Response to Intervention and Dynamic Assessment: Implementing Systematic, Dynamic and Individualised Interventions in Primary School

Abstract

In recent years, response to intervention (RTI) has been the focus of research, debate and educational implementations, especially regarding early reading instruction. RTI provides an educational framework characterised by different tiers or layers of instruction, providing increasingly more intense and individualised interventions for children in primary school. The purpose is to provide high-quality instruction to meet the needs of all learners by means of a systematic and dynamic approach. RTI can also serve as a source of information for disability determination. Dynamic assessment (DA) is a concept closely related to RTI, although DA focuses on individual learners regardless of the educational system and has a much shorter time frame than RTI. The present article provides a description and comparison of RTI and DA and an analysis of the merits and limitations of these concepts, based on the debates between researchers. It also discusses how DA could be used within a broader RTI system. Finally, we discuss the roles of cognitive or neuropsychological assessments in relation to RTI.

Keywords:

• diagnosis
• dynamic assessment
• dyslexia
• intervention
• primary school
• reading disability
• reading instruction
• response to intervention

Funding

This research was supported by grant 2007-0656 from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, and no restrictions have been imposed on free access to, or publication of, the research data.