Response to Intervention: General or Special Education? Who Is Responsible?

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a general education initiative that takes place prior to evaluation for placement in special education. Essentially, the first two tiers of RtI require general education teachers to use research-based instruction with all students and then to evaluate the effectiveness of that instruction. Given that the use of RtI as an assessment tool begins in the general education classroom, the following question remains: Are general educators aware of the development and implementation of RtI as a process for assessing and, eventually, possibly placing students into special education? The purpose of this study was to review the literature to answer the following two questions: 1. To what extent is RtI evident in the professional literature of educator groups (teachers, administrators, and teacher educators) who will be responsible for implementing these school practices? 2. What is the nature of the published literature (concept papers, assessment practices, instructional practices, and research) on RtI?