Handbook of Response to Intervention in Early Childhood

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Response to intervention (RTI) is improving student outcomes in K–12 classrooms across the country, but how can it best be applied in early childhood settings? Find out in this authoritative handbook, the first complete resource on what we know about using RTI to promote all young children's school and social success.

With cutting-edge research from more than 60 of today's leading experts, this foundational resource will be an essential reference for every early childhood administrator, whether program-, district-, or state-level. You'll get a comprehensive primer on RTI, including detailed information on its defining principles and features, its evidence base, specific RTI models, and program-level supports for implementing RTI. Then you'll get research-based knowledge and guidance to help you

• implement specific tiered approaches to instruction and intervention, including Recognition & Response and the Teaching Pyramid
• use valid, reliable universal screening and progress monitoring measures
• use RTI to enrich literacy and math curriculum and instruction
• strengthen school-wide positive behavior supports with an RTI framework
• integrate RTI and inclusion to strengthen education for students with disabilities
• adapt RTI to meet the needs of young dual language learners
• develop effective professional development to support RTI in early childhood
• engage families as active partners in the RTI process
• successfully sustain your RTI efforts throughout your next school year and beyond

Equally valuable as a key reference for administrators and a textbook for university courses, this cornerstone volume will help RTI flourish in early childhood settings—so every

young child has the best chance for school success.

Dr. Buysse is Senior Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to directing a program of research on Recognition & Response, a model of response to intervention for prekindergarten, her research interests include innovations in professional development; models such as consultation, coaching, mentoring, and communities of practice that support professional development and program improvement; and educational practices and interventions that address the unique needs of diverse learners—those who have disabilities, who have learning difficulties, or who are dual language learners.

Dr. Peisner-Feinberg is Senior Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her background is in developmental psychology and public policy, and she has more than 20 years of research experience in early childhood education and program evaluation. Dr. Peisner-Feinberg has conducted numerous statewide and national research studies focused on the quality of early education programs and initiatives; the effects on children, especially dual language learners and children at risk; and quality improvement strategies.

Beth S. Rous is faculty in the Department of Educational Leadership Studies, College of Education, and Director of the Kentucky Partnership for Early Childhood Services at Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute, University of Kentucky, Lexington. She began her career as a teacher, where she worked in public and private child care and taught at the preschool, elementary, and middle-school levels. Her research has involved a variety of topics in early childhood education and early childhood special education, including transition, standards and accountability, professional development systems, and program quality. She has published numerous articles, technical and training manuals, and book chapters. For almost 20 years, Dr. Rous provided training and technical assistance through a number of federally funded demonstration, outreach, and research projects. She served as Principal Investigator for the National Early Childhood Transition Center, and Co-PI for CONNECT: Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge. She has served in leadership roles in multiple professional organizations, including President of the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children.

In addition to his work at the Instructional Research Group, Dr. Gersten is also a professor emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. He is the director of the Math Strand for the Center on Instruction, the director of research for the Regional Educational Laboratory-South West, and the principal investigator for several What Works Clearinghouse projects. As Project Director of the Teacher Quality Distribution and Measurement Study, Dr. Gersten is currently working with a team of researchers from Harvard University to revise a mathematics observation measure that will be used to determine the effect of professional development on teachers' mathematics instruction. He is also a coauthor of a mathematics screening and progress monitoring measure for kindergarten and first-grade students that is in press. His main areas of expertise include evaluation methodology and instructional research on students with learning disabilities, mathematics, and reading comprehension. Dr. Gersten has conducted numerous randomized trials, many of which have been published in major scientific journals in the field. He has either directed or codirected 42 applied research grants addressing a wide array of issues in education and has been a recipient of many federal and nonfederal grants (more than $20 million). He has advised on a variety of reading and mathematics projects using randomized trials in education settings and has written extensively about the importance of randomized trials in special education research.

In 2002, Dr. Gersten received the Distinguished Special Education Researcher Award from the American Educational Research Association's Special Education Research Division. He served as a member of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, a Presidential committee to develop researchbased policy in mathematics for American schools. Dr. Gersten also chaired the Panel that developed A Practice Guide on Response to Intervention in Mathematics for the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

Dr. Brown joined the faculty at the University of South Carolina (USC) in 1995, and, in addition to his work in the Department of Educational Studies in the College of Education, he is a member of the USC Research Consortium on Children and Families.

Judith J. Carta, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist in the Institute for Life Span Studies, Professor of Special Education, and the Interim Director of the Juniper Gardens Children's Project at the University of Kansas. Her research focuses on developing strategies to minimize the effects of poverty on children's outcomes, designing practices that teachers and parents can use to promote children's early learning and social-emotional development, methods for monitoring the progress of young children, and strategies for promoting family engagement in early intervention programs. She has been the PI of several multi-site research projects and centers funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Educational Sciences, and the Administration on Children and Families. She currently co-directs an IES-funded project to develop the Infant-Toddler Pyramid Model, a three-tiered model to promote social-emotional outcomes for infants and toddlers, based on the TPITOS. She was a member of the Federal Advisory Panel on Head Start Research and Evaluation, Division of Early Childhood’s Commission on Recommended Practices, and served as the Editor of Topics in Early Childhood Special Education as well as the boards of numerous scientific journals. She received the Mary E. McEvoy Service to the Field Award from the Division for Early Childhood.

Dr. Conroy is the Anita Zucker Endowed Professor, Professor of Special Education and Early Childhood Studies in the Department of Special Education, School Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies, and Co-Director of the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida. Dr. Conroy has extensive experience in conducting early intervention research with children who are at risk for or who have social and behavioral disabilities.

Edward G. Feil, PhD, is a senior scientist at Oregon Research Institute. His research interests include early screening of child behavior problems, home and school interventions, and interactive technologies.

Angel Fettig, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. Dr. Fettig’s research focuses on supporting social-emotional development and reducing challenging behaviors for young children with or at risk for disabilities. Specifically, she examines factors that influence implementation and intervention fidelity for education professionals and caregivers in implementing evidence-based practices that reduce challenging behaviors.

Dr. Lise Fox is a professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, and is Co-Director of the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities: A University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. Dr. Fox is one of the developers of the Pyramid Model for Promoting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children and has authored 95 books, book chapters, and articles. She has developed and managed numerous technical assistance, research, model demonstration, and personnel preparation projects in the areas of early childhood special education, state capacity building, implementation of the Pyramid Model, preventing and addressing challenging behavior, and Positive Behavior Support. She is the director of the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations.

Andy Frey is Associate Professor in the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville. His research interests include prevention and intervention of challenging behavior with young children and families.

Lynn S. Fuchs, Ph.D., Nicholas Hobbs Professor of Special Education and Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Department of Special Education, 110 Magnolia Circle, Room 417C, Nashville, TN 37203. Dr. Fuchs’s research addresses teachers’ use of classroom-based assessment information and instructional practices for improving reading and mathematics performance.

Herbert P. Ginsburg, the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, has conducted basic research on the development of mathematical thinking, with particular attention to young children and disadvantaged populations. He has drawn on cognitive developmental research to develop a mathematics curriculum, Big Math for Little Kids.

Dr. Greenwood is the Director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project and Professor of Applied Behavioral Science at the University of Kansas. He is a founding author of progress monitoring measures for infants and toddlers and editor of School-Wide Prevention Models: Lessons Learned in Elementary Schools (Guilford Press, 2008). He is co-principal investigator of the Center for Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC). He has more than 100 publications in peerreviewed journals to his credit. Under his leadership, the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project was awarded the 1996 research award of the Council for Exceptional Children for its contributions to interventions for children with special needs. He was the recipient of the 2009 Higuchi Research Achievement Award in Applied Science at the University of Kansas.

Dr. Grisham is Professor in the Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education program at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. She received her doctorate in education from the University of Kentucky. She is also Faculty Director of the Early Childhood Laboratory at the University of Kentucky, an inclusive early childhood program for children from birth to 5 years of age.

Dr. Grisham has directed research projects on topics including linking assessment and instruction, early care and education program quality, and individualizing instruction for young children with disabilities. In addition, she has conducted research on the effectiveness of instructional procedures that are embedded into developmentally appropriate activities, the application of multi-tiered systems of support in early childhood settings, and coaching teachers and caregivers to implement evidencebased instructional strategies with fidelity. Dr. Grisham is Project Director for the Kentucky Deaf-Blind Project, which provides technical assistance to families and service providers of infants, toddlers, children, and youth with deaf-blindness. She coauthored a book titled Reach for the Stars: Planning for the Future (with D. Haynes; American Printing House for the Blind, 2013), which is used to support families of young children in planning for their children’s future and articulating their priorities to educational team members, as well as Blended Practices for Teaching Young Children in Inclusive Settings, Second Edition (with M. L. Hemmeter; Brookes Publishing Co., 2017), and Assessing Young Children in Inclusive Settings: The Blended Practices Approach (with K. Pretti-Frontczak; Brookes Publishing Co., 2011).

Finally, Dr. Grisham directed the nationwide field test for AEPS-3. Dr. Grisham is frequently asked to provide professional development to state departments of education, universities, and local education agencies on topics for which she conducts research throughout the country. Dr. Grisham is co-founder of a children’s home and preschool program in Guatemala City, Hope for Tomorrow, where she accompanies students for the education abroad program. Dr. Grisham also works internationally in other locations to promote inclusion of young children with disabilities.

Rena A. Hallam is the Executive Director of the Early Learning Center for Research and Practice and Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She has served in an administrative capacity in both child care and Head Start settings. Her research interests focus on systemic issues related to the quality of early care and education programs with a particular focus on children living in poverty. Specifically, she has studied transition, assessment and accountability, personnel preparation in early education, and state initiatives to improve child care quality. Dr. Hallam also has served as a STEPS trainer and has collaborated with many local communities to devise, implement, and evaluate local interagency efforts to improve transition practices.

Mary Louise Hemmeter, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on effective instruction, social-emotional development, challenging behavior, and on coaching teachers.

She has been a principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on numerous projects funded by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Through her work on the National Center on Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning and Institute of Education Sciences (IES)–funded research projects, she was involved in the development of the Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Young Children and practice-based coaching, a model for supporting teachers in implementing effective practices.

She is currently the PI on on an IES–funded development project on programwide supports for implementing the Pyramid Model, a co-PI on an IES developmental project on implementing the Pyramid Model in infant–toddler settings, and a co-PI on an IES efficacy study examining approaches to supporting teachers in implementing embedded instructions.

She is a co-author on the Connect4Learning Early Childhood Curriculum and the Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool (TPOT™). She was a coeditor of the Journal of Early Intervention and President of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Early Childhood (DEC). She received the Merle B. Karnes Service to the Division Award and the Mary McEvoy Service to the Field Award.

Laura M. Justice, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University. Dr. Justice is also Executive Director of the Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy as well as the Schoenbaum Family Center. A certified speech-language pathologist, much of her research focuses on identifying strategies to improve the language skills of young children, including those with disabilities.

Doré R. LaForett, Ph.D. is an Investigator at the FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on school readiness, mental health, and family functioning during early childhood, with an emphasis on low-income and ethnic/language minority populations. Her work aims to make educational and behavioral interventions and services more accessible to children and families. She currently works on projects that seek to build research capacity in the study of dual language learners ages birth–five, with recent efforts that include adapting Recognition & Response (a model of Response to Intervention for pre-kindergarteners) for use with Spanish-speaking preschoolers.

Dr. Susan Landry, a nationally recognized expert in early childhood education, is the founder and director of the Children’s Learning Institute. Dr. Landry’s research into environmental factors that promote early cognitive growth and development led to her development of the framework for the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education (CIRCLE), which led to the implementation of the Texas Early Education Model (TEEM) (now known as Texas School Ready!) in prekindergarten classrooms across Texas.

Scott R. McConnell, Ph.D., is Scott McConnell is Professor of Educational Psychology and Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses primarily on preschool-aged children, and the skills and competencies that will enable them to learn and participate in school and other settings. He and his colleagues at IGDILab are developing and testing applications for Individual Growth and Development Indicators of language and early literacy development for preschoolers. He also is involved in several efforts, locally and nationally, to eliminate the word gap–language disparities that occur early in young children's lives.

Samuel L. Odom, Ph.D., is the former Director of the Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Development Institute where he remains as a Senior Research Scientist. Prior to his work at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Odom served in faculty positions at Indiana University and Peabody College/Vanderbilt University. Dr. Odom received a master's degree in special education in 1976 and an educational specialist degree in educational psychology from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1979. He earned his doctorate in 1982 in education and human development from the University of Washington.

Throughout his career, Dr. Odom has held positions as a preschool teacher, student teaching supervisor, program coordinator, teacher educator, and researcher. Dr. Odom's research interests include interventions and teaching approaches that promote social competence of young children, effective intervention approaches for children with autism, and early childhood curricula that promote children's school success. He is the author or co-author of over 175 journal articles and book chapters and has edited 10 books on early childhood intervention and developmental disabilities. His current research is addressing treatment efficacy for children and youth with ASD in elementary and high school grades. Also, he is the Co-Director of the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice at FPG. Dr. Odom is an associate editor for Exceptional Children and is on the editorial board of Journal of Early Intervention, Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, and Early Childhood Research Quarterly. He received the Special Education Outstanding Research Award from the American Educational Research Association Special Education Special Interest Group in 1999, the Merle Karnes Contribution to the Field Award from the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) in 2001, and the Outstanding Special Education Research Award from CEC in 2007. In 2013, he received the Arnold Lucius Gesell Prize awarded for career achievement in research on social inclusion and child development from the Theordor Hellbrugge Foundation in Munich, Germany. In 2016, he received an honorary doctoral degree from Stockholm University. He is currently a visiting professor at Stockholm University and San Diego State University.

Dr. Kristie Pretti-Frontczak is a highly sought-after speaker, accomplished author, and educators’ educator. With nearly three decades of educational experience, Kristie cultivates real change within educational systems. She instills an impressive sense of joy, humor, and fun in creating inclusive educational practices and empowering teachers and leaders to spread wellness both in and beyond the classroom walls. Along with Dr. Julie Causton, at Inclusive Schooling, Kristie designs and delivers transformative professional development that addresses and supports the wholeness of the adult professional and helps leaders create school cultures that ensure all children experience a sense of belonging. Kristie spent 16 years, as faculty, at Kent State University and has published extensively in peer-referenced journals and is an author of over 10 books and monographs. Since 2013 she has followed her true passion, which is supporting adult learners. As a result, she has accumulated over 50,000 hours of helping educators and leaders work from a place of compassion, hope, and love in locations from Cincinnati to Singapore. She currently resides in Northeastern Ohio. You can learn more about Kristie and Inclusive Schooling at www.inclusiveschooling.com.

Check out our spotlight on Kristie Pretti-Frontczak! Discover bestselling books, an engaging webinar recording on inclusion, and download a free classroom poster!

Thomas Rendon has been the Iowa Head Start State Collaboration Office Coordinator since 2003 which includes as its priorities addressing collaboration with early childhood special education. He has held numerous leadership positions in the field of early childhood including serving on the governing board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. He is a doctoral student at Kent State University in early childhood special education.