Long before the pandemic shuttered our nation’s schools in mid-March 2020, many districts across the country had been working to transition to MTSS (Multi-Tiered Student Support System). Schools started to let go of traditional models to evaluate students for special education and instead began moving towards a Whole Child approach to consider the needs of all students. Many chose to transition to MTSS because it uses a multi-tiered support foundation that wraps around a school’s entire student body and uses data-driven problem-solving to address academic and non-academic (attendance, social-emotional, etc.) needs. Schools and districts making this shift found that they improved education for all students, gained efficiencies, and prevented students from “slipping through the cracks.”
“Our teachers come together to meet about students’ needs regularly, at the individual student level—we just don’t have a way to come together as district leadership and meet about the system needs at the systems level. We don’t have the data or the structures to do that proactive pattern matching so that we could have bigger more positive impacts on improving student outcomes earlier. ”
What is the Difference between Systems-Level and Student-Level Work in MTSS?
The insight above was recently shared with me by a district administrator in Florida who was looking to improve their MTSS practice. Similar observations have been shared with me many times before. The most common component of MTSS that schools and districts implement is the student-level problem-solving meeting. In almost every school that employs an MTSS model, you will find a team of teachers who come together to understand why a student is struggling, what has been done to support the student, and what should be done moving forward. This collaborative problem-solving work at the student-level is critical for student success and effective MTSS, but it is all too often stymied by an absence of systems-level problem-solving that establishes the infrastructure upon which any student-level support can be provided. After all, as the name of the acronym suggests, it is the system that the model is based on and the foundation for student-level problem-solving.
Students who are meeting or exceeding standards may require enrichment beyond the core to demonstrate academic growth. It is the school’s responsibility to ensure that all students make academic progress regardless of their entry-level. The Branching Minds Support Library contains learning activities that may be used as early as Tier 1, as teachers design differentiated instruction for individual or small groups of students. Below are some examples from the Branching Minds Support Library:
A three-tiered system of service delivery is a necessary structure to efficiently and effectively support all children, not just those who struggle in school. The three-tiered system of service delivery is crucial in the attempt to ensure all students achieve at high levels and all students achieve college and career readiness.
How Can Schools and Districts Reduce the Damage of the COVID-19 Slide?
The COVID-19 global pandemic has created many unknowns for our education system. But one certainty is the challenge teachers will be faced with when students do return to the classroom. The good news is there are a number of things school and district leaders can do now to prepare for this new beginning.
While many school districts have made amazing efforts to continue student learning during this time, there is still an extremely large variation in the type of learning going on in students’ homes. Some students may be fortunate enough to have a parent available to work one-on-one with them and ensure they are completing their daily assignments; however, many students do not have this type of at-home support.
During this time, many students have also experienced caregivers losing their jobs, falling into poverty, and their loved ones getting ill, being hospitalized, or passing away. These traumas will undoubtedly affect their emotions, behaviors, and motivation when they return to the classroom. When schools reopen, teachers will be faced with classrooms of students with a vast array of experiences and academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs.
How Can Families Support Student Learning at Home? (ESP)
The Branching Minds team has curated a set of 5 evidence-based strategies to support students learning at home while schools are closed. These strategies can be used across many grades and topics, and are easily supported by families so we can all work a bit “smarter not harder.”
We have described the strategies below for teachers to incorporate into at-home assignments/packets, or for families looking for additional ways to support their children. The strategies are the following:
We know many of you are preparing your schools, colleagues, students, and families for schools either closing for a number of weeks or shifting to remote learning environments or both. We have assembled a collection of learning supports from the Branching Minds library that could easily meet those new needs.
A three-tiered system of service delivery is a necessary structure to efficiently and effectively support all children, not just those who struggle in school. The three-tiered system of service delivery is crucial in the attempt to ensure all students achieve at high levels and all students achieve college and career readiness.