THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN READING ACHIEVEMENT AND SLD RISK RATIOS IN STATES IMPLEMENTING RTI

Abstract

Students who display persistent reading deficits are sometimes diagnosed with a specific learning disability (SLD). Historically, eligibility for an SLD diagnosis has been made either through a discrepancy model, which utilizes IQ and reading achievement testing, or a response to intervention (RtI) model, which utilizes progress monitoring data through multiple tiers of support. Between 2014 and 2015 two neighboring states mandated that all districts begin implementing RtI models and use data from RtI to evaluate students for SLD rather than relying on IQ discrepancy models. The current study leveraged multiple public-use district-level datasets to analyze the relationship between SLD identification and reading achievement in these states both before and after RtI implementation. The study answers two key questions: 1) To what extent do district-level achievement gaps by gender and race/ethnicity explain the overrepresentation of male and minority students—as measured by district-level risk ratios—in states that adopted RtI requirements for SLD identification? 2) Does the relationship between district-level achievement gaps and district-level risk ratios observed in RQ1 differ between pre-RtI adoption (2011-2012) and post-RtI adoption (2017-2018) group? In this retrospective observational study, regression analyses showed that the relationship between male overrepresentation and male achievement gaps was not statistically significant pre-RtI adoption, while the same relationship for BHN students was statistically significant. Post-RtI adoption, male overrepresentation decreased, while BHN student overrepresentation increased. The relationship between overrepresentation and achievement gaps for male students remained statistically non-significant post-RtI, whereas the relationship between overrepresentation and achievement gaps for BHN students remained statistically significant and became stronger. The amount of variance in BHN student overrepresentation that was explained by achievement gaps in the post-RtI was more than double the amount of variance explained pre-RtI adoption.