ROI of Reading Interventions — Proving Impact in Student Outcomes & District Budgets

We’ll start with the good news: When school districts make smart investments in the right reading interventions for elementary students, it works. 

Student literacy outcomes improve. Reading test scores rise. 

You don’t have to take our word for it either. Researchers at the Regional Educational Lab (REL) Southeast conducted a meta-analysis of more than two dozen studies of reading interventions for grades 1-3 found 95% showed positive or potentially positive effects.

Intervention may just be the single most effective tool district leaders have to turn around America’s reading crisis. 

So, how do you make the case for investment in literacy interventions when the high school HVAC systems need to be updated, the state is mandating you overhaul your science curriculum, and you’re trying to maintain class sizes?

You need to prove this investment is going to pay dividends for your students, and you need to show results (relatively) quickly. 

We dug deep into the data to show you how to do both. Find out what to do first, what mistakes to avoid, and how to build a successful system of reading interventions that moves the needle for your students. 

Step 1 — Assessing the District Intervention Landscape

Things might get a little uncomfortable in step one, but bear with us. 

You’re going to have to take a hard look at your district’s existing system of reading support. Without a clear picture of the current intervention landscape, it’s going to be impossible to plan effectively for what your students need or get stakeholders on board. 

Your district likely has some reading interventions in place, and there may be elements that are working well but aren’t being scaled district-wide. On the other hand, you may find that interventions are inconsistently implemented or that they’re not evidence-based.

Key to an audit of this magnitude is data — both quantitative and qualitative.

1. Review assessment results across schools and grade levels to identify patterns. Which students are being served by interventions, and which ones are slipping through the cracks? Look at subgroup data to ensure that multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and historically underserved populations are receiving equitable access to support.
2. Gather information on resources and implementation. What interventions are being used in each school? How much instructional time is devoted to them? Do students in intervention miss out on core instruction due to scheduling conflicts? Who delivers the instruction? What are classroom walkthroughs and instructional observations showing about current teaching practices? Are staff members trained in the intervention they’re expected to deliver? What does culture and climate data say about teacher buy-in, capacity, and overall readiness for change?
3. Talk to your team. The teachers and interventionists closest to this work have valuable insights you won’t find in the data. Their feedback can help you identify solutions to make interventions more effective and sustainable.

District leaders can make more strategic, targeted investments that directly support teacher practice and student outcomes when they let the data guide the way.

Step 2 — Getting Stakeholders on Board

Once you have a clear picture of your district’s current intervention landscape, it’s time to level set with your stakeholders to get them on board. District leaders, school board members, principals, teachers, and families all need to understand both the urgency of the challenge and the opportunity to make real change.

Providing comprehensive support to help students learn to read may sound like a no-brainer to some, but we know the conversations can quickly become complicated when you’re in a budget meeting juggling requests for new literacy programs, school safety initiatives and another health insurance rate hike.

Establish what reading interventions are, what they currently look like in your district, and sketch out how you see them taking shape in the future. 

The term reading intervention, after all, doesn’t just describe one thing or program. There are many different kinds of interventions, and the very nature of intervention requires supports be tailored to each student and their unique needs. For some students, intervention means additional practice with phonics. For others, it might mean targeted work on fluency or comprehension. For multilingual learners, effective reading interventions will take the shape of specialized scaffolds that address both language development and literacy growth.

What sets effective reading interventions apart from the rest is a combination of five things:

1. Evidence-based instructional practices — Approaches grounded in the Science of Reading ensure interventions address the specific skills students need.
2. Fidelity of implementation — Even the strongest intervention fails if it isn’t delivered as designed and monitored consistently.
3. Ongoing assessment — Regular progress monitoring allows instructional staff to adjust instruction quickly when a student isn’t making the expected gains.
4. Targeted support — Reading intervention should be targeted to kids’ needs, with students placed for intervention based on specific areas where they need support.
5. Adequate resources — REL researchers found ongoing support was key to intervention program support. Every effective program included “high levels of ongoing support for interventionists.” 

Bringing stakeholders on board means making these five elements clear from the beginning. 

Invite principals, teachers, reading specialists, and even parents into the conversation. Use data to illustrate current challenges, and share stories of students who have benefited from effective interventions. This combination of numbers and narratives will help you create a compelling case for change.

Step 3 — Designing a Reading Intervention Framework

Let’s move from information and buy-in to designing the reading intervention framework that’s right for your district. Reading intervention isn’t just another program line item in your district budget. 

Effective intervention is a systematic approach to identifying and supporting the students who aren’t meeting grade-level reading benchmarks.

Your framework should have all of the following components:

1. Clear entry and exit criteria — Define how students qualify for intervention, how progress will be measured, and when students transition out. 
2. Aligned tiered support — Align with MTSS/RTI structures so interventions are matched to student need, from universal supports in Tier 1 to intensive individualized instruction in Tier 3. Ensure that intervention is aligned with core instruction, using the same scope and sequence, language, and instructional routines so students can transfer skills across settings.
3. Evidence-based practices — Choose interventions grounded in the Science of Reading, and ensure they address the needs of your student population.
4. Defined roles and responsibilities — Clarify who delivers interventions (classroom teachers, specialists, paraprofessionals, outside vendors) and what training they need. 
5. Protected time — Schedule intervention blocks so students don’t miss out on core instruction.
6. Progress monitoring — Establish a regular cycle of data review to make sure interventions are helping students progress and allow adjustments to happen quickly. Use assessment as a flashlight to illuminate student needs and guide instruction, not just as a tool for compliance.
7. Sustainability plan — Identify resources, staffing, and professional development needed to keep the system strong long-term. Monitoring implementation and creating feedback loops across schools will help your leadership team identify what’s working and where adjustments are needed.

A Word of Warning

The design stage is one where many districts falter. 

One of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen is a district investing in a literacy program that has a “one size fits all” approach that does not meet their students’ needs. For example, they invest in a program that focuses on comprehension when most students are reading below grade level with a shaky foundation in foundational skills literacy, or they choose a program that ignores special populations, etc.

Step 4 — Building Staff Capacity

Even the strongest reading intervention framework will fall apart if the people responsible for implementing it don’t have the knowledge, skills, and support to carry it out.

Instructional staff are at the heart of effective reading instruction, and they need more than exposure to new content. They need ongoing, job-embedded learning and coaching to internalize and implement it effectively.

But what does that support look like?

1. Professional development — Staff delivering interventions should have a solid understanding of the Science of Reading and how to deliver intervention instruction with fidelity.  Professional learning should include modeling, practice, and feedback, not just theory.
2. Time for professional development — This may sound repetitive, but if your teachers are going to be providing intervention, they need time specifically set aside to properly plan, analyze data, and fully engross themselves in the work.
3. Ongoing coaching and fidelity monitoring — Avoid one-and-done learning opportunities in favor of ongoing support. Instructional coaches or literacy leaders can provide job-embedded support to help staff refine their practice.
4. Collaboration structures — Create regular opportunities for teachers and specialists to share strategies, troubleshoot challenges, and review student progress together.
5. Leadership development — PD shouldn’t be limited to teachers and interventionists. Principals and instructional leaders need training, too, so they can support fidelity of implementation and build a school culture that values intervention.
6. Sustainability — Your reading interventions need to remain strong for the long-term, even as staff members come and go. Plan for turnover by building systems to onboard and train new staff quickly.

Prepared and supported staff can better identify students who need reading intervention early, deliver high-quality instruction, and make timely adjustments that accelerate student growth. That’s a win for staff and a win for kids.

Step 5 — Ongoing Monitoring 

Let’s face it: Interventions of any kind are only as effective as the systems that measure their impact and adjust to student needs.

Reading interventions should be an opportunity for acceleration, not remediation. Supports should focus on helping students catch up quickly and rejoin grade-level learning. This means monitoring progress closely and having clear entry and exit criteria so students don’t stay in intervention longer than necessary

Your framework for effective monitoring and improvement should include:

1. Progress monitoring at the student level — Use reliable, frequent assessments to track whether individual students are closing reading skills gaps. Adjust instruction quickly when progress stalls.
2. Data reviews at the school and district levels — Create scheduled times (ideally monthly or quarterly) to analyze intervention data across classrooms and schools. Look for patterns in what’s working and what isn’t. To keep support strong and reinforce value, it’s important to share intervention outcomes with your stakeholders (the school board, families, and community partners).
3. Feedback loops — Encourage teachers and interventionists to share what they see in practice and make those insights part of district decision-making.
4. Iterative adjustments — Your reading intervention framework is a living system. Use what you learn to refine scheduling, staffing, materials, and professional development.

Remember: The goal isn’t to overhaul the system every year but to continuously improve the supports you’re providing your students. Small adjustments, guided by data and feedback, can add up to big gains in student reading outcomes.

How Do You Know If Reading Intervention Is Successful?

You’ve put all the important pieces together,  but one question remains: Is it all working? 

While there’s definite proof in improved reading assessment results and more students hitting their benchmarks, that’s not the only way to measure success.

Student and staff investment and joy can also tell you a lot about how your literacy environment, including interventions, is working.

• Teachers should be consistently implementing the program correctly with integrity and ensuring all students’ needs are being met.
• Students should be excited for the program and you should see increased confidence when reading or participating in whole and small group activities.

If you see growing engagement and confidence, in addition to steady academic improvements, then you know your district is on the right track.

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