Janet L. Graden

A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO RTI: EMBEDDING UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY

Response to intervention (RtI) provides tiered levels of supports to all students and allows for increasingly more intensive and individualized instruction. Similarly, universal design for learning (UDL) addresses needs of students by proactively planning for instructional, environmental, and technology supports to allow all students to effectively access and engage in instruction. Although these two frameworks are widely accepted as structures for supporting students with diverse learning needs, the relationship between them has not been adequately developed. This article describes how an ecological RtI framework that integrates scientifically based instructional strategies, proactive instructional design, and purposeful technology use can provide a more seamless support system for all students.

Technical Adequacy for Response to Intervention Practices

Response-to-intervention (RTI) technical adequacy standards should follow from model purpose, procedural specification, procedural adherence, outcome determination, and subsequent plans. Therefore, RTI raises atypical measurement questions for practice, and, for this reason, it may require hybridized technical adequacy methods. Due to RTI model complexities, and the possibility of many measures and variables used over time to examine functional discrepancies in performance, decision reliability and validity questions require significant attention. Key points of analysis and recommendations for RTI technical adequacy standards are addressed, and a case study is used to illustrate technical checks. We conclude with discussion of how RTI technical adequacy may be simplified.

The Promise of Meaningful Eligibility Determination Functional Intervention-Based Multifactored Preschool Evaluation

Despite considerable controversy, standardized norm-referenced assessment procedures are widely used to determine eligibility for special education services. Under Public Law 105-17, children ages 3 through 9 may receive special services under the broad category of child with a disability—rather than traditional diagnostic labels—based on a delay in one or more developmental domains. Due to the limitations of traditional ability and developmental norm-referenced measures, the determination of developmental delays may be highly error prone and unrelated to intervention decisions. As an alternative, we describe minimal requirements for functional intervention-based assessment and suggest strategies for using these methods to analyze developmental delays and make special service eligibility decisions for preschool children (intervention-based multifactored evaluation or IBMFE). The IBMFE model provides a basis for deriving logical, natural, and meaningful discrepancies in behavior or performance through the contextual analysis of child-related, environmental, and instructional variables.

Instructional Ecology for Students in Resource and Regular Classrooms

Sixteen elementary students were observed systematically over 2 entire school days to examine the nature of instruction and academic responding times during resource room instruction and mainstream classroom instruction. Data were recorded in six categories at 10-second intervals. Analyses of the results indicate that in the mainstream setting, the nature of instruction and academic responding was similar for LD students and their non-LD classmates. Similarly, when LD students were in the resource room and non-LD students were in the regular classroom, no statistical differences were found in the nature of instruction or in academic responding times of the two groups of students. Overall active academic responding time was low, even in the resource room, averaging just over 29 minutes of a 95-minute time period. Implications of the findings for practice and training of mainstream and resource room teachers are explored.

SYNTHESIS & COMMENTARY: Arguments for Change to Consultation, Prevention, and Intervention: Will School Psychology Ever Achieve This Promise?

It is an honor to be asked to provide a synthesis and commentary to this special issue featuring various authors writing on the significance, implications, and recommendations from their perspective on the International Futures Conference in School Psychology. This series of articles, along with the special issues of the other major school psychology journals (D’Amato, Sheridan, Phelps, & Lopez, this issue), represent an important effort in the profession to summarize key ideas and provide specific directions for change. I also was honored to be a participant of the Futures Conference and believethis isacritical time,yetagain, inschoolpsychology’shistorytohave anopportunity torealize thepromiseof theprofessionas ithas longbeendescribed. In this synthesis and commentary, I (a) summarize key themes of the articles on consultation, prevention, and intervention and highlight the authors’ conclusions and recommendations; (b) provide a personal context, noting observations from my perspective as a conference participant who also participated in the Spring Hill Symposium on the Future of School PsyJOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSULTATION, 15(3&4), 345–359 Copyright

The Ohio Integrated Systems Model: Overview and Lessons Learned

Janet L. Graden, PhD, is Professor of School Psychology and Division Head at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH. janet.graden@uc.edu Stephanie A. Stollar, PhD, is an Educational Consultant at the Southwestern Ohio Special Education Regional Resource Center, Cincinnati, OH. stollar s@swoserrc.org Rita L. Poth, PhD, is Associate Director of the Southwestern Ohio Special Education Regional Resource Center, Cincinnati, OH. poth r@swoserrc.org

Decision-Making Validity in Response to Intervention

David W. Barnett, PhD, is Professor of School Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. david.barnett@uc.edu Renee O. Hawkins, PhD, is Assistant Professor of School Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. renee.hawkins@uc.edu David P. Prasse, PhD, is Professor and Dean, School of Education, Loyola University Chicago. dprasse@luc.edu Janet L. Graden, PhD, is Professor of School Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. janet.graden@uc.edu Melissa Nantais, PhD, is Educational Consultant at the Southwest Ohio Special Education Regional Resource Center. nantais m@swoserrc.org Wei Pan, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Quantitative Educational Research at the University of Cincinnati. wei.pan@uc.edu

Preparing Doctoral-Level Consultants for Systems Change: Implementing and Supervising Multitiered Practices in Early Childhood Education

Implementing changes that support a preventative approach in early childhood education (ECE) requires the collaboration of skilled professionals. The present case study describes a change effort to implement multitiered systems of support (MTSS) in early childhood settings that included collaboration of agency personnel, school psychology program faculty and trainees, and ECE faculty. It describes a competency-based training initiative that provides applied experiences in consultation, supervision, and change facilitation for systems change efforts. The implementation of a systems-level approach for promoting positive behavior at three ECE agencies is described, with resulting teacher and child outcomes. Implications for future consultation research, training, and practice are discussed in relation to a consultation training model that provides competency-based field experiences to support change in ECE.