RICA English Language Learners and Diverse Learners 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the FIRST step a teacher should take when a student with a reading disability is referred for special education services?
- Immediately place the student in a special education classroom
- Ensure the student has received high-quality, evidence-based instruction and document their response to intervention (Correct answer)
- Recommend retention in the current grade
- Reduce reading instruction time to avoid overwhelming the student
Correct answer: Ensure the student has received high-quality, evidence-based instruction and document their response to intervention
Before referral, documentation of quality instruction and intervention response (RTI/MTSS) ensures students are not misidentified due to lack of adequate instruction.
Question 2: A student with dyslexia requires which type of reading instruction according to current research and RICA standards?
- Whole-language instruction with minimal phonics
- Structured literacy approaches that are explicit, systematic, sequential, and multisensory (Correct answer)
- Look-and-say reading instruction focused on sight words only
- Independent silent reading with little direct instruction
Correct answer: Structured literacy approaches that are explicit, systematic, sequential, and multisensory
Structured literacy, which is explicit, systematic, and often multisensory, is the evidence-based approach for students with dyslexia.
Question 3: A student with an IEP receives reading instruction in a general education classroom. The RICA-prepared teacher's role includes:
- Deferring all instruction for this student to the special education teacher only
- Collaborating with the special education teacher and implementing IEP accommodations and modifications during reading instruction (Correct answer)
- Eliminating reading assignments for the student to reduce frustration
- Testing the student using the same assessments as students without disabilities without modifications
Correct answer: Collaborating with the special education teacher and implementing IEP accommodations and modifications during reading instruction
General education teachers are responsible for implementing IEP accommodations and collaborating with special education staff to support students in inclusive settings.
Question 4: A teacher notices that a student with strong oral language skills struggles significantly with written language. This pattern is MOST consistent with:
- A general intellectual disability affecting all learning
- A specific learning disability in reading/writing such as dyslexia (Correct answer)
- Below-average intelligence affecting language development
- A hearing impairment that reduces language exposure
Correct answer: A specific learning disability in reading/writing such as dyslexia
A profile of strong oral language with weak reading/writing is the hallmark pattern of dyslexia — a specific, phonological processing-based reading disability.
Question 5: What is the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework's primary purpose in literacy instruction?
- To sort students into permanent ability groups based on standardized test scores
- To provide increasingly intensive, data-driven levels of instruction and support to all students based on their assessed needs (Correct answer)
- To replace special education services for students with identified disabilities
- To reduce the number of students receiving reading intervention by raising eligibility thresholds
Correct answer: To provide increasingly intensive, data-driven levels of instruction and support to all students based on their assessed needs
MTSS provides a continuum of evidence-based instruction — from universal (Tier 1) to targeted (Tier 2) to intensive (Tier 3) — matched to student need based on ongoing data.
Question 6: When selecting reading materials for a student with a physical disability that limits writing, what is the MOST important consideration?
- Only providing audio versions of texts to avoid any written work
- Ensuring the student has equitable access to grade-level texts and content through appropriate accommodations (Correct answer)
- Reducing the difficulty of texts to match the student's physical limitations
- Excluding the student from reading assessments until the disability is resolved
Correct answer: Ensuring the student has equitable access to grade-level texts and content through appropriate accommodations
IDEA and equity principles require that students with physical disabilities have access to grade-level content through appropriate accommodations — not reduced expectations.
RICA English Language Learners and Diverse Learners 2
What is the FIRST step a teacher should take when a student with a reading disability is referred for special education services?