Tier 2 Response to Intervention and Progression Profiles: First Evidence from Swiss Grade 1 Students

This study examined the effectiveness of a Tier 2 intervention implemented within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework in French-speaking Switzerland, where RTI remains relatively unfamiliar.Three objectives were addressed: (1) to evaluate the intervention's impact on literacy skills, (2) to identify individual reading trajectories and factors associated with responsiveness to intervention, and (3) to examine long-term outcomes one year later.A total of 358 Grade 1 Francophone children were assessed.Following a cluster-randomized design at the school level, 45 children participated in the intervention and 50 were assigned to a semi-active control group.Results showed significant intervention effects from pretest to immediate posttest on code-related skills, reading (decoding and comprehension), and phonemic awareness, as well as a trend toward improvement in rapid automatized naming.Trajectory analyses identified three progression profiles (high, moderate, and low).Children in the control group were more likely to belong to the low-progression profile than those in the intervention group (70% vs. 42%), and initial cognitive skills influenced responsiveness to the intervention.However, no significant group differences were found at delayed posttest on decoding, comprehension, spelling, or phonemic awareness.These findings support the short-term effectiveness of RTI-based interventions and inform their implementation in French-speaking educational settings.