Special Education Assessment Pre Referral Screening RTI Process School Psychologists

PRE-REFERRAL SCREENING

School Psychologist Special Education Assessment Pre-Referral Screening/RTI Process

Abstract

Children with special needs require specialized interventions that help them attain the desired educational and behavioral goals the same as other students. These desires attract different forms of interventions, most of which focus on the steps that should be followed to enroll students in special programs. The procedures constitute pre-screening and pre-referral. The two serve as the assessment tools to determine if children are absorbed in special education programs. School psychologists, parents, and other experts desire to adopt other mechanisms that enable students to achieve similar goals. However, special children fail the test in many cases, making them potential candidates for the program. The bottom line in these procedures is enrolling only those eligible and those whom other interventions fail to work. This paper concentrates on school psychologists' different special education roles and the various interventions used in supporting needy students.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction 3

Chapter 2: Methods 11

Chapter 3: Review of Literature 18

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion 35

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations 40

Annotated Bibliography 46

References 51

School Psychologist Special Education Assessment Pre-Referral Screening/RTI process

Chapter 1: Introduction

One of the critical roles of professionals in schools is to run activities related to children's placement and referrals under special education. In practice, school psychologists assume evaluating children to determine those who qualify for such special services. The process takes different directions depending on the perception. On many occasions, the nature of a teacher's perception determines the validity of the referral process. A common principle question is the standards that schools use to measure the referral process's effectiveness or whether it meets the threshold to proceed with the process. The response is within reports by teachers but again raises questions about the accuracy of the self-report. This matter causes mixed reactions (Vanderheyden, Witt & Naquin, 2003). This paper seeks to dissect all the issues related to pre-referral screening and the roles of school psychologists.

School psychologists offer numerous services that focus on helping youth and children achieve social, academic, emotional, and behavioral effectiveness. In doing so, they embark on mental health initiatives and educational services for youth and children. They also involve educators, parents, and different professionals who offer a supportive and social environment. Their role as psychologists requires that they apply their expertise during collaboration and consultation. During the process, psychologists guide decision-making by assessing the foundation of collected data. Their roles extend to engaging students in socialization, academic skills, learning, and mental health.

School psychologists help enhance competency in different children and families by promoting effective learning, offering secure learning environments, responding to crises, nurturing the right behavior, and improving collaboration. These services are based on proper considerations of diversity in learning and development, professional practices, research programs, and ethical and legal domains. School psychologists are approved by educational agencies bestowed with regulatory authority to assess the credentials of potential professionals. Psychologists work in private and public education and school contexts (National Association of School Psychologists, 2010).

The Referral Process

Every student begins a career journey with some needs. The most fundamental of all is professional guidance from educators to enable them to understand the surrounding world. Students often meet highly-qualified professionals during their first encounter in class. This is independent of their knowledge levels as there is always someone higher than them in terms of knowledge. However, children with special needs require a different set of professionals who understand their needs beyond what a standard classroom offers. During this phase, the educator, counselor, parent, or even selected educators witness challenges that special students face in their education acquisition journey. Appreciating the academic discrepancies that such students face and their uniqueness in emotions, behavior, and other elements enable the educators to determine required support (Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, 2013).

Some of the challenges students face with special needs can be solved through persistent engagement between the parents and the teachers. One method is by formulating a plan of action that incorporates the best strategies to measure a child's progress. Nominated teachers compile work samples by students and keep relevant assessment data for students who display unique needs. The documentation process is vital because it enables the teacher to monitor the progress of the student. The pre-referral interventions aid in the identification, development, and implementation of different educational strategies. These interventions refer to the documentation gathered from a classroom setup. Problems must first be identified before proceeding to special education. It is a formal process that first offers to give temporal accommodation to students. The Student-Centered Team carries out Pre-referral interventions. These groups are known by different names such as a student support team, instructional support team, intervention assistance team, teacher assistance team, or early intervention team. The team comprises guardians/parents, teachers, administrators, nurses, and counselors. Other participants who take part in the education process of the student are also allowed. First, the general education teachers present to the team all relevant information concerning the student. After that, the group proceeds to develop potential solutions.

RTI offers three intervention levels to students facing problems, Level 1, often referred to as Tier 1, uses general education instructions and only captures high-quality information from the curriculum. RTI projects that approximately 80 percent of the student population positively responds to behavioral systems and the core curriculum. This leads to the second level (Tier 2), which gives the target group remediation or instructions to enhance performance. This level theorizes that Tier 2 leads to an improvement of about 15 percent of the students. If no notable improvement is recorded in the second stage, the students proceed to the third level with in-depth and personalized interventions. The principal goal of the process, be it RTI or pre-referral program, is to enable students to attain excellence without joining a special education program. If all the preliminary initiatives fail to achieve the student's desired outcomes, they are assessed for possible enrollment in the special education program.

Interventions in the general classroom are intended to help determine the student's abilities and potential candidates for special education. Students only proceed into the program if they show no signs of improvement or when school personnel recommends the kids for evaluation. Referrals to make these determinations are governed by:

· The opinion so the nominated school personnel, including counselors, teachers, and other key players.

· The decision by the legal guarding or parent

· The view of other key players active in the life or education of the child.

The official process of referral starts by determining eligibility. Once a referral is granted, the school proceeds to seek consent from the parents and then gets into the active referral evaluation process. It is recommended by IDEA that the evaluation process must be nondiscriminatory and multi-factored. The report should be presented to the school district 60 days after the referral date. The report is then examined by a multidisciplinary group of experts who give their diverse opinions for evaluation. Standard team members include:

· Educational Diagnostician commonly referred to as Psychometrist. In some instances, the officer takes the name of the School Psychologist: They have the skills to conduct educations assessments such as behavior, achievement, and intelligence quotient (IQ).

· Special Educators are qualified to evaluate behavior and achievement together with informal observations.

· General Educators provide relevant documentation regarding the status of each student.

· Legal guardians or parents play a critical role in the personality and behavior of students. They also influence how they interact with their environment.

· Associated service providers such as therapists, audiologists, and mobility specialists. They are instrumental in providing specific information about the condition being assessed.

· Medical doctors, including optometrists, psychiatrists, and ophthalmologists. They determine the level of disability hence the eligibility to join special education (Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities, 2013).

The Role of School Psychologist in the RTI Process

The Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI) entails a comprehensive approach that includes providing services and adapting interventions for learners' challenges. RTI can be employed in the decision-making process for special education, seamless systems, and compensatory interventions guided by data outcome. RTI requires identifying behavioral requirements, collaborations, inputs by teachers, and resources to ensure that students progress education. RTI is best applied in general education settings. RTI can be used by school personnel to categorize struggling and disabled children. For this, unique intervention and assessment procedures are required in general education. When applying collaborative methodologies, it is essential to realize that it depends on the experiences and the environment of the involved parties. Additionally, parents with a proper understanding of the RTI system can guide their children and gather important information about special education (National Association of School Psychologists, 2006).

RTI incorporates the following activities and conditions:

· It enhanced behavioral and instructional support.

· Scientific and research-based initiatives that are guided by professionals who understand difficulties in students.

· Constant student progress monitoring.

· Maintenance of documentation that is based on student data.

· Structured documentation ensures that interventions are executed with integrity, fidelity, and with the necessary intensity.

· Collaborative decision-making by school staff. The staff ensures proper reviews and evaluation of available data and information.

· Interventions that address students' difficulties and the necessary degree of required intensity based on the personnel and available resources.

· Written documentation that describes the essential structure and components needed by relevant parents and professionals.

· Parent announcements and associated documentation.

Since RTI plays a preventive role in schools, it covers students' dynamic instructions to enhance their behavior and academic skills. The education system must deploy collective resources to meet the requirements of students. These interventions help prevent possible broader issues that may arise if the present challenges are not arrested at the right time. Common problems include behavioral and learning challenges. The efforts require the support of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004), which provides financial flexibility, especially to the local education agencies (LEAs). Early Intervening Services (EIS) aid in the minimization of unnecessary referrals and excess identification. LEAs can commit more than 15% of IDEA resources to offer behavioral and academic supports to prevent early identification among learners. LEA enjoys significant flexibility and can utilize 50% of received federal funding to promote its activities. The funds are routed in developing non-special professionals and RTI activities (National Association of School Psychologists, 2006).

Research indicates that students who fail to achieve even under high levels of instruction could exhibit disability. RTI can help in ruling out cases of learning disabilities instead of applying the discrepancy model for identification. The method was approved by IDEA in 2004 and offered the following provisions:

a. Local Education Agencies (LEAs) can utilize students' responses to design scientific instructions that can be used in the evaluation.

b. In identifying a disability, LEAs are expected to verify where the children show any signs of discrepancies between intellectual and achievement abilities (National Association of School Psychologists, 2006).

The U.S. population distribution gives the challenges that school psychologists face regarding cultural responsiveness and prevention of behavior, health, and academic problems. The issues arise due to increased diversity, which requires psychologists to create awareness, skills and develop knowledge to serve the dynamic population. Challenges do not occur because diversity in itself exists. Realization of these challenges is essential considering the role psychologists play in preventing growing and diverse populations. Anytime psychologists adopt primary prevention measures on diverse populations to fix problems, a preventive framework should address issues that need prevention measures. The preventive platform applied in MTSS provides school psychologists with ideal opportunities to serve the community and schools. The support helps establish programs that promote children's interaction with the environment (Proctor & Meyers, 2014).

The creation of programs using the MTSS platform offers existing programs with additional features such as database-oriented decision-making, universal screening, and procedural problem-solving programs. Awareness of the psychologists and their knowledge in handling multicultural challenges enable the facilitation of cultural practices when deploying primary prevention for diverse populations. These cultural considerations include input gathering, reading programs, development of programs based on traditional concepts, use of culturally relevant interventions, adoption of inputs from stakeholders, and application of recursive methods to modify data with the desire of meeting cultural relevance. The multicultural knowledge and skills among the school psychologists give them a powerful position to enable them to lead in the deployment of prevention programs in communities and diverse schools (Proctor & Meyers, 2014).

In an educational environment, school psychologists often face practical barriers and administrative problems not common in research settings. Even when experts are informed about possible empirical evidence that supports different procedures and techniques, they may fail to put them into practice. The probable reason they are hesitant is the resources and time required to execute (Kratochwill & Shernoff, 2004).

Chapter 2: Methods

The principal objective of a school psychologist is founded on service delivery to families and children. The provision of services to adolescents and children to succeed in emotional, social, behavioral, and emotional contexts also forms part of their ultimate goal. It implies that the psychologists' role requires competent assessment followed by specialized intervention and mental health skills. These capacities should serve all children, even those from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds (Jones, 2014). The dynamics in behavioral and dyadic consultations are the first set of competent skills needed in pre-referral groups. These skills also contain verbal interaction abilities and teaching assistant roles to give a collaborative and consultive service (Kovaleski, 2002).

One of the ways used to assess students is by use of universal screenings. It employs systematic, preventive, and standardized procedures such as behavioral and social-emotional tests. Such initiatives aim to offer early interventions and identification services to students (Albers & Kettler, 2014). Procedures for nondiscriminatory assessment are thought of as standard methods that encourage equal treatment of people of different races or cultural backgrounds. Similarly, bilingual assessment is among the most widely used ways of establishing referenced evaluations, especially for individuals with diverse language backgrounds besides English. In practice, people with different languages often display varied cultures that show racial diversity. In this view, every evaluation process contains unique concerns, and no single phrase captures a fully nondiscriminatory strategy (Ortiz, 2007).

School psychologists also assume different leadership responsibilities in schools. They do not have to have the official leadership capacity, but the roles often display collaboration, mental health awareness, and school and home collaborations. These functions indirectly contribute to leadership roles. In special education and intervention assistance, school psychologists serve in the creation of pre-screening referral capabilities by:

· Participating in consultations and implementation strategies on issues that address the needs of students

· The constant development of collaborative initiatives in the creations of team procedures. For example, in tier evaluations, referral procedures, intervention responses, and the establishment of protocols for both interviews and observations.

· Identifying the needs of the teams by helping them in different training methods such as decision making and monitoring

· Acting as lead liaisons to guardians and parents by understanding different models and impacting children's lives. This role ensures that the contribution of parents is integrated into subsequent evaluations and interventions.

· Acting as community liaisons, especially to agencies and providers who may find different models hard to understand. In such cases, they help in the training procedures that ensure active participation and involvement in community initiatives. This comes after a granted parental consent

· Provision and integration of monitoring progressive roles that entail the incorporation of data for decision making.

Many school psychologists continue using a significant fraction of their professional schedules to address unique student problems. In RTI settings, these activities include:

· Parent and teacher consultation regarding intervention initiatives at home and in classrooms. Since RTI concentrates on Tier 1 or early interventions, schools psychologists are likely to put more efforts into this phase compared to the old models

· Engaging in training and demonstration initiatives in the strategic monitoring processes. Activities in the phase include assisting the staff, student interventions, and offering assistance in the decision-making procedures.

· Observing students' performance in their instructional environment helps identify the correct strategic interventions, identify intervention barriers, and gather responses linked to intervention data.

· Evaluation of cognitive functions in students. School psychologists take part in detailed evaluation procedures. Each time students connect to a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) and other categories of disabilities. The team must gather cognitive-related information.

Based on the criteria and rules governing a district or state, cognitive roles may include student observation, review of student progress, health, interviewing teachers and parents, response to interventions, tests for cognitive abilities, and other cognitive procedures associated with academic skills.

· Application of multiple data sources to handle cognitive functioning in students. This procedure forms part of best practices and reduces limitations in norm-referenced IQ tests and biases, particularly for children from diverse cultures, racial, economic, and racial backgrounds.

· Determination of referral procedures for students. In this case, school psychologists may take limited time doing formal assessments through individual assessments. This role is in line with "gatekeeping" procedures. "

· Evaluation of academic levels in students, mental health, and behavior. In the three categories, it is recommended that the school psychologist must consider the elements likely to affect academic performance. The role is similar in both the traditional and RTI models. When mental and behavioral elements are not eliminated in evaluating the educational factors, the psychologist should incorporate other team members to gather essential data empirically supported. New models often dedicate more time to handle mental-related issues.

· The process of incorporating other service and team members in setting goals, instructional design, and monitoring strategies require periodic evaluation of student progress. It also calls for access to RTI data and other information related to special education. (National Association of School Psychologists, 2006).

It is important to note that evaluation and assessment activities do not necessarily constitute intervention. For example, assume an individual has been assessed but has not registered any form of disability. The initial factors that led to their consideration as part of the referral program do no end automatically. Equally, an incidence of disability that is correctly assessed does not constitute the best or most reliable remedial strategies. In some assessments, the objective is to examine the right placements or instructions irrespective of the disability. These arguments reveal that any form of evaluation only becomes useful if integrated into the right interventions. It does not depend on the character of disability or disorder. For school evaluations, customization of instructional programs and adoption of the appropriate remedial method is essential. It should apply even in cases where individuals do not qualify for special education. Since the process is ideally meant to be nondiscriminatory, performance assessment should consider all the treatment and intervention strategies that add value to the performance (Ortiz, 2007).

Research Question

The proposed research question for the current study is:

What is school psychologists' role to ensure best practices during the pre-referral (RTI) process before students are assessed to determine special education eligibility?

Research Design

The current study undertakes a secondary research approach due to the advent of Covid-19 since the primary research could not have been conducted by physically contacting the respondents. Therefore, for this paper's purpose, a scoping review has been selected as the best appropriate method for analyzing the data. The reason for selecting this research design is that it provides a broader view of the research question. Several sources are collected for the literature review. The expanded spectrum of inclusion on which the articles were selected is useful to gain a large body of literature and diverse previously worked articles for answering the study question. The nature of the type of research articles ranges to a wide-scale so that a wholesome and comprehensive view of the literature could be attained. As many studies have been included in this scoping review, adopting a universal definition for the research question from all kinds of scholars is aimed to be completed. When the scoping review was being formulated, the authors' limitations and challenges were also considered. Their environments in which the studies were conducted and the errors that led to limitations could be reviewed properly. Conversely, a systematic review could have been used to stay limited in specific literature studies that could have helped answer this paper's research question. However, scoping review methodology was selected instead so that a broad understanding of school psychologists' role could be gained in the pre-referral process.

The collected secondary data would be analyzed with a thematic analysis in the later sections to determine themes within the literature. The reporting patterns would be detected so that critical assessment of the selected article becomes convenient. The paper aims to capitalize on thematic analysis's strength, which is to identify themes that could be identified to determine school psychologists' role in the pre-referral process. When the braider set of themes would be declared through this analysis, the sorting of data into a large subset would become easier. It would critically survey the themes of the already present previous works related to this paper's current research topic.

Data Sources and Search Strategy

Most of the articles were taken from EBSCO. It is considered the most comprehensive database for searching the relevant articles since it includes academic libraries, public libraries, government, corporations, journals, and the publishers themselves.

Keywords Used For Conducting Online Research

The keywords used for conducting online research were related to school psychologists' role in conducting the pre-referral process. The keywords were as follows:

Pre-Referral process, response to intervention, RTI process, school psychologists, special education, school psychologists' role, eligibility for special education via RTI process, and best practices in RTI or pre-referral process.

Eligibility Criteria

The articles were included based on the fact that they were relevant to the research question, which was school psychologists' role in the pre-referral screening process. The articles that were shown in the search results that concerned mostly special education children and other relevant complex cognitive problems in their education were excluded. Most of the search results gave documents indicating special education students and how school psychologists helped in their academic performance. This paper's focus was the pre-referral process and its screening procedure that helped determine children having difficulties and required special interventions within the school or, consequently, referred to the RTI process.

Those articles were also excluded, emphasizing the special education children's classroom settings and the teaching strategies inculcated to provide education and better academic performance better. These were considered as the sequel topics of research for special education and were discarded. The main attention of this paper was first to detect those children who were eligible for special education. For fulfilling this goal, the pre-referral or RTI process was highlighted within the keyword search.

Chapter 3: Review of Literature

Introduction

Since the Response to Intervention model in 2004, one of the biggest challenges faced by education is training personnel to meet these new requirements successfully. School psychologists can support RTI and improve learning for all students, from school-wide program design to specific intervention programs (Barker, 2011). Their experiences and knowledge of child development, social and emotional development, and learning values make them effective school intervention teams.

           There is evidence to prove that Response to Intervention (RTI) with the help of school psychologists is an approach that can help us give every student academic support required to effectively learn (Burns, Appleton, & Stehouwer, 2005). RTI's fundamental principle is that learning institutions should not wait for students to lag in class to be eligible for special education and offer them the help they need. Instead, learning institutions should offer directed and orderly interventions to all learners as soon as they determine the need.

           This literature review will outline the significant role played by school psychologists. It will also identify and analyze what is expected of the school psychologists. It also has a section that describes the findings of various researchers regarding school psychologists.

Student Support Team Process before RTI

           Before the implementation of RTI, schools applied the Students Support Team process. This process was intended to offer support to the student and teacher through a combined team approach with key stakeholders. SST was created because the collaborative approach works when coming up with plans for students with learning disabilities. SST was a valuable tool because it provided an effective educational program for learners (Barrio & Combes, 2015). 

           Student Support Teams prove to be more effective in learning institutions whereby the teachers are responsible for all students and can help them in collaborative problem-solving. The process entailed basic steps focused on individual student needs, learning, program efficiency, and communication. Before and during the first meeting, the team members collect relevant information on the student's past and present educational and behavioral performance. The information was mainly from sources such as parents, official school records, and anecdotal records. The team would then meet to discuss, evaluate the information acquired, and decide whether more information is needed. The team would then develop an individual educational plan tailored depending on the student's strengths and weaknesses.

           Plans and techniques are suggested and supported by all the team members involved in the implementation process. It is at this time that a timeline for a follow-up is established. The developed educational plan is effected for a certain period, and supplementary data is gathered if necessary (Barrio & Combes, 2015); and the team would have regular meetings to discuss student progress and supplementary information that may be presented. In case there is a demand to change the education plan, the alterations will be done during the SST meeting.

           Lastly, there is the ongoing monitoring and evaluation that is a significant part of the SST process. If the education plan proved successful and no disability was discovered, the team continued to observe the student progress and decide when to support the classroom plans. However, if a disability were discovered, the team would advise that they go for psychological testing. Upon completing the test, the team will hold another meeting to discuss special education eligibility (Barrio & Combes, 2015). 

           Many learning institutions struggle to benefit from RTI because they misguidedly view RTI as just a new method of qualifying learners for special education by directing the efforts to regular education interventions before referring the students who lag in class to traditional special education testing and placement. Other schools are just implementing RTI to not be on the wrong side of the law and stay legal.

The Problem of Disproportional Representation

           Gravois, & Rosenfield (2006), analyzes the problem of disproportional representation of minority students in special education. Although there have been recommendations offered to help solve the problem, two challenges are still unsolved. The first is that the extent of the problem has not been fully defined, and second, there have been no interventions within schools to help address the problem. Disproportionate placement is defined as representing a certain group of learners at a different rate than that found in the overall population.

           The problem of disproportionate representation can occur if the learners' placements are overrepresented or underrepresented when looking at their presence at comparing it to their representation in the overall population. Gravois & Rosenfield (2006) focus on the overrepresentation of minorities in special education and their under-representation in programs set up for gifted and talented learners. The minorities, in particular, are the African American students who are selected for special education.

           The number of Black students identified for special education is disproportionate compared to that of their white peers. According to Gravois & Rosenfield (2006), the number of African American students who are mentally disabled students is twice the other races rate. There is data analysis from the various State Department of Education presented to back up this claim.

           The first theme addressed in the literature addressing disproportionality is cultural differences in tutor perceptions and practices concerning minority learners. According to the writers' research, some tutors argue that minority learners are selected for special education classes to improve how tutors deal with culturally diverse learners. They provide ideas about how teachers can develop new perceptions and practices that will lead to greater student achievement and cut down the number of inappropriate referrals to special education. The second theme is biasing in assessment procedures used when selecting the minority learners for special education services. Lastly, the article addresses the effectiveness of prereferral when dealing with students' academic needs before selecting special needs services.

           According to Gravois & Rosenfield (2006), Instructional Consultation Teams (I.C. Teams) are to be used in the problem-solving processes to ensure quality instruction and intervention is provided to them. This will improve student academic achievement, especially the minority students, and the number of learners selected for evaluation or placement in remedial services will reduce. The I.C. Team model's consistent application has led to decreased total referrals and special education learners' placements.

           A study conducted by Gravois & Rosenfield (2006) shows the effect of implementing I.C. Teams on the special education referral and placement patterns of minority learners when compared to other learners in different schools in the same area. The study results show an effect on the disproportionate evaluation and placement of minority learners compared to schools that continue to apply their traditional prereferral process. In the schools with I.C. Team, the number of minorities decreased in the three disproportionality indices concerning referral for assessment and placement into special education. The I.C. Team's implementation in project schools led to decreased risk indexes, odds ratios, and composition indexes of assessment and placement of minority students.

RTI Framework

           According to (Aspiranti et al., 2019), Response to intervention (RTI) is an intervention method applied to offer academic services and interventions to learners. The two main purposes of RTI are; to offer a preemptive service delivery model and determine and determine suitability for special education services under the classification of a specific learning disability (SLD). As states are starting to necessitate RTI data as part of an SLD identification, the suitability requirements' alteration is a paradigm shift in various school districts' operations and beliefs.

           RTI came into place with the re-authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. This Act offered states the choice of determining whether a student responds to scientific, research-based intervention to select a student in need of special education. A child is only eligible for special education if the child's academic performance remains poor after intensive intervention implementation. Powers et al. (2008) outline school psychologists' training and professional development requirements for successfully implementing an RTI model.

           According to Kratochwill & Shernoff (2004), it is important to identify issues related to evidence-based practice and how the school psychology profession can contribute to developing and disseminating evidence-based interventions (EBIs). Kratochwill & Shernoff (2004) discusses five assumptions presented to help the Task Force deal with integrating EBIs in practice. Where information is specified, intervention requires an evidence-based approach.

           RTI can be used more widely across learning institutions as a problem-solving method that shapes instruction and influences intervention choices, suitability for special education programs, and special education programs (Batsche et al., 2006). Although many schools have applied the RTI approach due to IDEA 2004 regulations, it is clear among the practitioners that the implementation of RTI will take some time and require ongoing professional development of school teachers and psychologists at all levels of RTI to effectively serve learners.

3 Tier Response to Intervention

Tier One

           Generally, all students are participants on this level. The students are provided access to a standard-based curriculum implemented with instruction. It also includes differentiated evidence-based learning modeled to individual student needs. Instructions are based on the data collected and reviewed. When Tier one is carried out in this way, about 80% of students will be eligible for the general education classroom. Thus, it will reduce the number of children referred and placed in special education classrooms.

Tier Two

           Tier Two is centered on needs-based learning. If a student has not successfully responded to Tier One, the students are moved to Tier Two. Students are offered a standard intervention protocol that focuses on their specific academic or behavioral challenges on this tier. These students are selected using universal screening data, state assessment data, comprehensive assessment data, and Tier One assessment data. A fundamental part of this tier is the progress monitoring process. Progress is monitored to analyze the student's response to the intervention, and decisions are made based on the student's response. When Tier Two is carried out in this manner, many students will be eligible for the general education classroom.

Tier Three 

           Tier three entails steady and accurate delivery of an intervention. The intervention may be very intense. At this level, the RTI process is more individualized and diagnostic. The school teachers often request county-level specialists to join the problem-solving team. To discover the reasons why the students are not performing as expected, they may use scientific analysis. Careful analysis in this tier helps most students move back to Tier One or Tier Two. The decision is made after close monitoring of the progress. During the intervention, students who respond successfully start to receive less and less intervention. More and more instructions are given to students who do not respond successfully to the intervention. However, if the students are still unresponsive at this level, the RTI team has to come together and decide if a referral is needed for specialized instruction.

Special Education Services

           This level involves special program placement for students in need of additional support. This tier involves special education and gifted education services. The services can be offered in a general classroom setting or a different setting. Tier Four is for students that we're unable to respond to the previous three tiers. These kinds of students require additional support and meet eligibility criteria for special program placement. The students are suitable for gifted learning and special education. Because of the tiers in place before specialized services, more struggling students will be successful and will not need the intervention on this tier. Tier four offers instructions for students with disabilities and need special education and related services. If a determination has been made stating that a child has a disability, the school system does not require additional documentation for prior interventions.

History of School Psychology

There has been a significant change in how people view children's education in the late 19th and early 29th centuries (Fagan, 1992). In the past, School psychology had a mixture of various disciplines. Being a guidance counselor was an added advantage to existing credentials. Concurrently, in the 19th century, there was an emergence of compulsory education in the United States that brought about challenges such as poor and working-class children's plight. This resulted in the enactment of child labor laws that paved the way for the beginning of school psychology (Merrell et al., 2006). In time, the school system expanded, and stronger laws concerning special education were introduced. Laws that addressed compulsory education significantly changed public education between 1830 and 1930 (Fagan, 1992). They saw the need for psychological services for children in school (Fagan, 1992). The children needed experts to identify and address the unanticipated and undiagnosed disorders in them.

In the 20th century, children were considered vulnerable and in need of protection. There was an increase in demand for education services for children in need of special education. Hence, there was a need to offer training beyond just teaching (Eisner, 1963). From 1817 to the beginning of the Civil War, many residential schools for disabled and orphaned students were started in various states (Kirk, Gallagher, & Anastasiow, 1993). Before 1850, there were countable public schools that provided special education to children and adults with special needs (Kirk et al.). Schools brought about awareness of individual differences among children (Herron, Green, Guild, Smith, & Kantor, 1970). The first children to be placed in special classes were cognitively impaired. The classes were funded by state boards of education and had psychologists who did a psychological examination.

The emphasis on providing special education and health services for students in need increased during the late 1890s through to the 1900s (Merrell et al., 2006). In 1899, William Healey established a clinic for the Chicago juvenile court in the public school system. In 1910, mental clinics were established with the sole purpose of eliminating juvenile delinquency. This paves the way for today's programs for students having emotional and behavioral issues (Merrell et al., 2006).

Lightner Witmer came up with the concept of instruction in psychology to be used to meet the teacher's needs. His concept focused on individual and psychological principles of individual relationships. The process examined usual childhood behaviors and deviations that were highly dependent on observing and analyzing those observations (Fagan, 1992).

Later, G. Stanelry Hall established the child study movement that shaped the modern school of psychology. He established a clinical facility that provided services to the administrators, teachers, and parents. Hall used child study questionnaires that highlight the common issues with schools and schooling, while Witmer's services were focused on individual children (Fagan, 1992). School psychology is aimed at using psychology to help teachers with instructions. 

William James opposed this concept. He believed that psychologists could not dictate how teachers educate their students. He was not aware that teachers could be part-time psychologists or scientists, which would hinder their performance. (Berliner, 1993). He did not agree with the opinion that teachers could apply science to real situations. James stated that school psychology in the schools is important in the following ways: to provide principles about the foundations of instruction, to preclude teachers from making appalling mistakes, and offer intellectual support to teachers in making academic decisions (Berliner, 1993).

School psychology was established in response to the lack of special education services for children different from most students. Schools were starting to be child-centered; hence, there was a need for individualized services to help address differences in learning (Herron et al., 1970). Recognition of the differences in students was done through creating awareness for individualized and special education services. School boards in the U.S. started employing school psychologists to offer services for special education students. As school psychologists' demand started to increase, there was a need to define school psychology's duties and descriptions.

The Role of School Psychologists

           The School Psychologists' role in the RTI model includes developing interventions for students, screening to identify issues early enough, monitoring progress, offering professional development for tutors, and taking leadership roles to support the implementation of RTI at a system level. School psychologists play a significant role in RTI teams as they interpret data and help general and special education teachers make proper decisions from the data (Aspiranti et al., 2019)

The traditional role of a school psychologist is that it is a 'tester.' However, the RTI model has a role of school psychologists include; consulting, offering counseling, direct and indirect involvement in prevention and intervention programming for individuals or groups of students, and offering support to school staff through the data-based decision making and progress monitoring (McIntosh et al., 2010).

School psychologists have the skills to investigate, identify, and analyze various approach systems that can help address students' needs in specific areas of academics or behavior using an RTI model (Canter, 2006). They are trained to understand and know what a student needs and provide appropriate evidence-based intervention to address the students' academic and behavioral needs (Canter, 2006). 

Furthermore, school psychologists are regarded as leaders concerning mental health assessment, home-school collaboration, and school-agency collaboration. They form part of the special education and intervention team that plays a critical role in implementing an RTI model within a school (Burns & RileyTillman, 2009; McIntosh et al., 2010). They also help the parents understand the RTI model and its impact on their child (Canter, 2006).

School psychologists' primary functions include improving cognitive and academic abilities, promoting mental health and life competencies, data-based decision making, and systems-based services (Ysseldyke et al., 2006). Consequently, there are various specific activities available for school psychologists within the three-tiered RTI model. Besides, assessment, the implementation of integrity, and facilitating a team effort between home, school, and community agencies are significant roles school psychologists serve across the three tiers.

The School psychology's involvement begins in Tier 1, whereby they can volunteer to be part of the district curriculum committees. The school psychologist is tasked with finding reading curricula and programs that are at par with the National Research Council recommendations. They are allowed to consult individual teachers on the planning, managing, and delivering instructions; this ensures that the teachers give quality instructions to the students. Generally, a school psychologist's role in Tier 1 is to offer consultation concerning the assessment system. According to Fuchs (2003), assessment is fundamental and is the foundation of RTI to determine its success. Therefore, school psychologists need to help the teachers and administrators choose tools that will give reliable and valid information.

In Tier 2, a school psychologist's primary role is the same as that of Tier 1. The school psychologist offers assessments and helps in making data-based decisions. School psychologists should be well-informed of the different assessment systems and know which approach would suit particular populations and uses. When a student is classified as a struggling reader, the school psychologist should consult with the teachers or conduct an assessment to identify areas that require intervention.

In Tier 3, school psychologists address learning difficulties for individual students. To effectively do this, school psychologists must be well informed about problem-solving processes and intensive interventions for individual learners. They should have sufficient knowledge in assessment and problem-solving systems from which interventions could be derived.

           However, schools underutilize the expertise that a school psychologist can offer in the RTI process. School psychologists are trained to offer assessment, intervention, and consultation; this helps in the RTI process. Although school psychologists have diverse training, they focus more on eligibility-related assessment activities and less time on intervention and consultation. A school psychologist is likely to offer more if their role is divided into equal parts assessment, intervention, and consultation (Aspiranti et al., 2019)

           There has been a growing worry among the teachers and school psychologists on how a problem-solving approach such as RTI may affect their roles. Traditionally, the role of a psychologist has mainly been that of a psychometric. However, in recent years, a school psychologist is viewed as a problem-solver. They must join their understanding of psychology and education to offer the best services to the students. School psychologists apply their strengths in collaboration, consultation, and interventions. They are working in environments that allow them to offer a wider variety of services that will be more meaningful to students. School psychologists now partake in ensuring academic competence and offering social and emotional support (Little, 2013).

           However, the role of a school psychologist in RTI is not properly defined. A school psychologist's role has been altered from a predominantly psychometrician to an active problem-solver. This will require the school psychologists to be ready for change and additional training (Little, 2013).

Training and Accreditation Implications for School Psychologists in RTI

The earliest research on school psychologists' roles and functions was done by John Edward Wallace Wallin (1876-1969) (Fagan, 1992). Wallin evaluated the training and efficiency of school psychologists. In his findings, the participants were not well trained and were providing a limited amount of services. Most participants were offering testing services to place children in educational groups.

School psychologists may not possess the required skills to fulfill the RTI model demands, such as problem-solving skills, consultation, and developing systems for implementation (Reschly, 1996). Role restriction is also a result of the reluctance by individual school psychologists to alter traditional services. Successful school psychology must be willing and ready to make changes to their traditional roles to provide the kind of services demanded under the RTI model.

 In most states, individuals who have no teacher certification can acquire the credentials in school psychology. They are only required to have additional coursework that will provide knowledge on education curriculum, school organization, and the opportunity to observe in the classroom. 

School psychologists who are given training during the pre-RTI period should be willing to partake in continuing professional development to develop methods and strategies needed to implement RTI successfully. Standards for school psychologists must be a broad service delivery model that caters to all stakeholders' needs. School psychologists are required to have good communication skills and be able to relate well with others. They must also have skills that assist in system analysis and system change.

Although there have been some changes in school psychology training programs, very few programs are changing to fit school psychologists' new demands (Curtis & Batsche, 1991). Training programs need to promote assessment processes that direct the evaluation of interventions, the problem-solving process, and students' needs outside the classroom. The belief is that the RTI model will progress together with school psychologist training. Professional development will include the evaluation process of scientific researched-based instruction evidence-based (Hawkins et al., 2008).

School Psychologists' Perceptions of Stakeholder Engagement about Intervention

According to a survey done by Little (2013), most school psychologists said they were willing to support the implementation of RTI in their schools. A few school psychologists felt that they were not an essential part of their schools' RTI team. The outcome showed that even though school psychologists are skilled and able to participate in the RTI process, they doubt if they are an important part of the implementation process. 

The skills acquired by school psychologists make them very essential in the implementation of RTI. According to Canter (2006), school psychologists can contribute much to the implementation of RTI, but they need to be open to change and additional training. RTI implementation comes with additional significant changes in the role of school psychologists. The changes will include more data collection and analysis and less traditional assessment.

In the survey, about half of general teachers and special teachers are involved in implementing RTI. Further, the respondents stated that about a third of school counselors, school administrators, and special education directors took part in implementing RTI. This shows a need for further professional development, including training on collaborative teaming, for all stakeholders.

Research Related to School Psychologists

According to a survey conducted by Hosp and Reschly (2002), school psychologists stated they spent at least half of their time on eligibility-related activities. The study showed a difference between what school psychologists would want to do and what they are doing. They also faced a challenge regarding how others perceive the field of school psychology and the school psychologist's role (Hosp & Reschly, 2002). The school psychologists were also not confident that they had the skills needed to provide quality services to students, staff, and parents. However, some of them viewed school psychologists as the most equipped person to lead the implementation of RTI because they had been trained on assessment.

According to a survey by Reschly (1996), the research study on school psychologists' role preferences has constantly shown preferences for more time usage in problem-solving consultation and direct interventions, with time dedicated to assessment to determine eligibility reduced to 25-30% of the role (Reschly, 1996). 

           According to research conducted, the greatest challenge and benefit of RTI in schools depends on its implementation. According to Lose (2008), the implementation and sustenance of an RTI initiative is the school's instructional leader's role. Successful implementation of the RTI process largely depends on the leadership practices. Support from the administration and the school psychologists is important for successful implementation. The administrative behavior determines whether an RTI will succeed or fail and increase or decrease special education referrals.

           However, in research carried out by Rafoth and Foriska (2006), it seems that there is no direct link between administrative support and effective teams. They assert that leadership behaviors do not affect the drive and implementation of RTI; it is the school's principles that determine a successful implementation. Leadership is not in any way linked to RTI, whether positively or negatively.           

Summary

RTI has become an important part of the school community throughout the nation regardless of whether it was implemented at the national, state, or system level. National guidelines may be different compared to state or county guidelines. However, it is the implementation that determines the effects on individual students. Effective implementation will result in a positive impact on individual students (McCook, 2007). Numerous researchers have conducted studies to show the significance of RTI in various ways. RTI is a developing section of the decision-making process concerning students. Although the implementation of RTI may vary from one state to another, the impact of RTA on the success rate highly depends on the appropriate interventions offered to students identified as at-risk before being referred to special education (McCook, 2007). Hence it is significant to analyze the role played by school psychologists in ensuring all students access education.

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion

The thematic analysis of the literature review revealed various themes related to school psychologists' role in the pre-referral screening. The first theme is school leadership's role in giving children protection whenever they face difficulty in academic progress or social challenges within school psychology boundaries. The second theme, which is the realization of school psychologists as leaders who help assess children's mental problems studying within the institute, is also related to the first theme. Therefore, both of these themes would be discussed here side by side. The thematic analysis of the literature reviews helps understand that school psychologists use tools and interventions to refer to the special education program. They have problem-solving skills that help them make correct decisions about which child needs school intervention and which child should be referred to the special education program.

It has been widely reported that school psychologists' prime role is only restricted to providing mental health services to the students who face problems with their cognitive skills, either in class routine activities, social skills, or performing well academically. 50% of their work throughout the week has been identified as providing consultation to the school staff and working with their teams for making social-emotional assessments for the children (Splett et al., 2019). The school psychology and the best practices devised for revealing the children who face hardships emotionally, socially, and even in serious cases, mentally, the school psychologists have to ensure that such students gain universal access to the healthcare services and practices. In RTI, the intervention programs are formulated with the school staff, parents, and school psychologists' collaborative efforts to give the needy children the best assistance. Additionally, leadership skills are inherent in school psychologists' roles. Without their input, the school staff and parents would not categorize the student's special needs or difficulties they might be facing in the class of society. School psychologists are equipped with best practices' knowledge that helps prevent mental health concerns. They built on this awareness the plans and make evaluations for appropriate data-based decisions. Their consultation and assessment skills for the pre-referral process are required for structuring data-teams, making evaluations, and addressing the crisis on time. The school psychologists do the relationship-building among the school staff, students, and their parents since they transform the unique situations for achieving a set goal (Burns et al., 2017). It is believed that a trained and expert school psychologist who helps in implementing an innovative endeavor, for example, conceiving an intervention for the pre-referral screening and building partnership through teamwork, would mots probably make use of transformational leadership. The psychologist has the professional authority and resource for bringing change within the school system based on the shared vision and foreseeing the desired goals.

The third theme is the accreditation of the school psychologists as a major stakeholder in the RTI process. Since the distinction of RTI is made on the district, state, and individual school level, school psychologists' stakeholder role is vital in making the response to intervention strategies (Little, 2013). The engagement of all stakeholders, including the school psychologists, is necessary to make the RTI program effective for the students in need. Its successful implementation is only guaranteed if the school psychologists' leadership is actively linked with their engagement in the process. As a 'systems approach' is suggested for bringing effectuality in the RTI process and having positive results from it, the involvement of all stakeholders where the school psychologists hold a fundamental place should be observed in the steps like the articulation of procedures for the pre-referral screening, making sure that all resources are in place, high-quality interventions and their application is facilitated, and continuous professional growth. In traditional school psychology, school psychologists could implement the best practices so that their innovative behavioral interventions bring fruitful results for the students. The assessment techniques they would use to gain each child should be considered since each child belongs to a diverse ethnic background and has his own divergent social and emotional requirements. School staff and parents might likely be missing the areas that the child needs attention for since they do not possess the psychological detection skills that the school psychologists have. It would only be possible with school psychologists' aid and considered a major stakeholder in the RTI process.

The fourth and fifth themes are inter-related since a particular cultural bias has been observed on school psychologists when identifying students for the special education program. In the fifth theme, which is about the assessment tools and procedures for the minority students based on their culture and language diversities, the school psychologists' sufficient role has not been witnessed. The specification of these themes has been made so that school psychologists' role enhancement could be suggested and training and professional development opportunities.

School psychologists are trained according to certain state professional ethics guidelines so that their assessments are free from bias related to sexual differences, age, gender, cultural or socioeconomic differences. However, a study in 1997 was conducted in which more than 150 psychologists from eight states were surveyed. The results showed that 70% of the respondents declared that they had training in bilingual assessment but were not relevant to cultural issues; therefore, many students were confirmed LEP students. It is deduced that school psychologists were trained on merely three factors: second language acquisition and its pertinent factors, bilingual assessment related to psycho-educational evaluations, and skills to interpret those results. Even the cultural bias testing case of Hobon vs. Hansen in 1967 denoted that many African American children were placed in lower-level classes due to the group-administered tests for all students equally (Fagan & Wise, 2007, p. 113).

It is recognized with other similar studies that school psychologists' training based on their cultural diversity should be given high weightage. Recently, the trend has changed where more colleges and universities are offering training for psychologists in bilingual assessments with cultural awareness. Still, the same practice should be adopted by the school where these psychologists are hired to make evaluations of culturally diverse students so that no 'one' students are falsely put in the special education program. In contrast, his psychological needs' wrong guesstimate due to his cultural factors should be addressed with simple, modified interventions. Since diversity-based schools hire expert psychologists, they are incapable of implementing strategies that reflect the students' cultural, racial, and ethnic characteristics. Students' interventions in such schools are homogenous, and their effectiveness is not accurate since the demographic traits are excluded for the minorities (Shernoff, Bearman & Kratochwill, 2017). School personnel training should be considered an important component in training so that cultural competence should be taught to the staff, including school psychologists.

Another perspective of the prevalence of this issue in the thematic analysis that forms obstacles in an exhaustive school psychologists' role in the pre-referral process is the standardized testing used to assess diversely ethnic students. Standardized testing delivers danger to minority students since they have little representation of this ethnicity. The students are not given tests that should be based on their cultural interests and needs. Research has confirmed that suing standardized tests for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students is a problem (Villegas-Gutierrez, 2015, p. 20). It is explained in the same report that it would be unethical for such students to qualify for special education or interventional curriculum programs with the norms used for other students. They have their own respective needs, and the tests would prove biased for them. Rather, the multicultural assessment technique should be used, which encapsulates several social/emotional and behavioral evaluation methods for accurately pointing out the child's strengths and weaknesses in the mentioned areas. It would be free from discrimination against certain races and cultures to produce authentic ratings and scores for children for allocating them to the RTI programs.

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations

After the thematic analysis of the literature review, it is reasoned that school psychologists' role in the said process is indispensable. However, the secondary research themes showed certain roles that a school psychologist plays or must play. The themes showed that the school psychologists play the role of a leader since he is the one who puts his skillful knowledge in designing and conducting assessments for the students to distinguish those who should be admitted to the special education program. He has suitable assessment tools and awareness about the students' social and emotional needs. He knows that if these needs are not met, the students might underperform in their academic year. Also, without his support, the pre-referral program and its effective results would not have been possible. His transformative leadership, which infuses a visionary standpoint for meeting the school psychology goals, supports the teams' collaborative efforts in the pre-referral process to the next level. He is an integral part of these teams since, without the school staff and the parents' inputs, he would not assess the students' special needs. Hence, he must be considered as an accredited stakeholder in the RTI process. One more theme identified through the thematic analysis was an issue faced by the school psychologists causing a hindrance in seemly execution of their role in the pre-referral process. This could be taken as a concern, and further suggestions are presented in the current section.

The thematic analysis also showed that the school psychologists faced a few issues. If these issues are resolved, school psychologists' role would be enhanced so that inculcation of the best practices could be ensured in the pre-referral screening. It is also important to resolve these issues so that the professional development of school psychologists' role could be fulfilled and enhancement in their task accomplishment concerning the pre-referral process could be certified. The issues observed were especially related to cultural and linguistic discrimination, psychologists' training, and cultural insensitiveness within the assessments.

This research suggests that these issues should be resolved as soon as possible so that pre-referral screening becomes easier for school psychologists. In current times when technology has made processes spacious, it is imperative to equip the psychologists with the latest tools and mechanisms so that transparent assessments could be made for all the children. However, it becomes important for the culturally diverse students to be appraised with specially adapted assessment techniques so that their social, emotional, and psychological needs are weighed better.

Recommendation for reducing biasedness or impartiality in the pre-referral screening could be reduced by focusing more on alternative assessment procedures inclusive of informal methods of assessing cultural and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. It would help in detailed scrutinizing their dynamic needs since the assessment measures would be credible in nondiscrimination. Moreover, it could add parameters that describe what tasks the students can fulfill instead of mentioning those they lack. The curriculum-based assessments should outline their linguistics styles so that further interventions, especially in Tier 2, could be designed accordingly. The alternative assessment method could use bilingual assessment for linguistically diverse students since it would be a new approach, apart from the standardized assessment. This would particularly emphasize the areas where the students speaking other languages are weak and need more hard work. The RTI process would sketch the curriculum intervention for the classroom instructions for such linguistically weak students to acquire better teaching administration. For this purpose, even if class teachers' training is required, it could be catered to as well so that handling linguistically diverse students becomes facilitative.

Recommendation for class insensitivity towards ethnically diverse students could be based on the additional recommended best practices for the inclusion of CLD evaluations (Villegas-Gutierrez, 2015, p. 43). These best practices mention that formal and informal assessments should be conducted in the student's proficient language and English. It would be beneficial for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students since their interpretation and understanding would be better gauged in this way. Although the assessments for CLD students would take two to three times more time to complete so that all the factors should be counted in, their sociocultural impact on learning would be materialized through the specially designed assessments. In this manner, the homogenous pre-referral screening method would not overshadow their abilities and lead to their over placement in the special education program, which was the main concern of African American parents in many instances within the United States.

Recommendation for effective training of the school psychologists for unerring and bias-free pre-referral screening could be the district-wide professional development in alignment with the state's cultural competence standards. It is known that psychologists receive the standard curriculum and teaching procedures within their classroom settings; though, it is the training that shapes their thoughts. They would make use of assessment techniques for culturally diverse students. The influential thought program is only possible through effective training where gender, social and racial factors could be infused within their training. The unique blend of the training program with these characteristics could entirely change their perception towards the world's children who have demanding conditions. Their professional experience should be fashioned in line with the state requirements and the distinct needs of the culturally and linguistically diverse students at each grade level. Further, the collaboration with the community members in higher education would support gaining a deep insight into the cultural competence training programs offered within the district so that pre-referral screening becomes applicable in the local context.

There are a few limitations and strengths in this research. The strengths include the use of thematic analysis that provided flexibility in deriving themes from the literature review. As the studies included in the review belonged to different methodological backgrounds, the flexibility in extracting themes provides a deep engagement with the secondary data. The coherence and consistency were made in pulling out the themes from the data to remain close to answering the research question. In addition to that, the inclusion of both old and new studies in the literature review presented an overview of the change of perspectives related to school psychologists' role. A change doesn't need to occur over time since the studies from older years showed that they still face the school psychologists' issues in older days in current times. An example of this is the over or under-representation of different ethnic backgrounds students, particularly African Americans. This issue led to the fact that school psychologists' role is crucial in detecting the accurate number of pre-referral screening students based on best practices.