By Wayne Barry, Specialist, Virginia Department of Education
November/December 2006
The August 14, 2006, publication of the IDEA regulations seems to have created a new wave of interest and concern about the response-to-intervention (RtI) provision of that law. Most of us can readily recall the first wave of concern during the public hearings that preceded the law’s signing. However, Response to intervention has been a concern to researchers and educators for more than 20 years. Use of RtI procedures for determining eligibility for special education services is only one aspect of RtI’s importance. Very little appreciation has been expressed in the literature for how this provision in the law will continue to improve instruction for all children. The importance of RtI for instruction has not escaped the notice of several individuals in the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), however.
In June, 2005, Doug Cox, Assistant Superintendent of Special Education and Student Services for the Commonwealth of Virginia and then-President of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE), and Cindy Cave, Director of the Office of Student Services, asked Don Fleming and Diane Gillam, specialists in the Division of Special Education and Student Services, respectively, to assemble an interdisciplinary group of educators to examine the RtI provisions in what would become the re-authorized version of IDEA. Accordingly, a group comprised of special educators, Title 1 specialists, and general education specialists in reading, math, and science began meeting regularly. The group included individuals who had been teachers at some point in their professional careers as well as individuals who had administrative experience. In March 2006, I joined and began to co-lead this group.
Workgroup members have pored over volumes of information, research reports, and PowerPoint presentations related to RtI, from experts and professional organizations. Individual members have attended a variety of “webinars” and telephone conference calls, and the group hosted a four-hour presentation on student progress monitoring by consultants from the American Institute for Research. The highlight of the group’s training, however, was the attendance of the four team members–two from “general ed” and two from “special ed”– at a conference in Kansas City sponsored by the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD). This four-person contingent of general and special educators from Virginia appeared to be unique in its heterogeneous composition. While we had gone to the conference feeling we might be a little bit “behind the 8-ball” in developing a state-sanctioned RtI response, we left the conference feeling a little bit “ahead of the game” upon learning that states appearing to be further along in implementation of RtI identified their major stumbling block to RtI implementation as getting “general ed buy-in.” We in Virginia already had it.
Collaboration on RtI exists not only at the higher levels of DOE but also at
the highest federal levels. The Council of Chief State School Officers has had
a subgroup collaborating on IDEA and NCLB since 1999. Readers are encouraged
to visit its website at http://www.ccsso.org and after clicking on “Projects”
(by name), scroll down to “IDEA Partnership.” It was refreshing
to learn of general education-special education collaboration at the highest
levels. This collaboration informs our ongoing efforts to soon provide school
divisions in the Commonwealth with a guidance document that will capture and
direct our collaborative energies. We welcome those of you who are inclined
to join your efforts to our own in providing the best instructional services
available to children in the Commonwealth. Our children deserve nothing less.
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