Your Reading Intervention List Is Growing. Before You Add Another Student, Ask This.

“We're providing support, but is it actually working?”

By November, the intervention list often starts getting longer. Students identified in September have had weeks of support, and new names keep coming up.

Before another name goes on the list, ask:

Is the support we're already providing actually changing this student's reading?

It's easy to focus on whether support is happening: small groups, adjusted instruction, extra resources. But being supported and making progress aren't the same thing.

If a student has had extra help for six or eight weeks and is still struggling with the same skill, more of the same support may not be the answer. We need to know what was targeted, how it was taught, and whether it worked.

A knowledgeable teacher doesn't just notice that a student is struggling. She can pinpoint the gap, target her teaching, watch how the student responds, and adjust when something isn't working.

That's the expertise consistent Orton-Gillingham (OG) training builds. It doesn't replace your curriculum. It helps teachers use the curriculum and resources you already have more effectively, so struggling readers grow into independent readers.

Your next step: Before adding another student to intervention, ask the teacher, “What has changed for this student since September?”

If the answer is clear, keep building on it. If the answer is “not much,” the next question shouldn't be “What else can we add?” It should be “Why isn't what we're doing working?”

There's also a larger question for school leaders: how many students reach intervention because they truly need intensive support, and how many could have been helped earlier by a classroom teacher equipped to spot the gap and respond?

Principals I've spoken with tell me their teachers often feel that helping a struggling reader isn't really their role. It's not surprising: a 2026 national review found that half of elementary teacher preparation programs spend fewer than two instructional hours on struggling readers, and 72% provide no practice opportunities focused on them (NCTQ, 2026). When classroom teachers don't feel confident teaching struggling readers, intervention becomes someone else's job, and students pay the price.

Some students absolutely need intervention. But we want classroom teachers equipped to meet as many reading needs as possible before intervention becomes the only answer.

Try this week: This week, stop extending support that isn't working. For one student who has had six to eight weeks of extra help and is still stuck on the same skill, hold off on adding more time until someone can name what will be taught differently.

If your list is growing, look at what happens before students get there. The free Struggling Reader Progress Check helps teachers see whether their support is moving students forward. And if the list keeps growing despite everything you've put in place, I'd be happy to talk through what may be happening.

Talk through what may be happening →

Lisa Gelberman

Literacy Decoded

Source: National Council on Teacher Quality, Teacher Prep Review: Decoding Progress in Reading Preparation, 2026. View source