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      Response-to-Intervention (RtI) involves evaluating the degree that students (a) master academic material in response to effective instruction and (b) demonstrate appropriate, prosocial behavior in response to effective classroom management.  When students are not progressing or “responding,” academically or behaviorally, to effective instructional conditions, RtI includes a functional assessment/problem solving process to determine the reason(s) for the lack of success, and the implementation of strategic through intensive interventions to help those students progress and be successful.  At an operational level, RtI is often described as working within a flexible, three-tiered system that is guided by students’ academic and behavioral outcomes.  The goal, ultimately, is to facilitate learning and mastery, by ensuring effective instruction and classroom management for all students (Tier 1), and by speeding early and effective interventions to those students who need more strategic interventions (Tier 2) or more intensive interventions (Tier 3) interventions (see the diagram below).  Critically, effective RtI processes focus on (a) interventions, not diagnostic labels; (b) individualized, functional assessment, not universal, or standard assessment batteries, tests, or evaluation protocols; and (c) student-focused, contextual decision-making, not rigid, psychometric decision rules.

      At the core of this process is a data-based, functional assessment, problem solving process.  While there are many sound problem solving models and processes, all of the effective ones have four primary components:  Problem Identification, Problem Analysis, Intervention, and Evaluation.  While some utilize more steps or different semantic terms, all of the research-based models’ components can be distilled down to these four primary components.  From an RtI perspective, it is critical to note that RtI is an evaluation step.  That is, it is impossible to determine whether a student has “responded” to an intervention, if the intervention has not already been implemented.

      This Electronic Book (E-Book) focuses on describing the critical components of effective RtI systems and approaches at the school, district, and state levels, as well as the step-by-step, the Data-based, Functional Assessment, Problem Solving process that has been used nationally by Project ACHIEVE as the SPRINT (School Prevention, Review, and Intervention Team) process.  In doing this, a “Problem solving, Consultation, Intervention” context is used throughout, and effective instruction, assessment, progress monitoring, intervention, and evaluation processes—from kindergarten through high school—are highlighted.  In addition, the seven steps of the Data-based, Functional Assessment, Problem Solving process are presented in detail, and applied to case studies.  Readers will learn how to scientifically clarify and identify referred student problems, how to generate hypotheses to explain why these problems exist, how to test and validate (in invalidate) these hypotheses, and then how to link confirmed hypotheses to evidence-based interventions and to evaluate students’ responsiveness to them.

      Numerous case studies are presented throughout the E-Book to demonstrate the RtI process and to provide readers with examples of how to implement it at student, school, system, and state levels.  Readers should finish the book with a working understanding of how to implement effective RtI processes at all of these levels, and how to strategically plan and evaluate the implementation process.