The school for Case Study 1 is located in a rural area in the northeastern region of the United States and is unique in that one physical building houses Grades 7–12 (middle and high school combined). The senior graduating class is approximately 80 students per year, and in 2016, 92% of the class graduated. There is little diversity within the school: 96.3% of the students are White, 1.3% are multiracial, and 1% are Asian. All other ethnicities—African American, Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander—make up 1.4% of the total school population. Other demographic information about the school is shown in Table 1.
The school in Case Study 1 started the RTI service delivery model during the 2009–2010 school year after a change in school superintendents. It took a year to introduce the model to the teaching staff (see the Professional Development section); after that, the school fully embraced it during the 2010–2011 school year and continues using it today. The building administrator is responsible for RTI, and it is used throughout the entire school, which encompasses 570 students in Grades 7–12.