- On average, 25% of schoolchildren in the early grades struggle with reading
- Approximately 40% of students across the nation cannot read at a basic level
- Almost half the students living in urban areas cannot read at a basic level
- Almost 70% of low-income fourth-grade students cannot read at a basic level.
(President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education, 2002)
- Early literacy activities
- Quality of childcare and preschool programs
- English-language proficiency
- Parental income
- Quality of reading instruction
Recently I was asked if I thought too much funding goes to Early Childhood/Head -Start programs in this country and aren't those programs just draining our system since the parents should be taking care of their children's needs not society/government programs. These statistics help me to point out that no funding should ever be cut when it comes to education of our youth. And sure, in an utopian society where all parents are functioning literates and have the where-with-all to provide outstanding early childhood care, etc. that would be terrific. But in this country the numbers are rising for people who are living below poverty and struggle with their own literacy skills. So we have to get real about the children. No cuts to federal funding for any education programs. We are not going to become stronger as a nation if we take away one iota from education.
If a child falls behind in the first grade, the system as it functions now has two options once a students starts to fall behind in class. The school's team of professionals may decide to follow the IQ discrepancy model used to identify children with learning disabilities,which means the student will have to wait to be tested in the fourth grade to receive special services if their scores indicate such, or alternatively, they may use the RTI(Response To Intervention) method to provide early support to students who are having academic difficulties.
The RTI three tier method begins with intervention as soon as the child shows signs of struggling in their academics and their first grade teacher is the one who identifies and remediates. If schools use the IQ discrepency method, then this means that by the fourth grade those kids are not only failing but their self esteem has suffered so significantly that they are not likely to recover from that pitfall. I would wager that the majority of those 25% mentioned above are males, but I will save that discussion for another post. Schools must assure that all first grade teachers are developed and prepared to provide high quality instruction in the general education classroom. Funding should not be the a reason why students who struggle are not serviced.
Concerns About the IQ-Discrepancy Model
Advantages of RTI
- The likelihood that inadequate instruction is a cause of
- learning difficulties decreases.
- Bias inherent in the referral and the assessment processes
- decreases.
- Identification is based on actual classroom performance (i.e.,
- progress monitoring data).
- Fewer students struggle before receiving help.
- The amount of time students struggle is significantly
- decreased.
- The progress monitoring data aid in placement decisions and
- may be used to inform and evaluate the instructional process.
- Students who are struggling academically receive immediate support and intervention.
RTI Model
- Results from assessments do not inform the instructional process.
- Assessments do not always discriminate between disabilities and the
- results of inadequate instructional strategies.
- Bias can result in the misidentification of students.
- Students must first fail in order to qualify for special education
- services.
- Many students do not meet the discrepancy criteria but would still
- benefit from early identification and support to remediate their skills
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