Remediating reading difficulties in a response to intervention model with secondary students

The research on Response to Intervention (RtI) with secondary students is scant; however, a recently conducted, multiyear, large-scale implementation of RtI with middle-school students provides findings that inform practices and future directions for research. This article provides an overview of the findings from each of the 3 years of an intensive, tiered reading intervention with middle-school students. In Year 1, students were provided with a Tier 1 and Tier 2 intervention. In Year 2, minimal responders were provided with another year of intervention (Tier 3), and again in Year 3, minimal responders to the 2-year intervention were provided with a third year of intervention (Tier 4). Using students' responsiveness to intervention as a prerequisite for a subsequent year of intensive instruction, minimal responders received a total of up to 3 years of intervention. The efficacy of an enhanced primary (Tier 1), secondary (Tier 2), and tertiary (Tier 3) intervention, and an individualized, intensive reading intervention (Tier 4) are discussed, as well as the logistics of implementing an RtI model with secondary students.