Tiers

What is the Response to Intervention tiers?  Response to Intervention comes in three different tiers: primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of support for students. Keep in mind that with each tier there may be more than one intervention. Regardless of the number of interventions that a school or district uses, each student should be classified under one of the three levels of progression.

The primary tier focuses specifically at the school core curriculum level. This means that all students should be able to meet the target levels of core curriculum during this stage. On average, approximately 80-85% of the student body should be able to meet grade level norms without additional teaching. In this tier, there will be differentiated instruction given by the general education teacher that will use evidence-based core curriculum for all students. With the other 15-20% of students that do not meet this standard are then moved into the second tier.

The secondary tier provides supplementary instruction services that target the specific problems that the student is having. This tier provides a more systematic instruction by building off of the differentiated instruction from tier one. This type of intervention is usually given to small groups with the general education teacher and another provider for the group who has training with the intervention. After receiving helpful services from their tier, only 3-6% of these students will continue onto the third tier.

The tertiary level or tier three is the most intensive of all of the stages and with the aid of the other tiers will help put the child back on track. The students who continue to have difficulties and continue to show resistance to any sort of intervention will then move to the third tier. The intensity of the tertiary level is then determined by the severity of the student's problem. This stage includes evidence-based instruction given to individual children or in small groups of two or three students. This type of intervention is delivered by a special education teacher or a provider who specializes in intervention.

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