Tier 2 intervention should occur in addition to Tier 1 instruction. It is a time when some students are provided with supplemental instruction based on assessment data, screening measures, or demonstration of weak or exceptional progress based on regular classroom instruction. Most at-risk students benefit from 20-30 minutes of targeted, supplemental Tier 2 instruction scheduled 4-5 times a week. Tier 2 instruction should be more explicit and scaffolded, and conducted in small groups with peers of similar instructional needs identified through a diagnostic assessment. Students should be involved in their Core mathematics instruction and, in addition, have mathematics intervention that supports and reinforces what they have been taught during Core instruction, and have access to activities that build conceptual understanding and procedural fluency at grade level.

Tier 2 intervention instruction can be provided by a variety of professionals (e.g., general education and/or remedial teachers, intervention specialists, or trained paraprofessionals). The individual should be trained in the appropriate intervention and have strong mathematics content knowledge.

• Explicit systematic instruction.

Systematically design instruction to ensure effective and efficient learning aligned with Core Standards in Mathematics and Explicitly state and teach the expectation of the learning objectives.

• Concrete, Representational/Visual/Pictorial, Abstract/Symbolic Models

Provide instruction and model processes or procedures, including appropriate use of physical objects or visual representations (i.e., drawings, area models, number lines, etc.) Provide students with additional opportunities to manipulate physical objects or visual representations to build conceptual understanding.

• Effective questioning

Have students demonstrate and repeat directions, justify their choice of strategies, describe problem-solving approaches, reflect on efficiency of procedures, and estimate accuracy and reasonableness of solutions.

• Error Analysis

Provide multiple worked examples or examples with errors that students can identify and correct. Provide corrective feedback to students.

• Fluency Building

Providing students with practice and timed activities that build fluency is essential. Opportunities to work through multi-step problems allow students to develop the higher-level thinking skills they need in order to progress to more complicated math concepts.

• Teach Vocabulary & Symbols

Use precise language when teaching mathematical concepts and skills. Explicit teaching of vocabulary and mathematical symbols and encouraging verbalization of mathematics vocabulary, paired with explicit instruction in identifying and using symbols, can increase overall mastery of symbolic representation

Tier 3 intervention addresses the specific needs of students who are the most at risk or who have not responded to Tier 2 interventions. Students with intensive needs may access Tier 3 supports without first receiving Tier 2 instruction but in addition to Tier 1 Core instruction. Tier 3 supports include using adapted instructional strategies and increasing instructional frequency, intensity, and/or time. Students at high risk of mathematics failure should be provided with 30-45 minutes of intensive, individually-responsive Tier 3 instruction on a daily basis. Tier 3 intervention may be conducted individually or in a small group setting of 2-5 students with similar instructional needs. Tier 3 is not special education , but may include learners who receive special education services.

Tier 3 intervention instruction can be provided by a variety of professionals (e.g., general education and/or remedial teachers, special education teachers, specialists, gifted and talented endorsed teachers, mathematics interventionists or specialists, or trained paraprofessionals). The instruction must be provided by instructors with specific expertise and knowledge of intensive interventions in mathematics.

Tier 3 intervention should be more highly structured and focus on building targeted skills identified from current grade-level standards, particularly for the major standards of the grade. The instructional strategies include all those listed for Tier 2 instruction, though instruction should be more highly systematic and explicit with heavy use of questioning strategies (which can also be used as formative assessments to guide instruction) to scaffold learning, integration of concrete objects and visual representations particularly in conjunction (i.e., simultaneously) with procedural strategies, and regular assessment of progress to ensure interventions are “working.”

Time: Depending on the age of the student, instruction should be provided daily, ranging from 30 to 45 minutes, which must be taken from the daily schedule. Two options to consider are:

• Providing Tier 3 intervention twice a day (e.g., 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon)

• Providing Tier 3 intervention at the same time as Tier 2 intervention

Duration: The duration of the Tier 3 intervention may vary by individual and may last from several weeks to years.

Reducing Group Size: Interventions are provided in small groups with no more than a 1:3 teacher-student ratio.

The intervention can be adapted by adding, altering, or changing components of the intervention. For example, if the intervention is targeting multi-digit whole number addition and the student is not making growth the interventionist may add in a single-digit fact fluency component.

You can later the length of individual sessions, the frequency of sessions across a day or the week, and the total duration of the intervention. General Institute for Educational Sciences (IES) guidelines suggest 20-40 minutes per week, 3-5 times per week, for 8-12 weeks. The specific time of any intervention is also guided by the standard protocol intervention being used the the progress monitoring data of students.

You can alter the assistance being provided during intervention by matching the skill needs to the instructional hierarchy (acquisition/proficiency/generalization) or altering the task. You might consider a concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) approach to support acquisition or simplifying the computation requirements of words problems. You can add visual representations to support conceptual understanding.

You may need to adjust the target skill of the intervention. If progress monitoring data are not improving for fractions computation, you might need to consider prerequisite skills. The fractions content may be too difficult with our the needed prior knowledge. You can adjust the skill by intervening to support multiplication so they can later use that skill to find equivalent fractions. Make sure to consider the sequence of skills leading back up to the original intervention.

Grouping for interventions should be flexible and based on students' needs. You may need to change the grouping for a student. If the student is in a group of 5:1 (student : interventionist) you may need to move them into a 2:1 ratio in order to increase opportunities for responses, practice, and feedback.