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RTI and Special Education

If students go through a tier 3 for comprehension and meet the goal but still have a poor reading profile (i.e. failing grades on weekly tests, below grade level on reading diagnostic, below grade level Lexile, below grade level Running Reading Record) can the students qualify for LD?


Response from Sheldon Horowitz, Ed.D.:

This is a great question, and the answer (or answers) are in the detail. If a student has completed a well selected and well implemented tier 3 intervention, their progress (or lack thereof) will be apparent. If more or differently targeted instruction and support is needed, the school-based team  should make that decision. If more information about the nature of the comprehension difficulties is needed, some diagnostic teaching or assessment might be in order. Every school system (17,700+ across the country!) determines how eligibility for the LD classification is operationalized. Some (unfortunately) still adhere to the “old model” of wait-to-fail, some have embraced RTI practices but are engaged in a hybrid model of providing  general education and special education services, and some have reinvented themselves as teaching and learning communities that provide seamless and comprehensive services, some delivered by special education personnel (and perhaps called “LD”).  So, in answer to your question, qualifying for LD means different things in different places, AND perhaps the better question to ask is how to improve this student’s outcomes on these important measures of progress. Meeting the goal is fine only if it translates into positive change. Gather the troops and troubleshoot what more can be done to understand (and deliver) the intervention needed to get this student beyond the intervention and on a trajectory of progress.


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