School Psychology Forum
Volume 1 Issue 1
Volume 1, Issue 1 (November 2006 )
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Introduction to School Psychology Forum: Research in Practice
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Response to Intervention: The Role of and Effect on School Psychology
Abstract: The recent provision in federal special education regulations that allows for the use of student response to scientifically based interventions to diagnose learning disabilities, referred to as response to intervention (RTI), represents perhaps the most significant change in special education in almost 30 years. However, what constitutes RTI and what role school psychology should play is not clearly articulated in legal regulatory or research literature. The current article describes a three-tiered RTI model that uses assessment data to identify and respond to student needs. We also discuss specific activities in which school psychologists could engage within and across the three tiers. Finally, we present data from our school-based experiences that demonstrate how daily activities of school psychologists change within an RTI approach.
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Implementing IDEA 2004 With a Three-Tier Model That Includes Response to Intervention and Cognitive Assessment Methods
Abstract: Reauthorized by the U.S. Congress in 2004, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act will require ongoing regulatory efforts to determine its operationalization and implementation. School psychologists and other educational professionals are particularly concerned about the guidelines for identification of children with specific learning disabilities (SLD). Although some practitioners may continue to use the ability-achievement discrepancy approach, the response-to-intervention (RTI) approach can now be used to identify children with SLD. Although RTI methods should be encouraged and adopted, a multitiered approach that combines RTI with cognitive assessment should be used to serve all children with learning difficulties. In this best practices model, RTI should be adopted early to ameliorate learning problems, but if interventions efforts are unsuccessful, a comprehensive evaluation of cognitive processes should be undertaken to ensure that a child meets the SLD defini
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Evaluating and Comparing Responsiveness to Two Interventions Designed to Enhance Math-Fact Fluency
Abstract: Response-to-intervention models of service delivery are designed to identify, prevent, and remedy students’ academic skill deficits, including mathematics skills deficits. Although educators have developed procedures for enhancing math skills, further research is needed to establish interventions that are both efficient and effective for students functioning at a range of abilities. Researchers used an adapted alternating treatments design to evaluate and compare responsiveness to two interventions intended to improve the addition—fact fluency of a student with mild mental retardation. During cover, copy, compare (CCC), a student was instructed to read a list of math problems and answers, cover each problem and answer, write the problem and answer, and check her response. During the taped-problems intervention (TP), the student received a packet of problems and was instructed to complete each problem before the answer was provided by a corresponding audiotape. A third set of
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