Training preservice general education teachers in response to intervention: A survey of teacher educators throughout the United States

Abstract

Response to intervention (RTI) is an evidence-based approach to educational service delivery that is being increasingly adopted by schools across the country. To effectively implement RTI models, teachers require specialized training. Little is currently known, however, about the extent to which this training is being provided at the preservice level. The purpose of this survey study was to learn more about RTI-related training provided to preservice general educators in undergraduate elementary education programs. Respondents included 95 program directors of accredited college/university teacher education programs across the United States. Participants reported providing varying levels of didactic and applied training related to each of the six core components of RTI (i.e., multitiered service delivery, universal screening, progress monitoring, data-based decision making, evidence-based interventions, and fidelity of implementation). Although most teacher educators were familiar with the overall concept of RTI, over a third of respondents were not familiar with the core component of fidelity of implementation, and reported providing limited training opportunities in this area. Respondents also indicated whether preservice teachers in their programs receive training related to specific progress monitoring tools and evidence-based interventions. Implications for school psychologists, who frequently collaborate with teachers to implement RTI models, are discussed.

Keywords:

• Response to intervention
• teachers
• training
• treatment acceptability
• academic achievement

Notes

1 A missing data technique was necessary because the within-subjects ANOVA test cannot handle missing data for any subjects (von Ende, Scheiner, & Gurevitch, 2001). Whereas the problem of missing data has traditionally been handled by deleting incomplete cases from the sample (a technique referred to as listwise deletion; Barton & Cramer, 1989; Pigott, 2001), based on the recommendation of the APA Task Force on Statistical Inference (Wilkinson & Wilkinson & APA Task Force on Statistical Inference, 1999), this method was avoided due to associated statistical biases and limited power. Alternatively, data imputation methods, which involve substituting plausible values for missing data, are generally recommended as more appropriate solutions for dealing with incomplete data sets (Baraldi & Enders, 2010; Schafer & Graham, 2002; Schlomer et al., 2010). Ultimately, Dempster, Laird, and Rubin’s (1977) Expectation Maximization algorithm was selected as an appropriate data imputation technique because it is considered “state of the art” (Schafer & Graham, 2002), has been strongly recommended for use by school psychology researchers (Baraldi & Enders, 2010), and is easily accessible utilizing SPSS software.

2 We also examined whether there is a relationship between the location of a teacher preparation program (i.e., within a state that does or does not have laws requiring the use of RTI) and the inclusion of RTI content in a program’s curriculum. Due to space restrictions within this manuscript, we do not provide details of these findings, but note here that we found no association between program location (state) and directors’ reported familiarity with RTI. However, the association between program location and provision of RTI training was significant (p < .05). Specifically, 92% of program directors from states with laws mandating RTI reported providing RTI training, whereas only 69% of program directors working in states without RTI legislation reported providing RTI training.