Response to intervention: Accountability in action

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a popular if controversial initiative developed largely in the USA, but which is, as yet, little known in general education in Australia. However, this may change given the increased attention to accountability in recent times. The national NAPLAN and international PISA assessments are leading to pressure being placed on schools to lift student performance. It is possible that RTI may be seen by school systems as a means of providing data demonstrating effectiveness, and also a way of providing a direction for schools' responses to that data. The expectation that general education teachers provide evidence-based instruction and regular progress monitoring would, however, represent a significant change when compared to current practice in Australia. This paper presents a brief history of the development of RTI, an introduction to the RTI framework and its application in regular and special education. It also examines some of the issues that would arise if it were to be introduced into Australian mainstream education.