Strong academic intervention requires more than just high-quality instruction—it thrives on collaboration. When educators and families work as a team, students receive the consistent support they need both in and out of the classroom. In this blog, we explore how teacher-family communication and cooperation strengthen academic intervention plans. From building trust and sharing data to setting clear goals and celebrating growth, effective collaboration creates a powerful foundation for student success.
There is a reason why people say, “It takes a village,” when it comes to raising children. It is quite simply too large of a task to take on alone. Teaching also “takes a village.” For this reason, teachers and families must maintain a unified approach in support of student learning, especially when a child is receiving an academic intervention. Cooperation and communication between families, teachers, and interventionists improves student engagement, confidence, and academic achievement.
Cooperation and communication are built on trust. This starts early in the school year, sometimes before school even begins. Teachers build trust by reaching out to families, introducing themselves, and sending home positive notes as a way to pave the way for future positive and productive communication.
Trust-building is also achieved when teachers put in the effort to truly get to know their students and families. For example, teachers will want to know about family structures, cultural and language influences, siblings, and dynamics. Taking the time to gather this information will help the teacher form an authentic relationship with the student and their family. When students form real relationships with their teachers, their motivation, effort, and achievement increases. When parents feel that teachers truly care about their children, they are more likely to partner with schools.
Once strong relationships are built, teachers can communicate with families in many ways—through updates, letters, conferences, emails, or calls. Being transparent about student progress is essential, even when conversations are difficult. Today’s approaches to teaching reading and math differ greatly from the past, so parents need support to effectively help at home. Simple, targeted practice tips can boost their confidence, reinforce skills, and support student growth.
Teachers must ensure that the intervention goals are specific, measurable, and tailored to the student’s needs. These goals should be supported by the instructional materials that align with the progress monitoring tools. When these pieces are in alignment, communicating progress is easy!
Parents should be informed that an intervention is needed, and have a clear understanding of the intervention goal. I find that it is helpful to provide context to parents when providing this initial information. For example, if the goal is for a second-grader to read 84 words per minute with 98% accuracy, a parent should know how that fits into the larger picture of second grade reading fluency. This changes depending on the point in the year. The intensity of the intervention usually determines the frequency of the progress monitoring probes. Family engagement letters can include this goal-setting information, ensuring that parents understand what their child is working on at school, and how they can support that work at home.
Once the goal information has been shared with parents and progress monitoring routines have been established, teachers can develop a system in which they inform parents about their child’s growth. This could be a quick update to parents via an email sharing how their child is doing, or a reflection sheet that is completed with the student at school.
Parents should also be encouraged to share how their child is doing at home. As an educator who provides interventions to students, it is so valuable to hear that a child is practicing at home, or parents are seeing the growth in different ways outside of school. Parents can also share if something is not working, or if they have noticed behavioral or emotional changes in their child. This feedback loop between parents and families is critical for providing the whole child an intervention that supports their learning needs.
Family engagement letters can serve as a valuable tool for maintaining an ongoing connection between home and school. These letters can be sent with each skill or topic in the academic intervention program to provide updates on student progress, tips for home support, and encouragement to parents to be actively involved in their child’s learning. Teachers can introduce parents to these letters during a parent-teacher conference so parents can have a chance to process the information, ask questions, and even practice if applicable. Sometimes material like this can get lost in the chaos of a child’s backpack, so informing parents of its value is a crucial step.
Family engagement letters are great resources that can involve tips, resources, and activities that families can do together to strengthen academic skills and enhance understanding of key concepts.
As a specialist, I regularly use data to strengthen communication with parents. I ensure they understand the specific, targeted, and measurable goals of the intervention. When sharing progress, I include actual monitoring scores, explain how they relate to the goal, and provide context within grade-level expectations. Clear, meaningful data helps parents see both their child’s growth and the work still needed to close the gap. When data is easy to understand, parents feel more empowered—and often more motivated—to support practice at home.
Data can also be used to communicate actionable insights. For example, if a child’s progress monitoring scores show that their errors include high-frequency words, a logical action step would be to send home a list of high-frequency words for families to practice at home. Another example would be a student who is struggling with friends of ten numbers. Teachers can communicate that there is a need based on the progress monitoring data, and provide parents with games or resources to help with this specific skill at home.
Data can also show us where a student is excelling. For example, an oral reading fluency probe that measures words per minute and accuracy could show that a student is accurately decoding words with two syllables, or is able to answer more comprehension questions correctly. Teachers can also share positive examples such as a students’ ability to regroup independently in math. Raw data and error analysis are incredibly powerful to use to enhance your communication with families. I find that parents appreciate when a “Grow” and a “Glow” are communicated together.
Growth charts and other visible learning techniques such as student-data tracking are powerful ways to communicate data and encourage reflection. They are a concrete representation of the impact of an intervention, and a student’s journey towards their goal. These can be very helpful to have available during parent conferences. Involving students in this type of discussion has been proven to be highly impactful for increasing motivation and achievement.
It is important for teachers to set a regular schedule for progress monitoring. Having consistent data points will help teachers and parents better understand how a child is progressing. Teachers will be able to use these regular data points to help drive instruction and report progress to parents. It becomes harder to glean timely and actionable insights if the data is inconsistent. Ideally, students will also be invested in the progress monitoring and comfortable with the process. Teachers will be able to use the progress monitoring scores to determine if the intensity and topic of the intervention is appropriate. Adjustments will need to be made when a child is not making adequate progress, or has met a predetermined benchmark.
Many barriers can impact effective communication with families, including language differences, time constraints, and work schedules. To address these, teachers should have a plan in place. Tools like translation apps (e.g., Talking Points) help bridge language gaps, while virtual meetings offer flexibility for busy families. A beginning-of-year questionnaire can help identify each family’s preferred communication method, whether that’s email, phone, or another option. Proactively planning for these challenges reduces frustration and builds stronger partnerships.
Many parents feel anxious or intimidated by school, especially if it’s their first child. That’s why it’s so important for teachers to create a warm, inclusive environment. This can include sharing photos, videos, and classroom updates through platforms like Seesaw, or inviting families to join special events, such as portfolio days or “Mystery Reader” visits. When teachers are transparent, proactive, and positive, families are more likely to feel welcomed and engaged. For those unable to attend in person, Family Engagement letters offer a simple, effective way to stay connected and involved.
Recently, I worked with a first-grade student who was new to our school. His beginning-of-year screener placed him in the at-risk range, and further diagnostic assessments confirmed the need for reading intervention. He struggled with reading CVC words and high-frequency words in simple sentences. Knowing he was new to our school, I called his parents to explain the intervention process. I shared our goal—accurately reading CVC words at 17 words per minute by January—and explained that we’d monitor progress weekly using nonsense word assessments.
To keep the student engaged, we used a visible learning tracker to review his progress together. Weekly family engagement letters provided parents with updates and practical ways to support reading at home. His parents responded enthusiastically, used the strategies provided, and regularly checked in. As a result, his reading fluency and confidence steadily improved, and he exceeded the mid-year benchmark. After being released from intervention, his parents shared that he now reads for fun and enjoys reading to his younger brother. Their involvement and consistent support were key to his success.
Successful school programs prioritize teacher-family involvement and engagement. Parent involvement is a key factor and can look different from school to school. Parent involvement may include parents volunteering, fundraising, participating in committees, and so on. Parent engagement includes partnering with schools and teachers and participating in the learning that helps their child succeed. Research has shown that schools with parent involvement and engagement have higher success rates than those that do not.
Partnering with families must be intentional and strategic on the part of schools. Teachers and school leaders must maintain a level of respect, inclusivity, and clear and consistent communication. Schools that successfully partner with families have a plan in place in which to achieve this important goal. It will look different from school to school based on a variety of factors, but they all share a love of their children, mutual respect, and a desire to work together. Children learn best when there is a united front as it increases motivation, achievement, retention, and confidence.
Teacher-family communication is critical for all students, but especially for those who are participating in academic intervention plans. Academic intervention strategies are put in place when a gap has been identified in a student’s learning. Parents must understand what the gap is, how it will be addressed, and how their child is progressing. Parents must also take part in engaging with their child, and providing important feedback to their child’s teachers. Teachers must be transparent in their goals, welcoming, and consistent with their collaborative effort. When there is a strong connection between home and schools, students benefit within and beyond the academic setting.