The Role of Special Educators in RTI

   The role of special education educators in RTI inclusion classrooms is critical. Teachers need to be available to provide intervention, as severe as it needs to be because it is so critical to the RTI process and the value of teachers within the RTI system. Educators must provide meaningful and and effective instruction regardless of how the student is identified because if educators cannot provide these attributes to students, then students are set up to fail even when diagnosed. This means educators need to be well rehearsed in all problem areas to support all student's needs and options to succeed. This also means that educators need to help others understand how to evaluate a student to see if the student is at a level of concern or an accepted standard of success. The help that educators can provide to other allows everyone that is working with the child to see why the student has problems where they do and find ways to successfully intervene. Educators are the source for others to find intervention strategies and goals for the student to monitor the student's progress. Not only does educators help with strategies, but also with modeling, supporting and providing feedback for the strategies that educators implement for students needing additional help in the RTI process. It is important that special educators are involved with formative assessments and summative assessments in order to keep track of what students know and what students still need assistance with. The assessments also help teachers to see what strategies are working for students and what strategies need to be changed in order to help students reach their goals and understanding.

         Different activities that educators can implement can help make the RTI process more helpful and have greater outcomes for students. These activities include identifying students needs for support, planning and implementing the support, evaluating and modifying the support and evaluating the student's outcome. Educators implement these steps along with activities in order to ensure student's succeed effectively. As special education teachers, you are viewed as a key consulted for the child's success and have the opportunity to focus on effective instruction for all student's, with the most severe disabilities and the least severe disabilities, they all matter.