General educators’ experience with response to intervention.

Abstract

Since the reauthorization of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, “Response to Intervention” (RtI) has permeated the field of education. With this new educational framework, general classroom teachers are taking on many new responsibilities. They are teaching more than just core reading instruction and using assessments in ways that they did not before RtI. RtI also requires that they collaborate more intensely and participate in staff developments more intently. The current study aims to focus on classroom teachers and describing their experiences. The researcher provides a review of literature concerning RtI and specific implications for the context studied and includes a summary of descriptive research design. Using the framework created by the literature review, the author describes the experiences of fifteen classroom teachers in an early total immersion program. To conclude, the author specifies limitations of the study, as well as implications for practitioners and researchers.