Instructional Intensity

Posted: October 08, 2008

If you are the parent of a Minidoka County student you may have noticed this year at your child’s school a new banner that simply states:  "We will increase INSTRUCTIONAL INTENSITY to significantly improve academic achievement for all students."  But, what is instructional intensity, and why would the schools bother to create banners with this statement on it?  Is it just some educational mumbo jumbo, or is it something more significant?  To answer these questions, we should first explain the origins of this statement. 

Last winter, the Minidoka County School Board entered into a five-year program of study called the Lighthouse Project.  The Lighthouse Project is a study of what school boards do in high-achieving school districts.  The study focuses on the types of decisions made at the school board level that positively impact the achievement of students in those districts.  As part of this project, school board members, the superintendent, and administrators are asked to study the district’s student achievement data and identify the greatest common weakness impacting student scores.  This weakness then becomes the focus area for improvement that everyone works on together and all decisions made throughout the district should support the improvement effort.   Based on their study, the Minidoka County School Board chose instructional intensity as their focus area and created a statement of commitment to improving it in all classrooms.   However, committing to improving instructional intensity is only the tip of the iceberg.  In order for significant improvement to occur, all stakeholders, including parents, must understand the commitment.  Therefore, everyone should know what instructional intensity is and what it should look like in the classroom.

Instructional intensity refers to the number of positive instructional interactions, or Pii, a student has with a teacher and the material they are learning each day and is based on the research of Dr. Joseph Torgeson, 2005.  According to Dr. Torgeson, “a Pii is defined as any interaction between a teacher and (a) student in which the student learns something new or establishes a skill with greater mastery.”  It is teaching with the kind of enthusiasm and passion that make students want to learn.  It is walking into a classroom and seeing students who are engaged in discussion, questioning, and problem solving.   Lessons based on high levels of instructional intensity consist of the following elements:

The most powerful instruction is systematic and sequential

  • Targets the student’s learning level
  • Provides a clearer more detailed explanation
  • Provides more guided practice on material
  • Provides more feedback and error correction
  • Utilizes smaller groups
  • Provides more time for learning

Simply put, "We will increase INSTRUCTIONAL INTENSITY to significantly improve academic achievement for all students," is our district’s commitment to you that we will focus on how teachers teach so that each and every child in our schools learns something new to improve their academic achievement. 

By: Michele Widmier, Federal Programs Director/District Test Coordinator