Supporting Every Learner: How Response to Intervention Drives Success
Hattie’s Visible Learning Effect Size Series – #4 Response to Intervention – Effect Size 1.29
To note: John Hattie’s Visible Learning research brings together over 1,500 meta-analyses, covering more than 90,000 studies and millions of students. Its aim is to identify what works best in education by measuring impact using ‘effect size’. In this context, an effect size of 0.4 is considered average progress over a year. Anything above 0.6 is seen as highly impactful. This blog is part of a 20-post series exploring the top-ranked influences in Hattie’s Visible Learning research, with a focus on practical strategies teachers can use to make a meaningful difference.
With an effect size of 1.29, the approach known as Response to Intervention is one of the most effective ways to support all learners and address learning gaps early. Hattie’s analysis shows that when implemented well, this approach can transform student progress through early identification, targeted support, and continual adjustment.
What Is Response to Intervention?
Response to Intervention is an approach designed to identify students who may be at risk of falling behind and to provide targeted teaching and support at increasing levels of intensity. It is structured around three tiers:
• Tier 1: High-quality teaching for all students in the classroom, including clear modelling, formative assessment, and responsive instruction.
• Tier 2: Additional targeted support, often in small groups, for students who need extra help in specific areas.
• Tier 3: Intensive, individualised support for students with more significant needs.
This approach is proactive rather than reactive. Instead of waiting for students to fall significantly behind, it uses regular assessment to monitor progress, identify those who need support, and adjust the level of help accordingly.
At its heart, this is not a programme but a way of thinking about meeting diverse learning needs through timely, tailored, and data-informed support.
Why Does Response to Intervention Have Such a High Impact?
• Early Identification: It helps catch difficulties before they become entrenched.
• Tiered Support: It offers different levels of help, from whole-class strategies to targeted interventions.
• Ongoing Monitoring: Teachers use data to adapt teaching and support, rather than waiting for students to fail.
• Inclusion and Equity: It reduces the likelihood of labelling or overlooking students and instead provides the right help at the right time.
• Shared Responsibility: It encourages professional collaboration and collective problem-solving across staff teams.
This approach builds a culture of responsiveness, flexibility, and fairness. Struggling learners are quickly supported, and all students benefit from high-quality teaching that adapts to real needs.
Practical Strategies for Embedding Response to Intervention Principles
1. Use Universal Screening Tools
Identify students who may need additional support through regular, low-stakes checks for all.
Some schools use entry quizzes, fluency checks, or curriculum-linked mini-assessments at set points each term.
2. Target Support Based on Need
Once students are identified, provide targeted small-group or one-to-one support.
Examples include 20-minute daily reading fluency groups, pre-teaching vocabulary in maths, or catch-up coaching in science concepts.
3. Monitor Progress Regularly
Use short, focused assessments or observation logs to track if interventions are working.
Some teachers use a traffic light system weekly to track whether students are secure, developing, or needing more input.
4. Adjust Instruction Based on Evidence
If a student isn’t making progress, adjust the approach. This might mean smaller group sizes, different resources, or more frequent sessions.
Some schools hold collaborative data meetings every 3–4 weeks to reflect on intervention impact and plan next steps.
5. Keep Core Teaching Strong
This approach only works when whole-class instruction is robust. All students benefit when universal teaching includes modelling, scaffolding, formative assessment, and clear success criteria.
Quick Wins to Strengthen This Approach This Week
• Add a quick review task at the start of each lesson to check understanding from the previous day.
• Identify three students who may benefit from pre-teaching and try a 10-minute vocabulary session before the next lesson.
• Create a simple tracker to reflect on the effectiveness of your current interventions — are they working?
Challenges and Considerations
This approach can become a paperwork-heavy process if we lose sight of its purpose. The goal isn’t to tick boxes, it’s to respond meaningfully to what students need.
It also shouldn’t be limited to literacy and numeracy. The same tiered thinking can apply across subjects and to behaviour, wellbeing, or attendance. In one school, RTI principles are used to provide different levels of support in PE skill development, based on ongoing physical literacy checks. Another uses it to tier emotional wellbeing check-ins as part of their pastoral programme.
Ultimately, consistency across the school is key, but implementation must remain flexible, collaborative, and responsive.
Reflections
This approach invites us to keep asking: Is this working? It supports a culture of continual reflection, responsiveness, and shared accountability.
As you reflect, consider:
• How does your classroom or school identify students who need additional help?
• How often do you revisit whether current strategies are having an impact?
• Could you strengthen Tier 1 teaching to support more learners universally?
• What space do your teams have to meet, reflect, and adapt interventions together?
Try This
Choose one student who’s currently receiving intervention support. Reflect on the impact so far. What’s working? What might need adjusting? Invite a colleague to observe a session and discuss next steps.
Further Reading and Resources
• “What is Response to Intervention?” – RTI Action Network
https://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/what/whatisrti
• “The RTI Process” – Understood.org
https://www.understood.org/en/articles/response-to-intervention-rti-what-you-need-to-know
Research Connections
• Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. S. (2006) – Introduction to Response to Intervention: What, Why, and How Valid Is It?
Foundational research describing the development, purpose, and outcomes of this approach.
• Burns, M. K., Appleton, J. J., & Stehouwer, J. D. (2005) – Meta-Analytic Review of Responsiveness-to-Intervention Research: Examining Field-Based and Research-Implemented Models.
Review of outcomes across implementations.
Visible Learning Blog Series
This series explores the top influences on student achievement from John Hattie’s Visible Learning research, with practical strategies for applying each one.
1. Collective Teacher Efficacy (1.57) – Belief that together we can succeed
2. Self-Reported Grades (1.33) – Students predict their own success
3. Teacher Estimates of Achievement (1.29) – Judging student potential accurately
4. Response to Intervention (1.29) – Targeted support for learning gaps (You are here)
5. Piagetian Programs
6. Conceptual Change Programs
7. Prior Ability
8. Strategy to Integrate with Prior Knowledge
9. Self-Efficacy
10. Teacher Credibility
11. Micro-Teaching
12. Classroom Discussion
13. Interventions for Learning Disabled Students
14. Teacher-Student Relationships
15. Spaced vs Massed Practice
16. Meta-Cognitive Strategies
17. Acceleration
18. Classroom Management
19. Vocabulary Programs
20. Repeated Reading Programs
In the next post, we’ll explore Piagetian Programs and how aligning instruction with students’ developmental stage can transform engagement and understanding.