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Response to Intervention
A Hybrid Model for LD Identification
2. There is insufficient response to effective, research-based interventions. A systematic plan for assessing change in performance must be established prior to intervention.
3. Exclusion factors such as mental retardation, sensory deficits, serious emotional disturbance, language minority children (where lack of proficiency in English accounts for measured achievement deficits), and lack of opportunity to learn should be considered.
Comprehensive evaluation
- One component of IDEA 2004 that is often puzzling is a provision that allows States and districts to use other alternative research-based procedures for determining whether a child has a specific learning disability. In fact, the research reviewed here suggests that all states should adopt an alternative model. This was explicitly addressed by a consensus group of researchers convened by the US Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs after the LD Summit held in 200. This group suggested three primary criteria, the first two of which are clearly inclusionary.
2. There is insufficient response to effective, research-based interventions. A systematic plan for assessing change in performance must be established prior to intervention.
3. Exclusion factors such as mental retardation, sensory deficits, serious emotional disturbance, language minority children (where lack of proficiency in English accounts for measured achievement deficits), and lack of opportunity to learn should be considered.
- Thus, identifying children with LD, whether as part of the process stipulated in IDEA (2004), a clinic outside of school, or in research, requires the presence of low achievement and inadequate response to instruction as inclusionary criteria. This is true whether the overarching identification model stems from an RTI process or from some type of psychometric model. Only if an achievement deficit is present and the student demonstrates intractability in response to quality instruction can we be sure that the low achievement is unexpected. IQ-achievement discrepancy and discrepancies across cognitive domains do not provide this assurance.
- In addition, low achievement and poor treatment response may be due to other disabilities, such as a sensory problem, mental retardation, or another pervasive disturbance of cognition. These disorders have their own set of identification criteria and require interventions that address a much more pervasive impairment of adaptation that contrasts with the narrow impairment in adaptive skills that should characterize LD. Contextual factors that interfere with achievement, such as limited English proficiency (based on an assessment of achievement in English and the minority language whenever possible), co-occurring behavioral problems, and economic disadvantage should be considered, but it is important to emphasize that the chief consideration should be intractability in instructional response because objective criteria for distinguishing unexpected low achievement in children with behavioral difficulties and economic disadvantage are not presently available.
Comprehensive evaluation
- A common mantra of RTI critics is that proponents of RTI models believe that RTI alone is sufficient evidence for identification of LD. IDEA 2004 requires that children suspected of having LD receive a comprehensive evaluation that incorporates all three sets of criteria identified above. This type of evaluation is appropriately mandated by IDEA 2004 regardless of the identification model that is adopted. In an RTI model, IDEA 2004 is invoked at a point when the child has not been comprehensively assessed, and many factors other than LD may explain low achievement. This is widely recognized in actual implementations of RTI and the notion that there are RTI advocates who use RTI as a single criterion can only be described as a myth (Jimerson, Burns, & VanDerHeyden, 2007). The difference between a model used in RTI and a traditional identification model may be that in RTI models, the evaluation is aligned with IDEA 2004 as a comprehensive data gathering process, not a mandated approach to assessment that represents a battery of the same tests with every child.
- Firmly establishing low achievement should be part of most comprehensive evaluations because progress monitoring data assessing instructional response may not be feasible in each of the eight domains (e.g., reading comprehension). At the same time, there is no point in assessing all eight domains of IDEA if the nature of the achievement problem is easily established. Why complete extensive assessments of reading comprehension and written expression in children who have problems with word recognition and spelling? This component of the hybrid model can be operationalized by using norm-referenced assessments of academic achievement, which should be brief and based on hypotheses about the nature of academic impairment (Fletcher et al., 2007). In addition, it is helpful to verify the nature of the academic impairments to avoid an identification based on single approach (Fletcher et al., 2007).
- To assess intervention response, the quality of the core instructional program must be documented with assessments of progress. This assessment is easily accomplished in an RTI model because of its reliance on curriculum-based probe assessments of growth in reading, math, and spelling. However, not all domains of achievement can be measured with probe assessments (e.g., reading comprehension), which makes assessment using norm-referenced tests important.
- Finally, if the concerns that lead to referral involve other disabilities, the assessor should be prepared to assess the child more comprehensively. These assessments could include IQ and adaptive behavior required for mental retardation, as well as assessments for autism and pervasive developmental disorders, limited English proficiency, and speech and language. Behavior rating scales from parents and teachers should be completed routinely as screening measures for comorbid disorders (e.g., ADHD) and other contextual factors that may explain low achievement. They certainly also need to be considered in formulating a treatment plan. The point is, not every child needs to be assessed for every potential problem; in an RTI model, there will be hypotheses about the basis for the achievement problem that will lead to assessments specific to the child and to an intervention plan that is individualized.
- If the student is evaluated outside of an RTI model, evidence that an identified disorder leads to adaptive impairment (i.e., educational need) must also be considered since disability determination always has these two prongs. In an RTI model, adaptive impairment is determined first (i.e., evidence that the child does not achieve at grade level despite quality instruction) and the establishment of eligibility involves determining the basis for this intractability. In other identification models, the assessment of adaptive impairment may be subjective and partly responsible for the confusion that abounds when an interdisciplinary team denies eligibility despite a diagnosed disorder that sometimes, but not always, interferes with school performance. Just having a disorder is not sufficient to identify the disorder as a disability.