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Strengthening Tier 2 with High-Dosage Tutoring
Walk into any classroom, and you’ll see it: students scattered across a wide spectrum of readiness. Some are flying ahead, some are keeping pace, and others are aiming to keep up—needing more time, more targeted support, and more opportunities to fill learning gaps. As a former history and English teacher—and someone who’s spent time in both one-on-one tutoring and high-dosage tutoring programs—I’ve lived that reality.
For schools implementing a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), one of the biggest challenges is executing Tier 2 interventions in a meaningful way. Small-group instruction is a trusted method, but the demands of the classroom—diverse learners, pacing guides, assessments—can make it difficult for teachers to provide the level of support that students really need.
In an MTSS framework, Tier 1 supports are the high-quality, research-based instructional practices delivered to all students—including differentiated instruction, which helps meet the diverse needs of learners within the classroom.Targeted interventions in Tier 2 are provided to students who need additional help beyond Tier 1, often in small groups and with increased frequency or intensity.
Tier 2 often becomes the missing middle—difficult to schedule, staff, and sustain at scale. By contrast, Tier 3 typically involves fewer students, clearer eligibility criteria, and more intensive support systems already in place, making it easier to define and deliver.
I spoke with Jodi Lemoine, Director of Accountability at West Feliciana School District, who explained, Tier 2 can often be the most difficult layer of MTSS to implement with fidelity. It’s frequently overlooked—especially at the secondary level—because the data that drives effective intervention isn’t always available in real time.
“State assessments are too global to guide intervention,” she shared. “We need screeners at the middle and high school levels that give us timely, actionable data.”
To meet that need, the district uses a mix of in-house and third-party supports . At the secondary level, West Feliciana has partnered with outside vendors to provide live virtual tutoring sessions. In the elementary grades, they’ve reimagined the master schedule to embed a daily intervention block—what they call “Prime Time”—where Tier 1 instruction pauses and every teacher becomes an interventionist.
Crucially, this isn’t a generic small-group pullout. Teachers are matched with students based on specific instructional needs, and progress is closely monitored by interventionists on a biweekly or triweekly cycle. This structure ensures Tier 2 support is both intentional and impactful—reaching more students with the right help at the right time.
According to the Center for American Progress, high-dosage tutoring—sometimes referred to as high-impact or high-intensity tutoring—is one of the most effective school-based strategies for improving student outcomes in math and reading.
High-dosage tutoring isn’t just “extra help.” It’s structured, consistent, and delivered by trained educators in small groups or one-on-one settings. And when it’s paired with real-time data and MTSS progress monitoring tools, it becomes a powerful engine for closing skill gaps.
According to the Center for American Progress, only 11% of public school students are actually receiving high-dosage tutoring—despite strong evidence that it drives gains in reading and math. Most schools still rely on standard tutoring, which is less intensive and less effective. If we want to truly recover lost learning, we need to scale high-dosage programs so more students can benefit.
When done right, tutoring becomes a natural extension of classroom instruction—and a lifeline for students who need more than what the classroom alone can offer. The bottom line: high-dosage tutoring doesn’t just help struggling students catch up—it helps the entire instructional ecosystem thrive.
Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to work with Louisiana and New Jersey school districts as they strengthen their Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) with high-dosage tutoring. Their efforts reflect a growing understanding that effective MTSS requires both classroom-based strategies and targeted, structured intervention.
In response to learning gaps exacerbated by the pandemic, Louisiana launched the Accelerate: High-Dosage Tutoring (HDT) initiative. Mandated by Act 771 of the 2024 Legislative Session, this program requires school-day embedded tutoring for certain K–5 students.
Key features of the Accelerate initiative include:
Louisiana’s commitment to high-dosage tutoring has yielded notable results. The state made a significant leap in fourth-grade reading performance, moving from last place in 2019 to 16th in the most recent Nation’s Report Card. This improvement is attributed to a comprehensive approach that includes the Accelerate initiative .
Moreover, the state allocated $30 million in funding to support the program, emphasizing its dedication to educational equity and excellence.
West Feliciana Parish has emerged as a standout example of how high-dosage tutoring can be implemented with fidelity—and results. Recognized by the Louisiana Department of Education as a Model of Excellence, the district prioritized tutoring as a core strategy to address unfinished learning, especially in literacy and math.
What sets West Feliciana apart isn’t just their commitment to providing consistent, high-quality tutoring—it’s how they track, monitor, and align those supports within a strong MTSS framework. By leveraging OnCourse MTSS and other tools the district is able to:
Identify students who need Tier 2 intervention with live data
Monitor progress and adjust tutoring strategies quickly
Coordinate communication between teachers, interventionists, and administrators
Ensure alignment between tutoring sessions and classroom instruction
Their approach shows what’s possible when tutoring is treated not as an add-on, but as a strategic piece of the larger instructional puzzle. With tools like OnCourse, West Feliciana is showing how to bring MTSS from theory to practice—and getting state-level recognition for doing it right.
Louisiana’s Accelerate initiative demonstrates that:
By aligning high-dosage tutoring with differentiated instruction strategies, Louisiana provides a scalable model for other states and districts aiming to enhance their MTSS frameworks. Looking to bring more consistency to your MTSS framework? Let’s chat.
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