Last week I returned for several days of educational support in a district in the Upper Midwest. The district I support there has been working to get all systems aligned in their Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). It has been about eight weeks since they started their intervention groups using Fountas and Pinnell’s Leveled Literacy Intervention System in grades 1-12. They are also using the Benchmark Assessment System to assess their students in order to design and deliver reading intervention for students who are reading below grade level.
The MTSS coordinator, K-12 instructional coach and I were meeting and the coordinator reminded me that she’d need to step out of our meeting for a few meetings to find the eighth grade students who needed to know they’d no longer be in intervention groups beginning this week. I asked if we could look at that group of students in the data system. One by one, we looked at their GRL at beginning of year assessment and the most recent progress monitoring data. I was blown away by the growth many of them had made in only two months. The majority of the students exiting intervention showed they had made a year or more of growth in the 8-week session.
In my experience supporting districts as a consultant, that is not a typical scenario. I’ve seen some pretty impressive growth in students’ reading abilities when districts use Fountas and Pinnell LLI System as the primary resource for intervention, but this was extraordinary. I asked several questions and the K-12 instructional coach and MTSS coordinator shared what they believe facilitated these amazing results.
- Teacher Impact–one of the teachers providing intervention for the middle school students is a first year teacher (she teachers secondary choir). The K-12 coach supporting her shared that the teacher has been diligent to follow the LLI system resources with absolute fidelity. Other teachers providing intervention have been well-trained and the district has a plan to provide calibration sessions several times a year to ensure fidelity.
- Student Ownership–the MTSS coordinator related that many of the students were not amused that they had to be in intervention sessions. She challenged them to be fully committed to the process so they made progress and could be exited quickly.
- Systematic Approach–LLI “lifts the literacy achievement of students who are not achieving grade-level expectations in reading. Leveled Literacy Intervention is a short-term, supplementary intervention system proven to improve literacy achievement of struggling readers with engaging leveled books and fast-paced systematically designed lessons.”
While it’s true that no boxed system can provide the kind of targeted instruction and responsive support that a well-trained professional can, the systematic approach designed by Fountas and Pinnell in the LLI system has been shown to facilitate growth for readers in need of intervention support.
