Intervention In Secondary Schools

Faggella-Luby and Wardwell state in their study on RTI (Response to Intervention) in middle school that “Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data indicate that…70% of eighth graders in public schools perform at or below the basic level in reading comprehension nationally” (Fagella-Luby & Wardwell, 2011, p. 35). The current education system is inundated with statistics such as this about the low levels of reading proficiency for American students, and the consequences are highest for those at the secondary level. Bemboom and McMaster (2013) explain that “As the timeline before graduation shortens and the history of academic failure lengthens for secondary students who struggle with reading, potential economic and social

Kamil and colleagues (2008) explain that “reading instruction as a formal part of the curriculum typically decreases as students move beyond upper elementary grades” (p. 4). Prewett and colleagues add that “the competing, simultaneous demands of improving students’ basic skill sets (e.g., reading, writing math) while helping them to learn and use content knowledge in science, social studies, language arts, history, and foreign language coursework can pose difficulties in implementing RTI in secondary schools” (2012, p. 136). In addition, previous attempts at addressing the reading gap in our country have focused on lengthening instructional time. “Historically, educators have focused support for secondary students on providing more time to access learning, rather than addressing curricular and instructional means of accelerating learning” (Bemboom & McMaster, 2013, p. 184). The need for reading instruction interventions at the secondary level is clear. As King, Lemons, and Hill explain, “the reading difficulties of secondary students are not, as some may presume, confined to comprehension…A substantial portion of adolescents struggle with basic reading skills (e.g., decoding, word-reading strategies, and fluency), prompting Fuchs, Fuchs, and Compton (2010) to label the situation as nothing less than ‘a public health crisis’” (Kings,

King, Lemons, and Hill (2012) state that “the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) allows states to use a student’s lack of response to scientific, research-based intervention to identify children as having a specific learning disability (LD)” (p. 6). Moreover, “some states, including Colorado, Florida, and Illinois, among others, are adopting an RtI framework as the only process for identifying students with a specific learning disability (Pyle & Vaughn, 2012, p. 273).” Therefore, because response, or lack thereof, to interventions throughout the RTI process can lead to a referral for special education services (and is the only way for students to be referred to these services in some states), it is important to know what research says about the most promising interventions and models of intervention at the secondary