RTI: What is it and how will it affect me, my school, and my child?

Some schools and districts have already implemented it. Many more will be introducing it soon. It will turn business-as-usual education in schools on its head. School schedules will be transformed, creating a puzzle for administrators to work out. Teachers will need to change their planning and their methods. Parents may wonder what is happening, and students, for whom these changes are taking place, are supposed to get a better education -- especially those who are at risk.

What is RTI? It stands for Response to Intervention. I will be showing you some videos where administrators and teachers try to explain it. You will see what's happening in both elementary and high schools that have adopted it, and you will hear what it will mean for both teachers and administrators. RTI is basically a tiered system of intervening in student academic and behavior problems before they become bigger, giving students the extra help they need based on data produced by more frequent assessments by the general classroom teachers. Simple? Only in theory. But all good theories take a lot of behind the scenes work for districts, school administrators, and teachers.