ABSTRACT
Response to intervention (RTI) might be considered an elaboration of pre-referral strategies (PRS), a more systematic application of the basic ideas behind PRS. Actually, it might be considered in some sense an elaboration of the notion of special education, adding a third tier to the two-tiered division of general and special education. PRS and RTI became ways of avoiding or forestalling determination of eligibility for special education, but they were soon included with or surpassed by other multi-tiered systems with three or more levels or tiers. With RTI and the claim that general education, properly tiered, could become general education made appropriate for all, RTI's suggestion of multiple tiers morphed into a plan for full inclusion. Tiered education such as RTI and multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) are frameworks created more recently than the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
