ABSTRACT
In recent years, we have seen a shift in how teachers support K–12 students with diverse learning, behavioral, and social needs. Rather than subscribing to a “wait-to-fail” model in which teachers wait until a student has a clear discrepancy between current and desired levels of performance before providing individualized supports to remediate deficits, many school systems have moved toward a systems approach for assisting students. Essentially, school-site teams are embracing the concepts of prevention and search-and-serve specified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004) by building tiered systems of support. There are several types of three-tiered models, such as Response to Intervention (RTI) emphasizing academic performance (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006), positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) emphasizing behavioral and social performance (Sugai & Horner, 2002), and comprehensive, integrated, three-tiered (CI3T) models focusing on academic, behavioral, and social performance (Lane, Oakes, & Menzies, 2010). These multi-tiered systems of support typically include three levels of prevention: primary (tier 1, for all), secondary (tier 2, for some), and tertiary (tier 3, for a few), offering graduated support according to students’ specific needs. These models provide a coordinated, data-informed system of increasingly intensive assistance focusing on (a) preventing the development of learning and behavior problems from occurring in the first place with tier 1 supports, and (b) responding efficiently with students whose performance suggest tier 2 (e.g., small group instruction targeting goal-setting and self-management skills; Oakes, Lane, Cox, Magrane, Jenkins, & Hankins, 2012) or tier 3 (e.g., functional assessment-based interventions; Umbreit, Ferro, Liaupsin, & Lane, 2007) supports are warranted.
