STEEP is a comprehensive instruction and instructional system to assist teachers, administrators and other professionals to provide the right type of assistance to the right students at the right time. It does so by providing evidenced based tools that help schools to implement the ambitious goals set forth in NCLB, Reading First, and IDEA.
There are two clear differences between STEEP and other RTI processes:
- The process is research proven. STEEP goes beyond being research based, a phrase that has become meaningless because of overuse by publishers. Each component of STEEP as well as the RTI process as a whole has proven to be effective in peer reviewed scholarly research journals.
- The process is integrated. STEEP RTI is a standard protocol model
of RTI. This means that STEEP follows a standard process whereby data
is used to answer specific questions:
- Which students need intervention?
- What specific intervention does a student need?
- Is the intervention effective?
- Should we change the intervention?
In other RTI models, the team uses “problem solving” to answer these questions. This can work well with strong teams but it does not work well if, for example, the team is not sure what intervention to use of if they are not equipped to read progress-monitoring graphs. STEEP uses proven decision rules to recommend the intervention and alert professionals if the student is not responding to the intervention.
STEEP is not a magic bullet for at risk students. Instead, it is effective only when there is a partnership with people who are deeply committed to improving achievement.