Doug Fuchs: A typical RTI procedure begins with the identification of an at-risk group. It might be that all children in a given class
or school are tested in the fall with some screening measure. It may be that the children are identified by last year's achievement test
scores. There are different ways of doing this, but an at-risk group should be identified so that the focus of attention is on a
relatively small number of kids and not everybody. Then the classroom teacher has the correct professional development to
implement a research-validated reading program, in response to which we would expect most kids to show academic growth. During the
implementation, the at-risk group is monitored with a valid method of assessment. Children within the at-risk group who do not respond
sufficiently to that research-validated instruction in the regular classroom receive another tier of instruction, which is even more
intensive. The instruction is more intensive because it may be delivered in small groups, because it may meet more often, because
it may be taught or supervised by someone with greater expertise in the content area than the general education teacher. However it's
defined, the instruction at the second tier is more intensive than the instruction in the first tier, and in that second tier, again,
the children are monitored. The students who make adequate progress no longer need the additional Tier 2 instruction. Presumably, they
now are ready to pick up where they left off and show good progress. The students who continue to struggle, whose responsiveness is less
than desired then--depending on the model--go to a third tier, even more intensive than the second, or they go to a multidisciplinary
team for a formal evaluation.