The Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI) is a dual-level professional development intervention designed for both at-risk K-1 students and their classroom teachers. Coaches with reading expertise provide 1-on-1, ongoing support to classroom teachers in multiple states via the inexpensive and scalable webcam.  We began as part of the National Research Center on Rural Education Support, and now continue this research project at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill through funding from the Institute for Educational Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education.

The TRI professional development process helps teachers:

• acquire essential knowledge of early reading development and efficient instructional strategies
• develop skills in matching instruction to informal assessment
• apply their learning particularly for the benefit of struggling readers.

TRI Teachers work with their struggling readers intensively on a daily basis for about 15 minutes, initially one-on-one and transitioning to very small groups, using efficient, evidence-based reading strategies refined daily with a diagnostic mindset. TRI Coaches/Consultants observe these sessions weekly via the webcam and facilitate a quick conversation with the Teacher about the student's most pressing needs immediately following the lesson.  The effectiveness and efficiency of the TRI lie both in the reading strategies themselves that integrate multiple, essential, early reading abilities always in the context of real words and books, and in the benefits of the ongoing coaching to enhance a teacher's diagnostic thinking.