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A Critical Practice Analysis of Response to Intervention Appropriation in an Urban School

This qualitative case study focuses on factors mediating an urban school’s enactment of Response to Intervention (RTI). Over one school year, we (a) observed weekly RTI meetings, (b) debriefed observations weekly, (c) interviewed RTI team members, and (d) examined procedural documents. Analyses included post-observation debriefing and coding fieldnotes and interview transcripts; categorical meaning and themes were coded recursively. Informed by critical policy studies research and theory, findings indicated limited supports and minimal technical understandings of RTI. Educators appeared to replicate pre-RTI special education eligibility determination processes, manifested in scripts about student diagnoses based on minimal “interventions” and deficit-laden representations of students/families. Findings highlight challenges with urban schools’ RTI enactment and justify future critical qualitative research regarding learning in schools shifting practice under policy directives. Although the study focuses on RTI as a case-in-point, findings have implications for future research that utilizes critical practice approaches to analyze ways local contexts mediate policy enactment.