Varying intervention delivery in response to intervention: Confronting and resolving challenges with measurement, instruction, and intensity

Response to intervention (RTI) involves ongoing evaluation of children's responsiveness to different levels of evidence-based interventions as a basis for eligibility determination. If students fail to make expected rates of progress, instruction is changed and, in most cases, intensified. Based on behavior-analytic models of effective instruction and research emphasizing generalizable basic skill repertoires, this article outlines ways in which educators can improve response to intervention through (a) measurement that is sensitive to students' skill proficiency and how it changes following instruction, (b) the quality of instructional materials and contexts in which students are taught, (c) the quality of practice time, and (d) arrangement of reinforcement to support maintenance and application (i.e., generalization) of basic skills. An approach that links increases in basic skill fluency to other, functional performance criteria provides the conceptual basis for specific strategies that teachers and interventionists can adopt to strengthen instruction, promote transfer of training, and monitor generalized educational outcomes at all levels of response to intervention.