Perceptions of School Psychologists Regarding Barriers to Response to Intervention (RTI) Implementation

Abstract

As Response to Intervention (RTI) models continue to be implemented, an important research question is how school psychologists are experiencing the transition to RTI practice. In order to better understand the experiences of school psychologists, interviews with seven practicing school psychologists regarding their perceptions of barriers and challenges to successful implementation of RTI were conducted. Participants identified a number of potential barriers and challenges, including the need for leadership, structural barriers such as lack of time and training, and resistance from school staff, including school psychologists. These findings should help inform professional development for school psychologists making the transition to practice in an RTI model, and also help in understanding the many possible barriers that arise when attempting significant educational reform efforts such as RTI.Keywords Response to intervention . School psychologist role change . Perceptions of school psychologists . Consultation . Qualitative research Perceptions of School Psychologists Regarding Barriers to RTI ImplementationAs Response to Intervention (RTI) continues to impact the delivery of educational services, an important research question is how school psychologists are experiencing the changes brought about by RTI in their various work settings. The implementation of RTI varies dramatically at the state, district, and individual level (Powers, Hagans, & Busse, 2008).Because the transition to RTI is still in its infancy in many areas of the country, there are vast differences in the stage of RTI implementation, ranging from schools that have had RTI models in place for many years to schools that are only beginning the discussion. As with any change process, there are potentially a number of challenges and barriers to successful implementation. In this study, we explored challenges and barriers to successful RTI implementation from the perspective of practicing school psychologists in the state of Washington. Only a few studies (Sullivan & Long, 2010;Kaplan, 2011;Mike, 2011;Sansosti, Telzrow, & Noltemeyer, 2010) have focused on the perceptions of school psychologists as RTI models are being implemented, and only one previous study has explored the challenges and potential barriers to successful implementation of RTI in the schools from the unique viewpoints of practicing school psychologists. However, Sansosti et al. focused primarily on the challenges and barriers to RTI at the secondary level.In the current study, we used a qualitative research method (individual interviews) to further examine potential challenges and barriers to successful RTI implementation from the unique perspective of practicing school psychologists. Only one previously published study has used qualitative methods to explore the perceptions of school psychologists regarding RTI. Although qualitative research remains rare in the school psychology research literature, Leech and Onwuegbuzie (2008) outlined a number of ways that qualitative research m...

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