Secondary Administrators’ Perspectives of Literacy Interventions Within a Multitiered System of Support

Abstract

Response to intervention (RtI) is a multitiered system of support framework that focuses on best practices for intervention. Because many secondary students exhibit weak literacy skills, the focus of this study is reading interventions. This qualitative study examines administrators’ perspectives of implementing literacy interventions within a multitiered system of support, such as RTI, at secondary schools in Southeast Texas. Three primary themes emerged from the research. The first primary theme, time, represents difficulties administrators expressed with finding the time in the school day to schedule interventions that work with the constraints of secondary school requirements. The second primary theme, staffing, reflected the recognition that secondary schools, which typically include teachers with content specialties, do not necessarily have personnel trained to implement literacy interventions. The final primary theme, training, acknowledges the role of disciplinary literacy and ways professional development could support implementation of reading interventions to secondary students all while focusing on the campus vision.