Response-to-Intervention and School Reform: Training School Psychologists and Special Educators as Leaders and Collaborators in the Wisconsin REACh Prevention Project

This training program aims to serve as a model for collaboratively training special education and school psychology graduate students in RtI (response-to-intervention) and school reform. We propose to improve the quality and supply of personnel who serve children with disabilities in leadership roles by training doctoral level school psychology and special education graduate students in skills needed to implement systemic intervention, school reform, and RtI as part of a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction statewide initiative called the Responsive Education for All Children (REACh). Fourteen doctoral students will be trained over 4 years. We anticipate that those benefiting from the skills developed by the trainees will include over 500 children and their families across Wisconsin. School personnel working with these children will acquire new knowledge about systemic interventions and school reform generally and about procedures associated with three-tiered RtI prevention models specifically.