Historical and Theoretical Foundations for Response to Intervention

• In Event: 18.059 - MTCC Roundtable Session Three
  In Roundtable Session: 18.059-6 - New Directions in Curricular Policy Research

Abstract

Response to Intervention (RTI) is the most recent, large scale effort to change special education in the United States. This study seeks to understand the historical and theoretical foundations for RTI, placing the reform in a much larger and longer set of debates about the quality of instruction in both general and special education and the validity of various disability categories and their evaluation processes. In this longer history, RTI can be understood as a response to some of the expected and unexpected consequences of early special education policy and yet another effort to try to improve the quality of general and special education, the validity of special education categories, and the treatment of poor, minority, and low performing students.

Author

• Michaela Krug O'Neill, Brown University