Strengthening Tier 1 Instruction: Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing

If you spend any time in conversations with school leaders right now, you’ll hear a lot about improving Tier 1 instruction. And that’s a good thing.

Tier 1, the instruction every student receives in the general education classroom, should absolutely be our priority. When Tier 1 instruction is strong, fewer students need intervention, classrooms run more smoothly, teachers feel more successful...and most importantly, more students learn at high levels.

Almost everyone agrees on this.

Where we often get stuck is how to actually strengthen Tier 1 instruction across an entire campus.

The Temptation of the “New Initiative”

Education is full of well-intentioned initiatives. New programs. New technology tools. New frameworks. New “solutions” to long-standing instructional challenges. Many of them sound exciting, and some are even helpful.

But one of the most common mistakes I see schools make is trying to improve instruction by layering too many initiatives on top of each other. When that happens, the message to teachers becomes unclear.

One week we’re focusing on one strategy. The next week we’re introducing a new tech solution. Soon there are so many moving pieces that no one is quite sure what we’re actually trying to get good at. Instead of strengthening instruction, we end up muddying the waters.

What Actually Works

After many years as a campus principal, and now working with principals and leadership teams across the country, I’ve seen what actually works when schools improve Tier 1 instruction.

The campuses that see real growth do something very simple. They focus on a small number of high-impact, research-based instructional practices. Then they stay focused on those practices for the entire year (at least), until everyone is implementing them successfully.

Teachers receive training on them. Learning walks look for them. Walkthrough feedback reinforces them. Coaching conversations center around them.

The leadership team keeps the message clear and consistent, "This is what we are getting really good at this year."

A Simple Example: Checking for Understanding

One example might be focusing on checking for understanding and formative feedback.

Teachers might learn strategies to utilize:

• Cold calling

• Equity sticks

• Whiteboards

• Total response signals

• Structured partner talk

All of these strategies help teachers answer a critical question: Who is actually learning right now?

For years, many classrooms have relied heavily on volunteers raising their hands. But when we only call on students who volunteer, we often get a skewed picture of learning. The same confident students answer questions while others remain quiet...and invisible.

When teachers use structured strategies that require responses from all students, they gain real-time insight into who understands the content and who needs additional support.

That shift alone can dramatically strengthen classroom instruction.

But here’s the key: It only improves student outcomes at scale when the entire campus commits to getting really good at it.

Depth Over Variety

Improving Tier 1 instruction isn’t about trying everything. It’s about getting deeply skilled at a few things that matter most.

Research has already identified many high-impact instructional strategies. Resources like The New Classroom Instruction That Works from McREL highlight practices such as:

• Retrieval practice

• Explicit instruction

• Feedback

• Identifying similarities and differences

• Nonlinguistic representations

The research is not the mystery. The challenge is implementation with consistency.

When schools try to introduce too many practices at once, teachers understandably struggle to master any of them. But when a campus chooses a few key practices and commits to training, practicing, refining, and reinforcing them throughout the year, those practices begin to show up in every classroom. And that’s when Tier 1 instruction begins to strengthen across the school.

The Role of the Campus Leader

This is where campus leadership matters most. Principals play a critical role in protecting instructional focus.

That means:

• Resisting the urge to chase every new initiative

• Keeping professional learning aligned to a few core practices

• Ensuring walkthrough feedback reinforces those practices

• Helping teachers refine and improve those strategies over time

When leaders stay consistent with the message, teachers know exactly what matters.

And when teachers know what matters, they can focus their energy on getting better at it.

Clearing Out the Noise

At this point in education, we know a great deal about what effective instruction looks like.

Strong Tier 1 teaching isn’t a mystery. What matters now is clarity and consistency.

Instead of adding more programs, more initiatives, and more “solutions,” many schools would benefit from doing something much simpler:

• Clearing out the noise.

• Focusing on a few research-based instructional practices.

• And staying committed to them long enough for every teacher to become truly skilled.

When that happens, classrooms improve. Teachers grow more confident. And every student has a better opportunity to learn at high levels.

Sometimes the most powerful leadership move isn’t adding something new.

It’s simply keeping the main thing the main thing.