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Mission Impossible: Define Intervention

 

So my mission this week?  DEFINE INTERVENTION. 

Really?  Couldn’t we ease into a topic that’s a bit more manageable…like DEFINE THE MEANING OF LIFE?

Ha!  Well, really, we’re going to make this super simple.  Because it needs to be.  We’ve made reading interventions for students so darn complicated that we tend to shy away from getting started – – -it just seems like too big of an undertaking sometimes!

So here we go….define intervention. Hmmm…

Intervention, in its purest and simplest form, is a series of actions designed to stop the flow of failure.  Or stop the flow of something!  In this case, the failure of the students in the area of reading.

Here’s the deal: reading intervention is only intervention if it changes the trajectory of success or failure for the students. 

Simply put?  Intervention is only intervention if the students learn and know more and the scores show it.

Here are a few questions that you need to ask yourself and your team as you evaluate the effectiveness of your intervention programs. 

  • What intervention programs are getting the best results?  (Results: students who are exiting interventions and getting up to benchmark or near benchmark)
  • For students who are exiting interventions (because of success!), what was the model that worked for them?  (Time, number of days/week, program, teacher)
  • Are there “stuck” kids whose interventions have proven unsuccessful?  What is/was the model that those kids received?  (Time, number of days/week, program, teacher)
  • Who are your ON FIRE teachers who can move mountains with the hardest to move kids?  Are they teaching interventions?  (If not, then they SHOULD be!)
  • What percentage of kids exited from interventions and then end up back in an intervention groups?

(By the way, I talk about reading mostly – because you would WEEP at the sight of my math skills – but these questions are certainly useful for any content area!)

So, here’s your job now (I know, I’m SO BOSSY!) – – – why don’t you print this or take your smart phone to just ONE of your teammates and ask them these questions and just start a convo….