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Version 1.1 – Updated August 2021

Response to Intervention

Overview

  • Influence: Response to Intervention
  • Domain: Teaching Strategies
  • Sub-Domain: Feedback
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to considerably accelerate
  • Influence Definition: Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behavior needs. The RTI process begins with high-quality instruction and universal screening of all children in the general education classroom (Tier 1). Struggling learners are provided with interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate of learning. Those not making progress are then provided with increasingly intensive instruction usually in small groups (Tier 2). If still no progress, then students receive individualized, intensive interventions that target the students’ skill deficits (Tier 3).

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 5
  • Number of studies: 107
  • Number of students: 5,104
  • Number of effects: 332
  • Effect size: 1.09

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author First Author's Country Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Journal of Learning Disabilities Tran, Sanchez, Arellano & Swanson Belgium A Meta-Analysis of the RTI Literature for Children at Risk for Reading Disabilities 2011 Response to Intervention programs 13 0 107 1.07
Unpublished Thesis Torres USA A Meta-Analysis of Research-Based Reading Interventions with English Language Learners. 2016 Response to Intervention programs 20 0 11 1.32
Review of Educational Research Swanson & Lussier USA A selective synthesis of the experimental literature on dynamic assessment 2001 Dynamic assessment (feedback) 30 5,104 170 1.12
Unpublished Masters Thesis Bagasi USA Meta analysis of the effectiveness of response to intervention models in special education and implications for international implementations. 2014 Response to Intervention programs 19 0 19 0.47
Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment Burns, Appleton, & Stehouwer USA Meta-Analytic Review of Responsiveness-to-Intervention Research: Examining Field-Based and Research-Implemented Models 2005 Response to Intervention programs 25 0 25 1.49
TOTAL/AVERAGE 107 5,104 332 1.09

Confidence

The Confidence is the average of these four measures, each divided into five approximately equal groups and assigned a value from 1 to 5 based on the following criteria:

  • Number of Meta-analyses
    • 1 = 1
    • 2 = 2–3
    • 3 = 4–6
    • 4 = 7–9
    • 5 = 10+
  • Number of Studies
    • 1 = 1–10
    • 2 = 11–50
    • 3 = 51–200
    • 4 = 201–400
    • 5 = 400+
  • Number of Students
    • 1 = 1–2,500
    • 2 = 2,501–10,000
    • 3 = 10,000–20,000
    • 4 = 20,000–100,000
    • 5 = 100,001+
  • Number of Effects
    • 1 = 1–100
    • 2 = 101–300
    • 3 = 301–600
    • 4 = 601–1,200
    • 5 = 1,200+
Confidences
Number of Meta-Analyses Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Overall Confidence
Confidence Factor 3 3 2 3 3
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