Second Annual Summit: Response to Intervention An Evidence-Based Education Review

The Second Annual Summit on Evidence-based Special Education was held on April 26, 2007 at the Berkeley City Club in Berkeley, California.  Its purpose was to bring together leaders from a wide range of professions and organizations to identify the obstacles to, and opportunities for, promoting evidence-based decision making in special education. 

Each Summit is designed to be a working session with representatives from various disciplines, service and research areas as well as consumers.  Participants are asked to review certain resource materials prior to the Summit and complete a survey about evidence-based education in their area of interest.  They received materials from the presentations, a copy of the Summit Report, and ongoing membership in the Wing Institute Knowledge Network.

Our 2006 Summit was a tremendous success, with participants representing over 30 different organizations across 18 different professions. The presentations and proceedings from this Summit are available here.

The theme of the 2007 Summit was:  Response to Intervention (RtI): An Evidence-Based Education Review.  RtI is gaining momentum across the nation as an instructional framework for data-based early intervention and services.  The Summit provided an overview on the latest research and developments in RtI, examined RtI in the context of the Evidence-Based Education Roadmap, identified critical variables for the successful implementation of RtI, and generated action plans with participant’s regarding their use of RtI in “real-life” settings. 

The 2007 Summit examined RtI in the context of the Wing Institute’s Evidence-Based Education Roadmap:
        •  Efficacy (What Works?)
        •  Effectiveness (When Does It Work?)
        •  Implementation (How Do We Make It Work?)
        •  Monitoring (Is It Working?)

The 2007 Summit participants included over sixty representatives from private and public agencies, state and local school agencies, health and community services, advocacy and parents.  The day included presentations from leading experts in evidence-based special education, participant working sessions, and discussions of follow-up action plans.