Hillary Wolfe, former Learning Specialist at Northview, started working with Principal Lynn Carmen-Day and Northview senior Kyle Lowry to design a three-tiered intervention system, inspired by the mandatory intervention models of Rick DuFour. The first step was to implement a seven-period day, which was voted on and approved in March, 2006. Then, Lynn and Hillary worked with Assistant Superintendent Lorie Gonia to strategize how PLCs, Guided Study, and Intervention would work.

The plan called for a seven-period day, which would allow students with a minimum GPA and no discipline issues to earn a free period. Students who were falling through the cracks could be given a Guided Study class, so they would be able to complete their homework and get help during the school day. If students were still falling behind, teachers then had the option from their PLC meetings to assign students to be pulled from Guided Study and taken to Intervention, where they could work with a Peer Tutor for a week on specific skills.

Kyle Lowry set to work to design a computerized system that would pull students from one of six Guided Study rooms throughout the seven periods. Students with a free period, advisory, or serving as a teacher's aide would also be pulled. Kyle's system, Education Connect, created a roster for each period of the day, as well as a learning log and an evaluation form for each student, so that Intervention could keep track of attendance and student progress. Education Connect notifies the counseling office of the students who are being pulled from free periods so they can be notified via pink slip or Teleparent that they have been assigned. In addition, it keeps statistical data on test scores, number of times a student has been assigned, percentage of teachers assigning students each week, and so on.

September 2006 – June 2007

Four teachers and one full-time aide split the classes, and approximately 70 peer tutors were assigned, about 10 per period. They received three weeks of training on library skills, instructional strategies, AVID techniques, games and activities, the Listening Center (audio books) and technology such as Thomson-Gale Research tools, PLATO, Take Home Tutor, the Academy Book Search, Blackboard and more. In addition, they helped set up the library by making signs, moving books, organizing materials, and bar-coding. Tutors led library orientations for freshman English classes and assisted when teachers brought students in for research assignments.

Intervention began with math for the first few months. By December, as many as 220 students from Algebra 1, 1A, 1B, 2, and Geometry were being assigned to visit intervention for the week. In the spring, we started also seeing students from English, the Success Academy, economics and government, Spanish, French, and CAHSEE prep.

Tutors took ownership of the program, and consequently we gave them much responsibility. In addition to helping students, tutors picked up students, kept attendance, got materials, graded tests, helped with discipline, collaborated with teachers, created displays, made promotional presentations, and mentored and trained other tutors. They participated in monthly meetings to exchange ideas and evaluate the success and possible improvement of systems.

As a result of their hard work, our program helped students achieve an average 14-point improvement each week. So far in the 2007/2008 school year, students are achieving a 21 point increase per week. Furthermore, the library saw increased use and traffic, as did the College & Career Center and after-school tutoring. Students began using the library as a resource, and teachers started turning to the library staff for articulation and assistance with projects, or for innovative ideas.

May 2007

Tutors prepared presentations and led recruitment seminars for the 2007/2008 school year. Tutors also represented the program at presentations to the school board and to local service clubs. These clubs were impressed enough to offer their sponsorship and donations, hosting a banquet for tutors, and promising continued support.

By the end of the semester, 90 applications were submitted for peer tutoring for the next year.

September 2007

This year we held an orientation day over the summer to get to know the prospective tutors and to introduce them to the program. Tutors again underwent three weeks of training, led orientations, and started keeping reflection journals.

Intervention officially began on October 1 with 70 students assigned for Algebra 1A, 12th grade English, CAHSEE Prep, Success Academy, Economics and homework help for Geometry. We have already seen more use of the Listening Center, and our continued relationship with Recorded Books promises to be a helpful resource for even more of our students.

September 2008

The '08-'09 school year began September 2nd. Intervention began in early October, after Peer Tutors underwent the three week training. This year we are having our highest enrollments ever - with nearly 160 students per week, on average. Our improvement level is hovering around 20.5%, so it seems the high enrollments haven't affected the improvement level too negatively. We are getting very many Earth-Science students this year, in addition to our usual complement of Algebra I, II, and Geometry students.

September 2009

Wow! The '08-'09 school year went fast! Here we are at the start of the '09-'10 school year and, three weeks in, we're starting our FOURTH year of Intervention. We are all looking forward to this upcoming year, and are planning to add new features to Education Connect like making standardized test score data for all students available to all teachers, improving the data-reporting and analysis capabilities of EC, and experimenting with new features to help enhance the Intervention Management System. It's going to be an exciting year!