators (2007). Response to Intervention in
IDEA. Retrieved 10/24/07.
Association of California School Administrators and the California Association of School
Psychologists (2007). Response to Intervention: From Concept to Implementation. Presentation
materials November 7, 2007.
Barnett, D. W., Daly, E. J., Jones, K. M., & Lentz, F. E. L. (2004, July). Response to
intervention: Empirically based special service decisions from single-case designs of increasing
and decreasing intensity. Journal of Special Education 38(2), 66-79.
Bradley, R., Danielson, L., & Doolittle, J. (2007). Responsiveness to intervention: 1997
to 2007. Teaching Exceptional Children, May/June 2007, 8-12.
Brown-Chidsey, R. (2007). No More “Waiting to Fail”. Educational Leadership, October
2007, 40-48.
Carter, L. F. (1984). The sustaining effects study of compensatory and elementary
education. Educational Researcher 13(7), August/September, 1984, 4-13.
Center to Improve Reading Competence Using Intensive Treatments Schoolwide
(C.I.R.C.U.I.T.S.) http://idea.uoregon.edu/.
Chapman, J., & Tunmer, W. (2003). Reading difficulties, reading-related self
perceptions, and strategies for overcoming negative self-beliefs. Reading and Writing Quarterly,
19, 5-24.
Coburn, C. E. (2001). Collective sensemaking about reading: How teachers mediate
reading policy in their professional communities. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis,
23(2), 145-170.
Cole, C. M. (1992). Collaboration: Research and practice. CASE Information
Dissemination Packet. Bloomington, IN: Council of Administrators of Special Education.
Cooley, E. (1995). Special education: At a crossroads. San Francisco, CA: Far West Lab
for Educational Research and Development.
Corcoran, T., Fuhrman, S. H., & Belcher, C. L. (2001). The district role in instructional
improvement. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(1), 78-84.
Daly III, E. J., Martens, B. K., Barnett, D., Witt, J. C., & Olson, S. C. (2007). Varying
intervention delivery in response to intervention: Confronting and resolving challenges with
measurement, instruction, and intensity. School Psychology Review 2007, 36(4), 562-581.
Danielson, L., Doolittle, J., & Bradley, R. (2007). Professional development, capacity
building, and research needs: Critical issues for response to intervention implementation. School
Psychology Review 2007, 36(4), 632-637.
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Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). The right to learn. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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district management and implementation strategies relate to the quality of professional
development that districts provide to teachers? Teachers College Record, 104
Duenas, I. E. (1993). Special education finance: Narrative review of the literature. Palo
Alto, CA: Center for Special Education Finance.
Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)
http://dibels.uoregon.edu
Ed.gov. Title I- Improving the academic achievement of the disadvantaged. Retrieved
July 30, 2006, from http://www.ed.gov/
Ed.gov. Individuals with disabilities education improvement act of 2004. Retrieved July
30, 2006, from http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/
Ed.gov. Final regulations IDEA Part B. Retrieved August 10, 2006, from
http://www.ed.gov.
Elmore, R. F. (1996). Getting to scale with successful educational practices. Harvard
Educational Review, 66(1), 1-26.
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College Record, 105(6), 1119-1146.
Farran, B. (2008?). Response to intervention: Key considerations for decision makers.
Feir, R. E. (1995). Pennsylvania’s special education formula: Early results. Paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Finance Association (Savannah, GA,
March 10, 1995).
Fletcher, J. M. et al. (2001, August 27). Classification of learning disabilities: An
evidence-based evaluation. Paper presented at the Learning Disabilities Summit: Building a
Foundation for the Future. Washington, D. C.
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Exceptional Children, May/June 2007, 24-30.
Friend, M. & Pope, K. L. (2005). Creating schools in which all students can succeed.
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Kappa Delta Pi Record 41(2), 56-61, Winter 2005.
Fuchs, D. (2003, December 4) Responding to nonresponders: An experimental field trial
of identification and intervention methods. Paper presented to National Research Center on
Learning Disabilities Responsiveness-to-Intervention Symposium.
Fuchs, L. (2003, August). Assessing intervention responsiveness: Conceptual and
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Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., Compton, D. L., Bouton, B., Caffrey, E., & Hill, L. (2007).
Dynamic assessment as responsiveness to intervention: A scripted protocol to identify young atrisk readers. Teaching Exceptional Children, May/June 2007, 58-63.
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responsiveness to reading instruction. Exceptional Children, Fall 2006, 8-30.
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components and directions for future research. School Psychology Review 2007, 36(4), 526-540.
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Griffiths, A., Parson, L. B., Burns, M. K., VanDerHeyden, A., & Tilly, W. D. (2007).
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