The Potential for Common Core and Response to Intervention as Intersecting Initiatives: Supporting Readers Who Struggle with High-Level Standards

Educators have, to this point, largely viewed the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Response to Intervention (RtI) as important but unrelated initiatives. This view is problematic because it fails to acknowledge the potential for RtI to support readers who struggle to meet sophisticated standards and because it fails to attend to ways in which a focus on CCSS enriches RtI programs that are typically characterized by isolated skills instruction. The purpose of this article is to explore opportunities for integrating these initiatives by incorporating the CCSS at each level of RtI. Curriculum based on grade-level CCSS serves as the foundation for Tier 1. Screening to determine which students need additional support also occurs at this level. These students attend targeted Tier 2 classes which focus on off-level CCSS within specific areas of reading such as multi-syllable decoding or retelling, and remain in the regular classroom when a class addresses an area of reading that is a strength for them. Finally, results of Tier 1 unit assessments, the screening measure, and Tier 2 progress monitoring assessments are employed to determine which children need the intense level of support offered by Tier 3 tutoring. I argue here that careful integration of CCSS and RtI levels allows for high levels of achievement for all students.