Planned interventions address the remaining two PLC critical questions: How will we respond when some students do not learn it and, how can we extend and enrich the learning for students who have demonstrated proficiency?  After the team has identified goals, selected essential learning, created and scored tests, they must provide interventions for students not mastering content and devise ways to accelerate “value-added” instruction to capable students.  The collaborative team process should be comforting to teachers as they realize that they will not be alone in addressing these issues. 

In Learning by Doing, the authors provide key intervention reminders to the team.

• Intervention must be a timely process where students receive interventions at the first indication of experiencing difficulty.
• The intervention process must be directive and not invitational.  This means that the interventions will be scheduled during the school day.  
• Interventions should be systematic using a collective team response.

When developing interventions, the team should reach a consensus on actions based upon available resources.  Remember that ever student should have equal opportunities, regardless of his/her teacher. Instruction may be for remediation or acceleration.  Examples the PLC team may consider include:

• Small group instruction/reteaching within the classroom.
• Students using instructional software that focuses on the interventions needed.
• Mentoring from educational assistants, cooperative learning groups, student mentors, or other volunteers.
• Short term prearranged student exchanges with other teachers for instruction in a specific skill.
• School-wide scheduled intervention periods. 

“It is disingenuous for any school to claim its purpose is to help all students learn at high levels and then fail to create a system of interventions to give struggling learners additional time and support for learning.” – Learning by Doing, p 78

The team should provide the school administration with an intervention schedule so that administrators can respond to the age-old question, “What is the school going to do to help my child catch up?”