‘Response To Intervention’ In Math Seen As Challenging
Last week, educators gathered to discuss a new federal "practice guide" regarding response to intervention (RTI) for students who struggle in math. They acknowledged that applying the RTI approach to math is challenging, but they also recognized that it is worth the effort. The practice guide, developed by an expert panel convened by the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, provides eight recommendations for remediating math difficulties through the RTI process for elementary and middle school students.
While RTI has been extensively studied for young children learning to read, the research base for math is not as robust, according to Russell Gersten, the chairman of the federal panel responsible for the practice guide. Nonetheless, the guide suggests that remediation for students in grades K-5 should focus on whole numbers, such as counting, addition, and subtraction. Older students up to 8th grade should delve deeply into rational numbers, including ratios, decimals, and percentages, as recommended by the panel.
Another key recommendation is that all students who require extra math assistance should work on fluent retrieval of basic arithmetic facts, such as simple addition and multiplication. The panel found that higher-level mathematics often assumes students can readily recall facts like "3 times 9" or "11 minus 7," which can be challenging for those who lag behind their peers.
A framework for implementing the RTI approach to math was outlined in the practice guide released in April. The guide, alongside a similar guide for reading instruction, was the focus of a forum hosted by the What Works Clearinghouse on June 10. The clearinghouse, part of the Institute of Education Sciences, serves as the key research arm for the U.S. Department of Education. Russell Gersten, the executive director of the Instructional Research Group, led both the math and reading panels.
It is important to note that the practice guides do not endorse specific products or practices. Instead, their purpose is to provide educators with evidence-based features that should be present in any effective RTI framework. Response to intervention is a tiered system of instruction that gained popularity after its inclusion in the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act. It involves providing high-quality instruction to all students in the first tier, targeted lessons for students with identified weaknesses in the second tier, and more intensive help for a small number of struggling students in the third tier. The guide does not categorize its recommendations into tiers but offers evidence-based suggestions to improve math performance for struggling students.
Educators at the event acknowledged the challenges of integrating math into an RTI framework but stressed the importance of doing so to enhance math performance for struggling students. Karen D. Cheser, the assistant superintendent for learning support services in the Boone County district, shared that their school system initially focused on RTI for reading but later realized the need for math intervention due to indications that students were struggling in higher-level math classes. The district created its own screening program to identify areas of weakness, discovering that many students needed to improve their math fluency in order to grasp more complex mathematical concepts. Similarly, Judith Russ from the Prince George’s County district in Maryland expressed the difficulty of finding appropriate instructional materials that prioritize conceptual understanding.
