Using Data-Driven Intervention to Support Secondary MTSS: 8 Key Takeaways

Data is most valuable when it does more than just measure your impact. It should clearly inform your ability to generate more impact. 

In secondary school intervention, where large caseloads and limited instructional time are the reality, creating impact requires a plan. Center Grove Community School Corporation in Indiana identified that reality and built a successful middle and high school multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) model that helps educators and interventionists connect assessment insights to instructional action, so they can respond quickly to meet each student’s learning needs. 

In Building a Better Approach to Secondary Intervention, Shannon Carroll-Frey, Center Grove’s Director of Secondary Teaching and Learning, discussed the district’s shift toward a more responsive and intentional intervention strategy. Our eight key takeaways are below, and you can watch the full conversation here.

1) More Independent Practice ≠ Better Intervention

When students spend too much time on their own, working on skills they aren’t quite ready to master, intervention can become more frustrating than productive. Carroll-Frey described previous challenges the district had with tools that left students on their own for too long, saying, “We had some unintentional misuse of those products, which were resulting in students spending hours and hours and hours trying to work on things independently—skills that they weren't ready to do on their own.”

Center Grove knew what it needed from an intervention solution: something that could personalize learning, surface student needs, and help teachers know exactly when (and how) to step in. With Exact Path, the work doesn’t happen in isolation. 

“It's definitely not a passive program where we can just put kids on it and let them ride,” said Edmentum Customer Success Manager Nikki Privett, who has been supporting Carroll-Frey and her team. “We need teachers to engage, to look at that data, and then mine out what's most important.”

2) Assessment Data Should Provide Both Insight and Direction

“I was in a lucky position,” said Carroll-Frey, “because teachers were asking for a resource that would balance both—that would give them normed data about where students are, and help them support students' learning pathways.” 

The value of assessment data can be diminished when teachers have to spend significant time figuring out what to do with it. A diagnostic score may show where a student is, but teachers also need next steps. Exact Path helps Center Grove connect student data to targeted learning and instructional support, turning data into timely action, so teachers can:

• Identify specific skill gaps
• Assign individualized learning paths
• Review student responses to understand misconceptions
• Pull resources for reteaching or small-group support
• Support interventionists working under teacher direction
• Bring clearer evidence into PLC conversations

3) Use Checkpoint Data to Eliminate Redundant Testing

How much testing is too much? Many districts struggle with this dilemma. Unnecessary over-testing wastes valuable time that could be used for instruction, but teachers need up-to-date information to make informed decisions about intervention. 

Center Grove addresses that by connecting checkpoint data from the state ILEARN assessment directly to individual learning paths. Students complete a diagnostic at the beginning of the year, and then the checkpoint data keeps their learning paths updated as the year goes on. That way, teachers don’t have to wait for summative assessment results; they can use current information while there is still time to respond—and it gives students more time to learn. In other states, schools benefit from similar integrations with state assessments or with the NWEA Map assessment, enabling them to focus on less testing, more learning. 

“Having the checkpoints connected to [learning paths] has been the biggest change,” Carroll-Frey said. “I don't know whether I would look at a product that didn't do that, now that we’ve had that benefit.”

4) Keep Adaptive Learning Connected to Core Instruction

In English Language Arts, the district uses Exact Path primarily as a Tier 2 support. Teachers deliver core instruction, and when students need more help, Exact Path becomes part of the response. That keeps the district’s MTSS structure exactly where it should be: grounded in teaching and learning. 

“It's never going to replace our strong core instruction,” Carroll-Frey said. “It's never going to replace a licensed, amazing teacher that does great work.” The adaptive learning tools are doing what they need to do: helping teachers extend and sharpen their work.

5) Provide Resources That Keep Teachers in the Driver’s Seat

Center Grove’s middle schools each have an interventionist who can work with students outside the regular class period, but the interventionists are not licensed teachers. The district needed a way to support students without adding more to the workload of classroom teachers, and Exact Path helps make that possible. 

Under the direction of ELA teachers, interventionists can now use resources directly connected to student needs. This keeps teachers focused on instruction and direction, with interventionists better equipped to support the plan.

6) Measure Meaningful Progress, not Just Seat Time

Usage goals can help districts track implementation, but Center Grove is careful not to reduce fidelity to seat time. “If I walk into a building as a leader and I see a bunch of kids on devices for 30 minutes, that is not what I'm looking for,” Carroll-Frey said.

What she wants to see is more intentional. Students should be working on individualized learning paths, and teachers should be interacting with them about their progress, misconceptions, and next steps.

“If I walk in and I see effective use of students having individualized learning paths, and teachers interacting with them about their success in that, or about areas where they need support to continue to move forward, that's what I want to see,” Carroll-Frey said.

7) Make Sure Intervention Fits Into the Daily Schedule

Secondary schedules tend to be jam-packed, but Center Grove has been adamant about slotting it in. “In the secondary space it's very difficult to carve out time for spending time working on a platform,” Privett said. “Center Grove has done a really amazing job of using it with purpose and making sure it fits into the schedule, because it is a priority.”

Carroll-Frey described WIN (What I Need) time as one of the best opportunities for this work, especially when Exact Path is paired with small-group instruction. Some students need independent work on their learning path, while others need direct teacher support, and some need both. All are accommodated.

8) Implementation Support Is a Critical Piece of the Intervention Strategy

For Carroll-Frey, part of Exact Path’s value is the support Center Grove receives from Edmentum. “It's because of Nikki and her role that I'm able to know that Exact Path can happen effectively in our buildings,” she said. “She shows up in our buildings and sits and looks and talks to teachers and how's this working?”

Those check-ins help teachers see where implementation is going well and where there may be opportunities to improve. Carroll-Frey said teachers have become increasingly engaged with Exact Path because they can see how it’s helping their colleagues. “Over time, we have naturally had more and more teachers who have said, ‘Oh, that worked for so-and-so—I think I'm going to give that a try, as well.’”

A Better-Connected Model for Secondary Intervention

Shannon Carroll-Frey provides a snapshot of what’s possible for secondary intervention in districts everywhere. By moving away from tools that leave students working in isolation on skills they aren’t quite ready to master, schools can make way for data-driven learning paths that lead directly to the timely, teacher-led support that students truly need. Watch the full webinar recording.