Based on insights from the Collaborative Classroom white paper High-Quality Interventions to Ensure Literacy for All Students, this article connects research on effective reading intervention to the SIPPS® program.
What Does Effective Reading Intervention Look Like?
Every educator wants students to become confident, successful readers. Yet even with strong core literacy instruction, some students need additional support to develop essential reading skills.
Research consistently shows that students who struggle with reading in the early grades are unlikely to catch up without targeted, high-quality intervention (Torgesen, 2004; Gersten et al., 2008). Effective reading intervention isn’t simply about providing more reading time. It means delivering the right instruction, at the right time, using evidence-based practices that address students’ specific needs.
Whether you’re implementing an MTSS framework, providing Tier 2 or Tier 3 support, or evaluating evidence-based reading intervention programs, decades of literacy research point to common characteristics of effective intervention.
So, what does effective reading intervention look like? The following research-supported practices describe key characteristics of effective reading intervention and illustrate how SIPPS applies these principles to foundational skills instruction.
1. Start Reading Intervention Early
One of the strongest findings across literacy research is the importance of early intervention.
Research consistently shows that addressing reading difficulties early can reduce—and sometimes prevent—long-term reading difficulties (Gersten et al., 2008; Torgesen, 2004).
Early intervention focuses on strengthening early reading skills before gaps become more difficult to address.
How SIPPS Aligns
SIPPS helps students develop essential decoding skills as early as kindergarten. A program-specific Placement Assessment helps educators determine the appropriate SIPPS entry point for each student, allowing instruction to begin at a level that matches their current skills. By providing systematic instruction early, educators can help students build a strong foundation for future literacy success.
It’s Not Too Late to Intervene
Early intervention can prevent reading difficulties from becoming more entrenched—but students who have already reached the upper elementary or secondary grades still need effective, targeted support. Older students can continue to build their reading skills when instruction is explicit, systematic, and matched to their needs.
For strategies to support older striving readers, explore our webinar Empowering Older Readers: Science of Reading Strategies for Skills and Confidence.
2. Provide Explicit and Systematic Instruction
Research consistently supports explicit instruction in foundational reading skills, including phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, and high-frequency words.
Effective intervention programs teach skills in a carefully planned sequence while providing frequent opportunities for students to practice and receive immediate corrective feedback (International Literacy Association, 2020; Gersten et al., 2008).
Rather than expecting students to discover patterns independently, explicit instruction makes learning visible, predictable, and accessible.
How SIPPS Aligns
SIPPS uses structured instructional and corrective feedback routines, carefully sequenced lessons, and explicit teacher language to deliver systematic instruction. Embedded professional learning, instructional videos, and teacher supports help educators implement the program with confidence and fidelity.
The CC PAL app extends SIPPS instruction with targeted independent practice aligned to students’ lessons, providing additional opportunities to practice these skills and apply learning in connected text.
3. Use Data to Guide Instruction
Effective reading intervention begins by identifying students’ instructional needs—not simply assigning them to an intervention group.
Research recommends screening, diagnostic assessment, and ongoing progress monitoring so educators can determine whether students are responding to instruction and adjust support as needed (Fuchs and Fuchs, 2006; Hamilton et al., 2009).
Data should inform:
- Student placement
- Instructional pacing
- Reteaching decisions
- Intervention intensity
To learn more about when to assess, how much to assess, and which types of assessments provide the most useful information, read Linda Diamond on Assessment: Are We Testing Wisely?
How SIPPS Aligns
SIPPS includes placement assessments that help educators determine where each student should begin instruction. Mastery tests throughout the program provide ongoing progress-monitoring data, helping teachers adjust instruction and ensure students continue making meaningful progress. When students need additional support, embedded resources help educators intensify instruction.
4. Target Instruction to Students’ Specific Needs
Students may struggle to learn to read for different reasons and may need support in different areas of reading development.
Research recommends differentiated interventions that are matched to students’ specific skill needs and that target the areas of reading development where they need additional support (Jones et al., 2016).
How SIPPS Aligns
SIPPS supports flexible small-group instruction that allows educators to target students’ specific skill needs. Its carefully sequenced lessons and structured routines help teachers focus instruction on the decoding skills students need to develop while providing frequent opportunities for practice and corrective feedback.
5. Adjust Intervention Intensity Based on Student Progress
Effective interventions provide greater instructional intensity for students who need more support. Research recommends adjusting factors such as group size, frequency, duration, and instructional pace based on students’ response to intervention (Gersten et al., 2008; Vaughn et al., 2012).
Progress-monitoring data can help educators determine when students need additional intensity, and when they are ready for less intensive support or a return to core instruction.
How SIPPS Aligns
SIPPS provides built-in supports for intensifying instruction when students need additional support. Educators can use student data to provide additional practice, adjust instructional pacing, and intensify instructional routines with additional multisensory enhancements. These supports give educators flexibility to adjust the intensity of SIPPS instruction based on student response within an MTSS framework.
6. Align Intervention with Core Instruction
Successful MTSS implementation depends on alignment between intervention and core instruction.
Research recommends that intervention programs use instructional routines, language, and skill progressions that complement core literacy instruction (Gersten et al., 2008). This consistency helps create coherence across tiers and supports students as they apply their learning.
What does alignment across tiers look like in practice? Read What’s Missing from Your MTSS Framework? It Might Be Alignment Across Tiers to explore why coherence between core and intervention instruction matters.
How SIPPS Aligns
SIPPS is designed to complement core literacy instruction. When it is paired with Collaborative Classroom’s Being a Reader program, educators can create greater coherence across core and intervention instruction through aligned instructional language, routines, and skill progressions.
Bring High-Quality Intervention to Life with SIPPS
Research identifies the practices that make reading intervention effective. SIPPS brings those practices to life through systematic foundational skills instruction, clear instructional routines, assessments, and supports that help teachers respond to students’ needs.
With SIPPS, teachers can feel confident they are providing students with evidence-based, Science of Reading–aligned instruction—and helping them build the skills they need to grow as independent readers and learners.
For a deeper look at the research behind effective literacy intervention, download our white paper, High-Quality Interventions to Ensure Literacy for All Students.
High-Quality Interventions to Ensure Literacy for All Students
Complimentary White Paper
References
Connor, C. M., Alberto, P. A., Compton, D. L., O’Connor, R. E. (2014). Improving Reading Outcomes for Students with or at Risk for Reading Disabilities. Institute of Education Sciences.
Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S. (2006). Introduction to Response to Intervention. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(1), 93–99.
Gersten, R., Compton, D., Connor, C. M., et al. (2008). Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades. Institute of Education Sciences.
Hamilton, L., Halverson, R., Jackson, S., et al. (2009). Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making. Institute of Education Sciences.
International Literacy Association (2020). Intensifying Literacy Instruction in the Context of Tiered Interventions: A View from Special Educators.
Jones, J. S., Conradi, K., Amendum, S. J. (2016). Matching Interventions to Reading Needs: A Case for Differentiation. The Reading Teacher, 70(3), 307–316.
Juel, C. (1988). Learning to Read and Write: A Longitudinal Study of 54 Children from First Through Fourth Grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), 437–447.
Torgesen, J. K. (2004). Avoiding the Devastating Downward Spiral: The Evidence That Early Intervention Prevents Reading Failure. American Educator, 28(3), 6–19.
Vaughn, S., Wanzek, J., Murray, C. S., Roberts, G. (2012). Intensive Interventions for Students Struggling in Reading and Mathematics: A Practice Guide. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Explore SIPPS
Learn how research-based foundational skills instruction can support students who need additional reading intervention.