A publication of the Association of California School Administrators

Ensuring every student is seen

Targeted Intervention Guidance is a system of support for credit-deficient students at Ivy High School

By Ilsa Garza‑Gonzalez | May | June 2026

Fallbrook Union High School District is proud to be home to Ivy High School, recently recognized as a 2025 California Model Continuation High School. This designation reflects more than academic improvement; it affirms our collective commitment to students who have historically been marginalized by traditional systems of schooling.

Alternative education serves students whose paths have been interrupted by barriers such as poverty, mobility, trauma, disengagement, and unmet academic needs. Many arrive credit-deficient not because of a lack of ability, but because they have not experienced consistent access, connection, and structured opportunity. At Ivy High School, we believe that student success requires more than credit recovery; it requires intentional systems of care, accountability, and belonging.

One of the most impactful practices supporting this work is Targeted Intervention Guidance (TIG), a schoolwide advisory and intervention model designed to ensure that no student falls through the cracks.

A purposeful response to credit deficiency TIG was developed with a clear purpose: to support students’ academic and personal growth by improving attendance, grades, and overall success. The acronym TIG is also a reminder to students that they are Ivy Tigers and that transformation through education is possible.

Credit deficiency is rarely the result of a single issue. For many students, it reflects a cumulative experience of missed instructional time, unstable circumstances, and disconnection from school. TIG addresses these realities through structured weekly cycles of monitoring, mentoring, and intervention. German Mozqueda, CSI coordinator and Read 180 teacher states, “The concept for the data tracking system emerged from direct conversations with students regarding their academic progress and attendance. I realized that many students were remaining unaware of their standing until the trimester neared its end. In collaborating with our Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) team, we identified a parallel in attendance. Students often lacked a count of how many days they had actually missed.”

To bridge this gap, the Accountability Tracking Sheet empowers students to visualize the direct correlation between their daily attendance and their academic performance. By carving out intentional time for this process during TIG, we have seen a significant positive shift in both grades and presence.

Weekly focus: Attendance, academics, and future readiness Each TIG session is designed around key predictors of graduation and long-term success. Weekly focus areas include attendance, grades, and college and career guidance.

Rather than waiting for final grades to determine failures or end-of-term credit loss, TIG creates structured opportunities every week for students to reflect, adjust, and receive support in real time. This rhythm reinforces that progress is continuous and that improvement is always possible. According to Allyson Robles, a senior at Ivy High School, “TIG gives us the space we need to catch up and get extra help when we fall behind. Having a dedicated time during the school day to meet with our teachers makes a huge difference, we know exactly when we’ll get the support we need to succeed.”

Building student ownership through accountability structures

During TIG sessions, students engage in specific, repeatable actions that build self-awareness and agency. Students are expected to:

Sign into the student portal of the Student Information System to review attendance and academic standing.
Focus on targeted areas connected to the session theme.
Prepare for individual guidance meetings by completing a student accountability one-pager.
Participate in college and career preparation lessons.

For many at-promise students, these routines represent new learning. TIG explicitly teaches students how to monitor their progress, identify barriers, and engage in goal-setting conversations with trusted adults.

This is not compliance-driven advising; it is capacity-building support. Mozqueda adds, “Ultimately, the synthesis of habit tracking and reflection empowers students to become their own best advocates. They are learning to drive their own success by selecting an intervention session based on their tracker. Whether they missed a day and need to finish an assignment, seek extra support, or finish a quiz, we give them the opportunity to reflect on their area of improvement. This process enables them to build agency and discern priorities. Our goal is for students to internalize this framework, allowing them to instill a sense of accountability and responsibility that they can apply toward any future goal they set for themselves.”

The teacher’s role: Mentorship and targeted guidance TIG also redefines the educator’s role in alternative education schooling. Teachers serve not only as content instructors, but also as consistent mentors and intervention partners. Teachers support students through:

One-on-one meetings focused on grades, attendance, and goals.
Enrichment and intervention scheduling based on student needs.
Ongoing check-ins to address concerns before they escalate.

This relational mentoring is central to TIG’s impact. Students who have previously disengaged often re-engage because they experience what many have not consistently received: adult attention, academic advocacy, and belief. Principal Lauren Gardiner states, “TIG has been truly transformational for our students and staff. By empowering students to reflect on their academic journeys and advocate for their needs, TIG has enabled our teachers to serve as mentors who provide critical support for attendance and social-emotional development. Through weekly collaborative meetings, our team leverages insights from TIG sessions to deliver data-driven support tailored to every student. Although we are in the early stages of implementation, initial data underscores TIG’s potential as a powerful catalyst for student success.”

“Our goal is for students to internalize this framework, allowing them to instill a sense of accountability and responsibility that they can apply toward any future goal they set for themselves.” — German Mozqueda, CSI coordinator and Read 180 teacher

Friday enrichment: A system of intervention without stigma One of the most distinctive components of TIG is the Friday enrichment rotation, which integrates both academic intervention and identity-based student support. On Fridays, students attend classes on a rotating schedule. After lunch, they participate in enrichment or intervention based on structured group assignments. Students engage in powerful programs such as Boys to Men and Art Empow(hers). Meanwhile, students assigned to academic intervention receive targeted instructional support aligned to their needs.

Importantly, TIG ensures that intervention is normalized and built into the school day. Students who opt out of enrichment are expected to attend their assigned intervention sessions for both blocks, reinforcing that support is non-negotiable. This design reflects a core equity principle: interventions must be systematic, not optional, and enrichment must be accessible, not exclusive.

Why TIG works: Systems-level equity in action TIG is effective not because it adds more programming, but because it builds an integrated structure that supports the whole student. TIG works because it provides:

Predictable routines.
Weekly progress monitoring.
Embedded academic intervention.
Relational mentoring.
Social-emotional enrichment.
A future-oriented college and career lens.

For students from historically socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, these structures are transformative. TIG communicates a powerful message: “You belong here. You are capable. We will not give up on you.”

TIG implementation reveals a significant positive shift in student performance, reflecting success in both reducing failure rates and improving high-level proficiency. The most dramatic finding is the 14.2 percentage point increase in A-range grades. It is important to point out that all courses at Ivy High School are A-G approved. This significant growth suggests that recent focuses on rigor, mastery-based instruction, and opportunities for advanced application have successfully elevated performance for high-achieving students, aligning strongly with advanced Student Learning Outcomes. By the same token, intervention-level grades (D, F, or NM) have decreased by 13.3 percentage points — a substantial decrease indicating improved student accountability and course completion. This decline suggests that early identification and targeted support systems, such as TIG, are highly effective in mitigating failure during the initial trimester.

Implications for high schools TIG as an example of how systems leadership can disrupt patterns of inequity in alternative education. Alternative schools are uniquely positioned to innovate because they must respond urgently to student need. However, TIG is not exclusive to continuation education or other alternative school settings. Districts can apply TIG principles by:

Making advisory purposeful and data-informed.
Scheduling intervention into the day, not after school.
Training staff to serve as mentors, not monitors.
Creating identity-affirming enrichment structures.
Building consistent cycles of student reflection and support.

TIG demonstrates that credit-deficient students do not need lowered expectations, they need strengthened systems, high expectations and high systems of support to reach high expectations.

Conclusion: A model of hope and accountability Ivy High School’s outcomes reflect what is possible when districts invest in practices that center relationships, structure, and equity.

Targeted Intervention Guidance is more than an advisory program. It is a schoolwide framework that ensures students are seen, supported, challenged, and guided, week by week, toward graduation and a future of possibility.

In Fallbrook Union High School District, we remain committed to the belief that continuation education is not a last resort. It is a promise: That every student deserves a pathway forward, and every system must be designed to help them reach it.

Ilsa Garza-Gonzalez is the superintendent of Fallbrook Union High School District and has previously served as a director of administrative services, working exclusively with at-promise students.