How is the Instructional Decision-Making process similar to or different from Response to Intervention (RtI)?

For all practical purposes both processes are similar to one another. One could almost argue that IDM is Iowa’s brand name for the Response to Intervention process that is often written about at the national level. Both processes are implemented as a systematic decision-making process, both attempt to meet the needs of students by either preventing problems or by identifying them early, both require the use of data to make decisions at many levels (needs assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation), and both require the use of research based teaching practices. However, depending upon the RtI “model” that you may have read about, there may be some fundamental differences compared to how Iowa implements the IDM process. First, many RtI models only address the needs of students who are performing at levels that are below expectation levels. The IDM process considers any student, both low and high performing, whose needs might not be adequately met via core instruction. Thus, ...  more