The chief academic officer was torn. The question on the table was this: Given the widening achievement gap, should the district expand intervention? Or would doing so run the risk of increasing student disengagement? It was one of those “damned if I do, damned if I don’t” scenarios, rooted in the common assumption that intervention is necessary but inherently unpleasant for students.
We often think of intervention as a potent medicine: Although it’s helpful, it sure can taste bad. But it doesn’t have to. In fact, effective intervention can be highly engaging because nothing is more energizing than finally catching up academically, seeing your progress, and knowing that someone cares deeply about your success. In the years since the pandemic, intervention efforts in K–12 schools have skyrocketed—but mastery, unfortunately, hasn’t. That’s why school leaders are often ambivalent about intervention, and why kids don’t get excited by more of it.
Walk into almost any school today, and you’ll find intervention time on the schedule. Sometimes it’s labeled WIN (What I Need); sometimes it’s a flex block; sometimes it’s small-group tutoring; and sometimes it’s a content-specific intervention class. But having intervention time and using it well are two very different things. Too many students aren’t catching up (Dewey et al., 2025). Some are slipping even further behind and tuning out in the process (Lewis & Kuhfeld, 2024).
The fact is students who struggle typically don’t need more intervention time. What they need is more targeted and engaging intervention during the already-allotted time.
Best Practice Interventions: The High Five
What does high-impact, high-engagement intervention actually look like? Over the last 15 years, we have consulted with more than 400 districts across 30 U.S. states, reviewed hundreds of school schedules, interviewed thousands of teachers, and observed countless intervention classes. We’ve found that five key elements consistently increase both achievement and engagement.
We don’t often celebrate struggling learners for academics. Intervention is the perfect place to change that.
1) Direct instruction that offers multiple explanations.
As John Hattie (2009) and so many other researchers have proven, teachers matter most. Few students learn well on their own, and far fewer students who struggle can teach themselves. Too often, intervention is the opposite of teacher-led direct instruction. It’s common to see teachers “monitoring” or “assisting” learning while students spend time in front of computers, working independently. The problem is, students who struggle aren’t going to independently discover the skills they haven’t yet mastered—and disengagement can set in quickly when they feel that the support they’re getting is not helping them catch up.
Effective intervention requires direct instruction by a teacher who presents the material or skill not yet mastered in multiple ways. If a student didn’t master the material in the core class, simply repeating that same lesson is unlikely to have an effect. Students might need the same concept explained two or even three different ways before it makes sense to them. In a room full of students who are struggling, no single strategy will be effective for everyone.
For example, if students are asked to find the area of a right-angle triangle, some will just memorize the formula (1/2 × base × height). Others might benefit from a different approach. The teacher could show them that two such triangles make a rectangle, that a right-angle triangle is just half a rectangle. Because the students already know that a rectangle’s area is length × width, all they have to do is calculate the rectangle’s area, then cut it in half.
Presenting material in multiple ways pertains not only to mastery, but also to engagement. A student who has heard the same confusing (to them) explanation twice may just check out. A student who finally encounters an explanation that does make sense lights up. “Now I get it!” they say with a smile.
2) Instruction that targets specific skill and knowledge gaps.
Once you’ve committed to teacher-led instruction, the next big question is this: What exactly should you teach during intervention? Should you reteach everything a student missed last year, pre-teach every upcoming lesson, or work on study skills? Even with daily intervention, time is short and it’s not possible to do it all.
The sweet spot for effective and engaging intervention is targeted instruction that zeroes in on the most important skills and concepts—the “power standards”—that each struggling learner has yet to master. Effective intervention teachers know their students well academically, and they can pinpoint student-specific skill and content gaps. As Figure 1 shows, Nate has mastered four essential skills in math, but there are another four that he hasn’t yet grasped. The teacher will provide targeted instruction that addresses these crucial gaps.
Targeted instruction also includes pacing and connecting lessons to current grade-level content. If next week’s core instruction will focus on state standard 1.3, then the intervention should begin by identifying the prerequisite skills needed to approach this standard and reviewing which of these prerequisite skills students are missing. Remember, each student should have a list of what they have and have not yet mastered, based on benchmarks or other assessments. Finally, the teacher would teach these specific, timely, yet-to-be-mastered skills that students will need in the very near future. This will enable them to fully access core lessons.
This targeting does more than accelerate academics—it boosts engagement. Why? Because it makes visible the connection between intervention and the “real class.” Students quickly understand, “Oh, this will help me get what’s happening tomorrow in math!”
3) Focused instruction that goes deep, not wide.
Many kids are behind in multiple subjects, but the fact is, you can’t catch students up academically in everything all at once. Providing intervention for a student across multiple topics may feel great to the planner, but it rarely works and often reduces student engagement. It takes 180 periods to cover a year’s worth of material for students who are not struggling; it’s unrealistic to think that a student who is two years (or more) behind in a subject will quickly catch up.
Schools that have made great gains in catching students up academically provide sustained, focused intervention, one subject at a time, typically five times a week, for multiple weeks. In the many schools we have worked with or studied, those who try to do it all by providing intervention in multiple subjects, with each subject getting just a few sessions each week, have seen little to no growth in mastery and have created disillusionment in students.
This focus is not just about mastery—it’s about engagement. When intervention goes deep, students get to experience success in one domain. That confidence spills over into other areas. In other words, depth leads to mastery and keeps students invested. Breadth, by contrast, risks spreading so thin that although they recognize that they’re getting help, they realize, too, that they’re still only running in place. That’s disheartening.
4) Visible progress monitoring by skill.
For students who have struggled for years, intervention can feel like a long, uphill march. That’s why visible progress monitoring is so crucial—not just for teachers, but for students as well.
Imagine showing a student that at the start of the month they struggled with 17 skills and now at the end of the month, they’re down to 14. They’re still behind, but they can see they’re moving forward. As Figure 2 shows, Nate sees that he’s now mastered two more skills—converting word problems to equations and multiplying by the power of 10. That’s six skills mastered, and only two to go. That’s motivating!
Lessons that are successful for some will not be so for others, so intervention teachers will also benefit from engaging in visible, student-by-student, skill-by-skill progress monitoring. The process doesn’t have to be burdensome. Quick exit tickets, short weekly quizzes, or having students graph their own growth can all do the job. The key is this: Progress that’s visible is progress that engages. Students are far more likely to lean in when they can track their ascent step by step.
5) A plan for student engagement.
Engagement is a byproduct of effective intervention, but it also should be an explicit goal. The most effective intervention classrooms we’ve studied weave in the following strategies for engagement.
- Make the content relevant: It’s tough to convince a teenager to solve for x if they can’t see why it matters. That’s why highlighting relevance is key. Teachers who connect math to identifying a better cell phone plan or to projected salaries for trade jobs after graduation make the subject matter to students. So do teachers who let students choose reading materials tied to their interests. When students see how a yet-to-be-mastered skill serves their goals, they’re more willing to make the needed effort.
- Celebrate success: We don’t often celebrate struggling learners for academics. Intervention is the perfect place to change that. Whether it’s showcasing a student’s work, texting parents with good news, handing out skill badges, or quietly telling a student, “I see your progress,” those small recognitions fuel motivation. The trick is knowing each student; some love public praise, whereas others prefer a private word. But in all cases, the message is the same: You’re moving forward, and that’s worth celebrating.
- Know kids as people, not just as students: Our interviews with students, along with published research, have shown something surprising: Students don’t necessarily interpret a teacher’s knowledge of their academic strengths as “caring” (Langreo, 2023). What makes them feel cared for is when teachers know their hobbies, their friends, or their dreams for after graduation. Taking just 5 to 10 minutes a week to ask about a student’s basketball team or their favorite music builds trust. And trust is fuel. As one student explained to us after exiting intervention, “I got good at math for my teacher. He cared about me, so I didn’t want to let him down.”
- Make intervention an actual course: In middle and high school, students take their cues from the schedule. If intervention is optional, ungraded, or treated like a study hall, they won’t take it seriously. But when it’s an official course with a name, a code, and even a pass/fail credit, its status rises. Students (and staff) see it as real, and they respond accordingly.
Progress that’s visible is progress that engages.
While these engagement strategies are powerful, their impact rests on genuine human connection: Technology is an essential partner in effective intervention—it can personalize learning, track progress, and provide immediate feedback. But it can’t care about kids. It can’t celebrate their progress, know their dreams, or build relationships. Software can support intervention, but it can’t replace the human connection that truly motivates students to persevere.
Engagement as a Throughline
For intervention to be effective, all these elements are crucial—direct, targeted, focused instruction; visible progress monitoring; and engaged students. If a student who struggles can leave in the afternoon knowing they have inched forward, that’s motivating. When kids are engaged—when they feel seen, supported, and successful—that’s when intervention stops being a reminder of what they can’t do and becomes proof of what they can.
Reflect & Discuss
What would students say makes intervention worth their time?
What obstacles are preventing intervention time from being used effectively in your school or classroom? Which of these are within a school’s control to change?
