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Targeting Intervention: Why More “Core” Isn’t the Answer

Literacy Coach

Updated on June 5, 2025

Core
MTSS

As educators and district leaders shift their practices to align with the science of reading, data-driven instruction and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) frameworks are likely to become a part of the conversation. This is a good thing.

MTSS is an effective framework for providing support to all students in an organized and systematic manner. And using assessment data to support the decision-making process in the MTSS framework is essential. But new systems for doing things in education are rarely simple and straightforward. As educators implement an MTSS framework, they must also be ready to dig into the hard work that is data-driven decision-making. This hard work includes building teacher knowledge about how students learn to read and supporting teachers as they use assessment data to make informed and very targeted decisions about their students. Teachers who understand how students acquire literacy skills coupled with an understanding of how to use assessment data to inform instruction are the teachers who will know how to provide appropriate differentiation and support.

What is MTSS?

As the name suggests, MTSS consists of three tiers of support that are provided to students based on their needs. Tier one is often synonymously used with core instruction. It refers to the grade-level curriculum and support all students receive. In a healthy MTSS system, about 85% of students will meet grade-level expectations with only tier one core support. Tier one can be differentiated for students, as we’ll discuss later in this blog post. Tiers two and three are intervention levels of support that provide additional instruction to students who are not adequately responding to the tier one, core instruction. In a healthy MTSS system, about 10% of students will need additional tier two support to meet grade-level expectations and about 5% of students will need both tier two and tier three supports to meet those same grade-level expectations.

The tiers of MTSS do not replace each other but rather build on each other as we layer in additional support for students. If a student is receiving tier three support, they should also be receiving tier two and tier one supports. Each additional tier of instruction should become more targeted for students. The intensity should increase as you go from tier one to tier two to tier three. Educators can increase intensity in various ways, including:

Use a more scripted, intensive intervention program
Increase the length and/or frequency of the intervention session
Reduce the group size for a smaller teacher to student ratio
Change the adult providing the intervention to a more specialized teacher

What assessments do I need?

As district leaders implement a MTSS framework and make decisions about tiered support for students, they must also ensure an assessment framework is put into place to help educators make data-based decisions. There are some key assessments that are needed to make instructional choices for students. This includes screening, diagnostic, and progress-monitoring assessments.

Screening assessments, like Acadience® Reading K–6, are used to identify red flags, or places where you need to look closer. They are given to all students, usually three times a year, and should be quick to administer. Looking at the results of screening assessments will help you assess the needs of your students both at a system level and at an individual student level.

At a system level, you can identify large-scale needs across classrooms or grade levels. For example, if most students in first grade score poorly on a phoneme segmentation fluency measure at the beginning of the year, you might consider adding more phonemic awareness practice into the tier one, core curriculum. At an individual level, screening assessment will identify students who may need additional diagnostic assessments to help plan their tiers of support.

Diagnostic assessments typically take longer to administer than screening assessments and are not given to all students in a grade level. They focus on specific areas of literacy instruction, such as phonemic awareness or phonics, to help educators determine a student’s lowest level of need. We can start our tiered supports at that lowest level of need. If possible, we support students at tier one. If necessary, we provide additional support in tiers two and/or three.

How do I support students at tier one?

First and foremost, a high-quality, research-based core curriculum is an absolute requirement for tier one. Additionally, teachers need to know what makes a core curriculum high-quality by having the knowledge base to understand what goes into learning how to read. This knowledge, paired with a good understanding of assessment data, will allow teachers to make informed choices about how to support their students. But even the best of curriculums won’t work the same for all students. After teachers have looked at their students’ screening and diagnostic assessments, they can make instructional choices about where to spend more or less time in tier one. Let me share two examples with you.

Example No. 1: After giving the beginning-of-the-year screening assessment, a second grade teacher discovers that more than half of her students are not meeting the benchmark scores for oral reading fluency. To look closer at these students, she gives them a phonics screener to determine what phonics patterns they do and do not know. She discovers most of these students are struggling with a phonics pattern that is typically taught at the end of first grade. Based on this data, the teacher decides to spend some time teaching and practicing this specific phonics pattern before she starts the second grade core phonics curriculum.

Example No. 2: A kindergarten teacher is looking at his beginning-of-the-year screening assessment data and finds a few students in his classroom are below the benchmark on a first sound fluency measure. He decides to pull these students in a small group every day for 10 minutes to provide some extra practice with identifying the first sound in words.

These examples show ways teachers can differentiate their core instruction to support students within tier one. There are often manageable ways to weave in missing skills or support students in smaller skill groups as part of core instruction. There are also times when a students’ needs are greater than what can be provided in tier one and we need to look at additional tiers of support.

How do I support students at tiers two and three?

In the MTSS framework, tiers two and three share a lot of characteristics. Both tiers are more intensive than tier one and occur with smaller groups of students. They are a delivery system for providing more targeted intervention for students who are not responding to differentiation at tier one. The targeted intervention in these tiers should address specific skill deficits that were identified through assessment data.

Because tiers two and three are so targeted, they cannot simply be more of the core instructional curriculum. Teachers need additional intervention programs that target specific skill deficits. It is helpful if a district’s intervention and core programs follow the same Scope and Sequence and use common language. But, again, there must be more intensive instruction at tiers two and three than was used in tier one.

Example: After looking at beginning-of-the-year screening data, a first grade teacher discovers a student in her class who scored well below benchmark on a letter naming fluency measure and a nonsense word fluency measure. She decides to assess the student on letter names and sounds and finds the student is not automatic with this skill. A few other teachers in first grade have students with the same need. The reading specialist decides to take these students into a tier two intervention group to work on learning letter names and sounds.

In this example, you’ll notice the skill these students need is a skill that will not be taught in the first grade core phonics curriculum since students should already be automatic with letter names and sounds when they enter first grade. Giving these students more of the core curriculum would not address their skill deficit. They need an intensive intervention program to help them quickly learn letter names and sounds. It’s important to note, however, that this tier two intervention should occur in addition to the tier one, core curriculum. Students should not miss tier one instruction when receiving tier two interventions.

As the reading specialist continues to work with these students, they would collect progress-monitoring data to see if the intervention is working. If they find any students who are not responding to the tier two intervention, they can add an additional tier three intervention that might meet in a smaller group and/or more frequently to provide even more support.

How do I know if interventions are working?

Throughout all the tiers of instruction, we can use progress monitoring to check our effectiveness. Progress-monitoring assessments should be quick to administer and should measure the skill being targeted in the intervention. These assessments are often given weekly or biweekly. We use this data to move students in and out of the different tiers of support. For example, if a student is responding well to an intervention and has three or more data points above the benchmark, we can remove tier two and/or reduce tier three support and continue to monitor. If a student is not making adequate progress with support in tier one or tier two, we can make a plan to intensify with tier 3 support.

Conclusion

Using assessments to inform instruction within an MTSS framework is a challenging task for many educators. It requires a deep knowledge of foundational literacy skills and a strong understanding of assessment data. It is not as simple as just providing more core instruction for students. It demands thoughtful consideration of a student’s needs and their progress toward meeting grade-level goals.

If you are looking for more information about the MTSS framework and data-based decision-making, here are a few helpful resources:

About the Author

Hannah Irion-Frake