Which approach would best assess a student's responsiveness to a specific literacy intervention?

• A. Frequent quizzes during instruction.
• B. Using standardized tests only.
• C. Test-teach-test model after instruction.
• D. Purely teacher observational notes.

Answer: (C)

Assessing responsiveness to a literacy intervention is about determining whether the student improves after the intervention is introduced. The test-teach-test approach does this directly: you start with a brief assessment to establish a baseline for the targeted skill, provide the explicit instruction or intervention, then re-test to see if there is a meaningful gain. This before-and-after evidence shows whether the intervention is effective for that student and guides next steps—continue, modify, or try a different approach.

This method aligns with progress monitoring and the idea of response to intervention: you’re isolating the effect of the specific instruction by measuring change that results from it. If gains are small or absent, you can adjust the intervention and re-check, creating a data-driven loop.

Frequent quizzes during instruction can reveal what students know at moments but don’t isolate the impact of the intervention itself. Standardized tests provide broad, norm-referenced information and often lack sensitivity to short-term, targeted skill growth from a specific program. Teacher observational notes, while valuable for context, are subjective and not standardized enough to reliably indicate the intervention’s effectiveness across learners.