Guidance to Intensify Literacy Instruction for Students Struggling to Read

The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) recently published a new resource titled Intensifying Literacy Instruction: Essential Practices. The purpose of this document as described on the NCII website is to “increase the capacity of practitioners and educational leaders to support a broad range of learners who need more literacy supports to become skilled readers and writers by identifying a set of essential practices that are research-supported and should be the focus of professional development.”

This guidance document provides five essential practices that are critical to ensuring that students receiving Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions are provided necessary intensive literacy instruction. As the authors explain each of the five practices, they clearly articulate which of the practices that leaders should understand and act upon. The three practices that leaders should attend to are:

• Practice 2: Design and Use of an Intervention Platform as the Foundation for Effective Intervention (p. 13)
• Practice 3: On-going Data-Based Decision Making for Providing and Intensifying Interventions. In addition, the authors call out a sub-practice of understanding and acting upon utilizing a high-quality review, selection, and de-selection process for assessment. (p. 16)
• Practice 5: Infrastructures to Support Students with Severe and Persistent Literacy Needs (p. 24)

CORE’s Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Dale Webster, attended a webinar that highlighted several elements from this document on April 8, 2021, and found it to be very informative. The link to the webinar recording, slides, and additional supporting documents is here.

We at CORE hope that you find this resource relevant and applicable to your district and schools.