RSP, in education, stands for resource specialist program. This is a form of special education available to students with mild to moderate learning disabilities, who are having trouble in one or more areas of classroom learning. RSP can also be called directed studies in some schools, particularly in middle and high school settings. It may be a once a day class that middle and high school students take in order to help address ongoing learning challenges. All public schools in the US are required to have RSP services available to students who require them.

A teacher credentialed in Special Education heads an RSP. This specialized credential helps the teacher address a wide variety of learning disabilities. Special Ed teachers are also skilled in assessment for learning disabilities, which may constitute a portion of their work, as well as assessment of students in meeting predefined goals. The RSP teacher may employ assistants called resource specialists who work in the RSP classroom, or with individual students or groups on a per need basis. Sometimes an RSP’s nominal head is a school district Special Ed teacher who administrates smaller RSPs at individual schools.

One goal in Special Education is to help students learn in regular classroom settings, called mainstreaming. An RSP may be set up so that teachers or resource specialists work with students in their mainstreamed classrooms. Especially if a large number of students in a classroom require assistance, the RSP may focus on the teacher or resource specialist going from class to class, assisting at certain designated points during the day, like those times devoted to acquiring language or math skills.

Alternately, since the needs of each student is designated by an Individual Education Plan (IEP), the student may benefit from “pull-out” time. In these cases, students visit an RSP classroom for part of the day, possibly every day or several times a week in order to work on basic skills. This means the RSP teacher must attempt to schedule around multiple teachers, and not all teachers are equally accommodating in making sure students catch up on things missed in class.

Pull-out work can be challenging for students since they may be grouped by needs rather than by age or classroom. Some students, especially older kids, may resent pull-out time since it means making up material they miss and possibly lower grades in subjects in which they normally do well. RSP pull-outs usually trump student’s concerns because students with IEPs need extra time to master basic skills that will facilitate more advanced learning.

An RSP can change yearly to adapt to the changing needs of students requiring assistance. One important aspect of any RSP is continued assessment of a student’s ability to meet IEP goals. When IEP meetings are convened each year, benchmark goals are set. The RSP teacher must be able to target his/her teaching methods toward helping each student achieve individual goals. When goals are not achieved, more testing may be required to better define the specifics of a student’s learning challenges.

The RSP works best when teachers in mainstream classrooms cooperate and implement strategies suggested by RSP teachers that are designed to help each student perform their best. Not all teachers are equally cooperative, though many try very hard to be so. However, when RSP instruction takes place without the input of the student’s primary teacher, the result is teaching in a vacuum. For this reason, RSPs that incorporate additional help in the student’s main classroom may be more successful in helping the student with minor learning disabilities. On the other hand, students far behind in basic skills like reading or mathematics might benefit more from pull-out instruction.

In some cases, students cannot function well in a regular classroom and may need more than an RSP program. Not all students benefit by being instructed in mainstream settings. The next level up are Special Education classes, which students attend solely instead of in addition to RSP program pull-outs. Each school district may construct Special Ed and RSP organization differently. Sometimes RSP and Special Ed classes are departments under Special Education Services offered by a school district. In other cases, the two are completely separate departments. When the latter is true, communication between the departments is still required, since some students later transition from Special Ed classes into mainstreamed classes with RSP assistance.