RTI, Standardized Tests, Screening Devices, and Dysgraphia

In reviewing some schools’ RTI plans, a standardized reading achievement test is used as a screening device. Students are put in Tiers I, II, or III reading intervention groups based on their percentile ranking on standardized tests. For example, if you’re in the 10th percentile or below, you go to Tier III, the 40th percentile or below you go to Tier II, and the 60th percentile or below you go to Tier I.

When you live in the world of standardized tests and percentile rankings, there is a normal distribution of scores that is beautifully displayed in the bell-shaped curve. Here, half the population is reading below average. That’s called a normal population or a normal distribution of scores. But if everybody was reading above average, eventually average would become below average and above average would become average, and below average wo ...