Response to Intervention—identifying students who may be at risk of falling through the cracks either in reading or in math—is redefining education. However, the challenges that exist in implementing RTI for math can be significantly different than those for reading.

In this video, Lynn Fuchs, a senior advisor from the National Center on Response to Intervention, talks about these differences. She reflects that reading intervention is, in some ways, more straightforward because learning in the early years provides the building blocks for later comprehension and fluency, whereas math knowledge can follow a more indirect path including fractions, geometry, calculus, and measurement that don’t all naturally emanate from one another.

It’s no surprise that teachers are leading the charge on innovative interventions for struggling students. For example, to support the RTI framework in math specifically, Gabrielle Smith from Etna Elementary School brought an iPad into her classroom and used an application to test math facts among her students, making it fun to practice facts over and over again while storing children’s scores and progress.

Have you used RTI for math or solely for reading? What’s been your take on the similarities and the differences?