Spotlight On: Intervention

20 August 2018

This article first appeared in Queenwood Weekly Newsletter 17 August 2018.

Would you take prescribed medication if you didn’t need it? What happens if you take medication for an illness that you don’t have?

What about providing literacy or maths intervention for a girl who doesn’t need it? Will it fast track her learning?

The answer is no. Intervention will not automatically help students get ahead.

Parents want their children to achieve academic success and ‘intervention’ is often understood simply as extra attention which will accelerate learning. It is important, however, to understand what is properly meant by ‘intervention’ and what it will (or won’t) achieve.

The term ‘intervention’ was first used over thirty years ago by researchers in education who argued that diagnosing a learning disability should not even be considered unless high-quality and responsive instruction had been provided and yet failed to accelerate a child’s progress (Leslie and Allen, 2012).

Today, most frameworks for targeted instructions have a multi-tiered approach (Lipson and Wixson, 2015).

  • Tier 1 intervention: classroom teachers make adjustments to the general curriculum.
  • Tier 2 intervention: the child works in supplemental groups, either within or outside the usual classroom.
  • Tier 3 intervention: intensive, individualised support from a specialist teacher.

How are needs identified? Educational research emphasises the need for universal screening to identify which level of tiered support is most appropriate for an individual student. We also monitor how students respond to core instruction and examine literacy or numeracy deficiencies identified through data or through referral by teachers, parents or students themselves.

Teachers will then intervene and provide a program that is intensive and therefore effective. No matter how much enrichment is provided at home, there will be students who require intervention in the form of additional explicit, direct instruction in order to reach their potential. The goal of this intervention is not to get ahead. Rather, intervention addresses specific literacy or numeracy deficiencies and aims to supplement classroom teaching, bringing the student back to the level of their peers so they have full access to the curriculum. This is typically delivered through powerful, short-term, intensive instruction in small groups or individually.

At Queenwood, our systems are designed to identify any issues early so that intervention can be targeted towards those who are at risk of not reaching their potential. Our specialist staff lead this process, collaborating closely with students, teachers, parents, caregivers, counsellors and external para-professionals to name a few.

Where the gaps in a girl’s learning are substantial, a significant amount of instructional time must be added to her program. The older the student, the more time is needed. Given the pressures of the secondary curriculum, this is a tall order – and this explains why early intervention is crucial for a girl’s success in the mainstream.

Within any cohort, there will be significant variation in individual ability and progress, but there is a difference between a girl who is making steady but slow progress, and one who has a learning disability. In our department, the team closely scrutinises all the evidence to determine whether a girl is in need of a specific program to address a learning deficit, or whether she is in fact learning at a level and rate which is fully appropriate to her as an individual. Experience has taught us that there is no magic bullet for accelerating a girl’s achievement, and there is evidence that differing approaches can be equally successful as long as there is expert teaching and careful attention to student progress. Our approach is therefore carefully calibrated to our knowledge of each individual girl and assessed on a case-by-case basis.

The student is always at the heart of intervention at Queenwood. We are enormously optimistic about the potential for improving literacy and numeracy outcomes for all girls through effective instruction and intervention.

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Ms Catherine Phoon
Head of Specialised Programs