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Russell Gersten: I
am Russell Gersten.

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I am executive director of
Instructional Research Group,

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in Los Alamitos, California.

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Sharon Vaughn: Hi,
I am Sharon Vaughn.

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I am the executive director
of the Meadows Center

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for Preventing Educational
Risk and a Regents Professor

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at the University
of Texas at Austin.

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And the reason Russell and I
are doing this together today is

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because, for the past two
decades, we have worked

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on issues related to prevention
and intervention with respect

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to Response to Intervention
(RtI).

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Gersten: RtI has really
spread very, very rapidly,

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especially from when the special
education law changed five

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years ago.

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Whenever special
education law changes,

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states and districts
take it very seriously.

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But I think it goes beyond that.

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I think Reading First maybe
didn't call it Response

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to Intervention but
talked about intervention

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for students whose screening
measure showed "needed help."

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So schools, at least
in kindergarten

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through third grade,
had that experience.

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I think another impetus has
been the school psychologists.

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RtI allows for a much more
active creative role in terms

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of a school psychologist being
part of the school and helping,

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for example, a group of
third-grade teachers work

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out a plan for a
group of students.

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And I wonder, what do you think,
Sharon, about other forces?

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Vaughn: You know, Russell,

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I think one of the reasons
RtI has spread so quickly is

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that it's a movement that has
sort of been from the ground up,

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in which school districts
and key stakeholders feel

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like they have some options and
choices about how they do it.

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And in fact, even in the law, it
is recommended practice rather

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than mandated or required.

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And I think it makes districts
sort of embrace the idea

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of the critical components,

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but also giving them
some flexibility

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about how it is they go
about implementing it.

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Many states and districts have
already tried on screening;

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they have gotten a feel for it.

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But as you know, you want
to screen for a reason.

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And so then they
were sort of dabbling

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with interventions-and
sometimes at the district level,

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sometimes at the state level-so
that elements of RtI were part

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of their system already
and a cohesive framework

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for putting it together
was embraced.

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Gersten: People have
talked for a long time

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of really getting
special education

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and the classroom
teacher to work together.

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Most classroom teachers
were mystified by a lot

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of the special ed
language and jargon,

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and didn't know how this
was part of their job,

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how to get it to fit in.

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There was just something
about the array, the timing,

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and the incentives
that didn't work.

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So I think RtI also
was an attempt

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to seriously get the two
systems to work together.

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Vaughn: One of the
exciting things

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that has allowed these promising
practices with respect to RtI

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to really come together
is this notion

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that we have converging evidence
with increasing confidence

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around some of these
critical components.

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We know about screening in a way

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that we didn't several
decades ago.

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We know how to do it
quickly with high specificity

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and sensitivity, and that
would not have been the

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case previously.

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In addition, we know about
interventions and their effects.

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Perhaps more so with
reading than with math,

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but with a growing body
of research in both areas

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that help us define the
kinds of instruction

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that would support
students at risk.

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Gersten: There are a
lot of variations in RtI

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and how it's implemented
in different schools,

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but there are some core
principles that permeate it,

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and one of them is screening.

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One thing that was needed for
us to even seriously think

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about RtI in education was to be
able to have screening measures

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that were quick and
that were valid.

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In the areas of reading and
math for young students,

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we do have-by young,
I mean kindergarten

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through second grade, and
then reading really going

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up to fourth, fifth grade-we
do have quick, efficient ways

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that everybody can be screened.

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And one advantage [is]
we like to do everybody,

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then you get a nice quick
snapshot of the whole school.

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And Sharon, you may
want to talk a little

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about the other aspects,
the instructional aspects.

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Vaughn: One of the
important contributions

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of core instruction

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that integrates research-based
practice is

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that it gives all students
the opportunity to have access

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to good, quality instruction.

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And then if students are
at risk, we know it's

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because they need
additional instruction,

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not because the instruction

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that they have received
is inadequate.

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Another critical
component is what we do

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after we provide good
instruction in a classroom,

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what we do after
we screen students

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and then we find
students who are at risk

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and need additional support.

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And I think that's
when we start thinking

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about these layered
interventions

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and how we might move

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from providing some
additional support for students

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to more intensive support
depending upon their initial

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needs and/or their needs after
they are provided intervention.

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There is this general idea
that there are multiple layers

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of intervention as safety nets

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to provide increasingly
intensive instruction

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for students who
demonstrate difficulties.

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And, of course, matching
that intensity to the needs

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of the students, with students

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with milder needs getting
less intensive interventions.

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The last element that we
think of when we think

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of RtI is an opportunity
to use all of this data

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from the assessments
and screening as well

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as from students'
response to intervention

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to guide decision making,

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to help teachers really make
those kinds of decisions

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about what students need in
the classroom, in intervention,

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and even to use it as a data
source to potentially refer

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and place students
in special education.

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[Music]