Evaluation of Response to Intervention Practices for Elementary School Reading
We checked this card's citation and the finding we state against the source's own page or record in October 2026.
What it found
In schools experienced with Response to Intervention, first graders who scored just below the screening cutoff and were placed in reading intervention ended the year with lower reading scores than classmates just above the cutoff. In grades 2 and 3 the intervention made no statistically significant difference for students near the cutoff.
What kind of study it is
- Design
- Quasi-experiment
- Weight
- A trial in schools: it compares groups that got the practice with groups that didn't.
- Sample
- 146 schools experienced with RtI in 13 states, grades 1–3 reading, 2011–12; a regression discontinuity design at each school's screening cutoff
- Who
- School-age children (K–12)
- Limits
- It measures the effect for students close to the cutoff, as RtI was run in these schools in 2011–12, not the effect of well-designed intervention for students far below it.
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Cited in the Library
Cite this study
Balu, R., Zhu, P., Doolittle, F., Schiller, E., Jenkins, J., & Gersten, R. (2015). Evaluation of Response to Intervention practices for elementary school reading (NCEE 2016-4000). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED560820
Checked against the source in October 2026. All studies · How we rate the evidence · Something wrong? Tell us.