Intervention programs designed to improve literacy skills also produce unintended outcomes that sustain a deficit view around some students. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions about learning of a group of 12–14‐year‐old Australian students assigned to a reading intervention class. The article reports on data collected from students over a six‐month period through interviews, including illustrated responses, and classroom observations. Thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. Findings suggested that the ecology of the classroom was instrumental in how these adolescents determined an economy of effort, oscillated power and control, and positioned themselves as learners. Further research about how to position students as decision makers within the intervention programs to which they are assigned is required to counter the deficit views that surround and are sustained by some adolescents.