EDUCATOR PERSPECTIVES OF TENNESSEE’S RESPONSE TO INSTRUCTION AND INTERVENTION IMPLEMENTATION SPECIFIC TO INCLUSION CLASSROOMS

Abstract

The federal government-supported Response to Intervention Program (RTI) is an initiative to serve students with gaps in their education. This initiative was developed to strive for all students performing at or above grade level. Understanding the impact of these initiatives on students has been a recent topic of investigation in professional literature. Tennessee adopted the RTI program in 2013 and revised it to include instructional practices for all students in the general education classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher perceptions of the state of Tennessee’s mandated Response to Instruction and Intervention (RTI2) regarding their Tier I inclusion classrooms. These students were previously enrolled in the extended resource program and now participate in a general education inclusion classroom. RTI2 exposed students to a standards based curriculum, a larger class size, and a more rigorous set of academic expectations. General education teachers and special education caseworkers working with these students were surveyed on their knowledge of strategies or appropriate modifications and accommodations used when working with special education students. From those surveys a common understanding was created for a teacher and case manager focus group regarding their perceptions of the academic functioning of those students in the classroom. Finally, interviews were conducted with a subset of the focus group members to gain further insight regarding the perceived students’ academic success in the general education classroom setting. The outcome of the study proved how much both teachers and students (as perceived by the teachers) are struggling with this new Tier I inclusion classroom in regard to this change in the learning environment.