The purpose for this study was to determine the influence on achievement and classification rate into special education of racially, culturally, ethnically, linguistically diverse students following the use of a district-designed response to intervention (RtI) structure by examining local processes that may contribute to student achievement and classification rate into special education settings. Response to intervention (RtI) is a structure created as a function of academic intervention to address students who are experiencing academic or behavioral difficulties.

Achievement was measured by the scores attained by the students in grades 5–9 referred to 1ST on the New York State English Language Arts and New York State Math Assessments and the rate of classification into special education.

This study was designed as a cross-sectional, descriptive, non-experimental design (Type 2, Table 3) (Johnson, 2001). To explore the null hypothesis, separate Repeated Measures of Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were performed for the NYS ELA and NYS Math Assessments, examining two points in time, the 2008–2009 and 2009–2010 school years. Quantitative data were collected from the district data repository system and the New York State District Report Card Website.

The qualitative data were collected from voluntary district personnel through open-ended interviews. The interviewees' responses were recorded and transcribed, then analyzed using the Analysis of Competing Hypothesis (ACH) software. Results indicated that referral to an Instructional Support Team (IST) did not have influence on the achievement of the students referred. Regarding the classification rate of students into special education, results indicated that although the number of students classified into special education has been declining in the district, the number of minority students classified during the 2009–2010 school years was disproportionate when compared to the number of non-minority students referred to the committee on special education (CSE).

The results of the qualitative data indicated that the teachers interviewed were not familiar with the RtI process and the administrators were not using the RtI process consistently to address student academic and/or behavioral difficulties.

The influence of RtI was not significant. This can be attributed to the limitation of four schools in one district, the diversity of the students, and the inconsistency in implementation of procedures and processes of RtI.