The term learning disabilities is a disability category that includes persons with severe underachievement in academic areas that is caused by a neurological delay or dysfunction. This underachievement is not related to mental retardation, sensory impairments, or environmental influences such as lack of educational opportunity or poor instruction. The history of learning disabilities (LD) has included much controversy about the procedures and criteria for identifying students with LD. Responsiveness to intervention (RTI) has gained momentum as a means of determining whether a student has a learning disability. RTI is an assessment method that incorporates intense instruction focusing on improving the LD student's skill deficits (e.g., word recognition deficits) with careful monitoring of the student's progress. RTI intends to rule out that poor instruction is responsible ...