This is one of three publications prepared by the Ohio State Board of Education to assist schools in implementing a competency based education program, as required by the 1983 revised minimum standards for elementary and secondary schools. This document provides assistance in planning and implementing an effective instruction/intervention component. The first two parts provide suggestions regarding the format and design of the intervention component of the competency program. The introduction defines intervention; discusses administrators' responsibilities; and provides a philosophical overview of the goal, possible approaches, timing, and process inherent in intervention. Part 2 provides a process model for successful intervention programs, and discusses support for the process model, including communication with parents and inservice training. Parts 3, 4, and 5 discuss the elements of effective instructional programs in the three subject areas for which competency programs are required: mathematics, reading, and English composition. Each of these curriculum areas is defined as a teaching/learning process, and examples of intervention activities are thereafter described. Bibliographies are provided at the end of parts 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively, and these are supplemented by a list of resources in part 6 for general instruction, mathematics, reading, and English composition. (TE)