Assessing African American Students for Specific Learning Disabilities: The Promises and Perils of Response to Intervention

Proctor, S. L., Graves Jr, S. L., & Esch, R. C. (2012). Assessing African American students for specific learning disabilities: The promises and perils of response to intervention. The Journal of Negro Education, 81(3), 268-282.

In this article, the authors consider Response to Intervention a possible solution to the overrepresentation of African American males in special education programs. In doing so, they feel it is essential to examine the promise of RTI as well as the perils. The article begins with an introduction to intelligence testing and how it has led to an overrepresentation of African American males in special education programs. It further explores the traditional IQ achievement discrepancy model. The article then thoroughly explains RTI and the three tiers before it discusses the promise and perils of the program. When examining the promises of RTI, the authors include that with RTI there is no more waiting for students to fail before initiating the intervention process.  The response to intervention system has also minimized bias related to assessments. Lastly, with response to intervention, it has decreased the special education disproportionality. On the other hand, the perils of RTI include the lack of evidence based practices concerning interventions specifically tailored toward African American students. There is a huge lack of an educator buy in, especially from general education teachers. Lastly, it requires a tremendous amount of support for implementation, and unfortunately that support is not always available. In their closing they include a research agenda and a direct service agenda with a plethora of items for educators to review and consider in relation to their research.

Read more here