Response to Intervention
Energizing Teachers About Your School’s
RTI Team
Jim Wright
www.interventioncentral.org
www.interventioncentral.org
Response to Intervention
Teachers may be reluctant to refer students to your
RTI Team because they…
• believe referring to the RTI Team is a sign of failure
• do not think that your team has any ideas that they haven’t
already tried
• believe that an RTI referral will mean a lot more work for
them (vs. referring directly to Special Education)
• don’t want to ‘waste time’ on kids with poor motivation or
behavior problems when ‘more deserving’ learners go
unnoticed and unrewarded
• don’t want to put effort into learning a new initiative that
may just fade away in a couple of years
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Response to Intervention
Teachers may be motivated to refer students to your
RTI Team because they…
• can engage in collegial conversations about better ways to
help struggling learners
• learn instructional and behavior-management strategies that
they can use with similar students in the future
• increase their teaching time
• are able to access more intervention resources and supports
in the building than if they work alone
• feel less isolated when dealing with challenging kids
• have help in documenting their intervention efforts
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Response to Intervention
“Never believe that a few caring
people can’t change the world.
For, indeed, that’s all who ever
have.”
--Margaret Mead
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Response to Intervention
RTI Team Strategies to Win
Over Reluctant Teachers
(from Cialdini, 1984)
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Response to Intervention
Reciprocation
When people are given a gift or have a service
performed for them, they feel obligated to pay it
back.
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Response to Intervention
Reciprocation: Team Tips
• Stuff teacher mailboxes with intervention tips
• Sponsor teacher workshops with handouts &
refreshments
• Accommodate a teacher’s schedule to hold RTI
Team meetings
• Offer to collect ‘baseline’ information on a student—
share results with teacher
• Compile list of RTI Team members’ services– invite
teacher to select 1 or 2
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Response to Intervention
Consistency
People strive, often unconsciously, to maintain
consistency between their opinions or attitudes and
their actions.
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Response to Intervention
Consistency: Team Tips
• Invite a reluctant teacher to an RTI Team
meeting to ‘support’ a colleague
• Sign up teachers as ‘consultant
members’ of the RTI Team
• Ask a teacher to keep RTI Team referral forms or
other RTI Team resources in classroom to share with
colleagues
• Set up contest for ‘best intervention ideas’
• Showcase ideas from reluctant teachers
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Response to Intervention
Social Proof
People are influenced to take an action
when they see that others like them are
also doing it.
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Response to Intervention
Social Proof: Team Tips
• Encourage teachers to give RTI Team
testimonials at faculty meetings
• Make sure that all grade levels
are represented on the RTI Team
• Share successful RTI Team intervention ideas with
other members of a referring teacher’s team
• Bring in RTI Team speakers from another school who
resemble underrepresented groups
• Share general RTI Team statistics with staff
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Response to Intervention
Liking
People are motivated to carry out the requests of
those whom they like or with whom they feel
‘connected’.
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Response to Intervention
Liking: Team Tips
• Ask satisfied teachers to invite a
friend to refer to the RTI Team
• Assign RTI Team members to invite
friends, acquaintances to an RTI Team meeting
• Encourage referring teachers to bring friends,
teaching partners to an RTI Team meeting
• Praise teachers at an RTI Team meeting for positive
teaching, management qualities
• Seek out popular, respected staff to serve on the RTI
Team
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Response to Intervention
Authority
People respect and follow those with authority
(organizational, experiential, professional).
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Response to Intervention
Authority: Team Tips
• Have principal encourage new
teachers to refer to the RTI Team
• Invite building- or district-level
administrators to make positive
comments about the RTI Team to faculty
• Have teachers with experiential, professional
authority to give positive testimonials about the RTI
Team
• Send ‘Thank You’ cards signed by principal
• Ask outside presenters to ‘plug’ the RTI Team
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Response to Intervention
Scarcity
When items, resources or opportunities are in short
supply, people value them more (especially when
competing for them).
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Response to Intervention
Scarcity: Team Tips
• Establish a cut-off date for
accepting RTI Team referrals
• Limit the number of RTI Team referrals
that your team will accept in a year
• Publicize the limited slots available at key referral
times (e.g., end of marking period)
• Give away limited-edition packets of intervention
resources at RTI Team meetings
• Sign up ‘consultant member’ to the RTI Team but
limit the number of meetings that he or she attends
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Response to Intervention
References
•
Cialdini, R.B. (1984). Influence: How and why people agree to things. New York: William
Morrow & Company, Inc.
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