Content area
Full Text
The authors report on research in which they examined teacher quality, teacher efficacy, and various instruments used in previous teacher-effiicacy studies to determine which instrument would best be used while implementing Response to Intervention (RTI). The instruments reviewed revealed similar patterns for measuring teacher effiicacy. However, because teacher effiicacy is content-specific, the authors found only one instrument that could be used to measure general teacher effiicacy while change in instruction was occurring due to mandated RTI changes.
Purpose
The purpose for this research was multifaceted. First, we considered legislation that mandated the inclusion of children with learning disabilities into the general classroom. Second, we examined teacher quality issues, because teacher knowledge and skills impact teacher efficacy. Third, we examined teacher efficacy as mandated change does impact teacher effectiveness. Next, we examined instruments used in previous studies of teacher efficacy. Finally, we completed a comparison of the self-efficacy instruments to determine which teacher-efficacy instrument was the best to determine teacher efficacy as teachers work to implement instructional change due to mandated legislation.
Legislation and Response-to-Intervention
The passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; 2004) signed by President George W. Bush changed how students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) are identified, as well as how these students are to receive education (Marston, 2005) . This law shifted the responsibility for SLD students who were receiving special education services to the general education classroom, where they should receive the general education curriculum (IDEA, 2004; McCook, 2006).
IDEA (2004) implementation outlined how educators should evaluate students with SLD but failed to list which instruments were effective in determining if teachers were implementing Response to Intervention (RTI) successfully. Court cases, moreover, have established that the schools obligation to evaluate a student is triggered when a school district has reason to suspect both (a) that the student has a disability, and (b) that the student has a resulting need for special education services (El Paso v. R.R., 2008). The reauthorization of the IDEA focused national attention on a growing practice in the general education classroom-using RTI as a tool for assessing and providing high quality instruction to all struggling learners and to students at risk for academic failure (McCook, 2006) .
RTI is the practice of "providing high-quality...