MTSS: Schools learn at own pace to produce best student outcomes

There are posters taped up everywhere in the buildings of Carson City’s Empire Elementary School, all illustrating a concept of the week. They’re simple but effective reminders to students about academics, behaviors or good citizenship. The goal of the posters is to keep the whole school moving in a consistent, positive direction.

Making an effort to help its teachers and support professionals move on an upward path for students, the Carson City School District has encouraged practices of the Multi-Tiered System of Support, or MTSS, a comprehensive, targeted system meant to evaluate student needs and match them with academic instruction, behavioral resources and interventions where necessary.

“We want to look at what’s one small change we can make that would just make the system easier,” said Stephanie Keating, the district’s MTSS coordinator. “A lot of times, it’s just providing professional change for staff members or realigning their understanding of what the intervention is or what the process is. A lot of it comes down to, we just don’t know and we’re all moving so fast and we have 500 things thrown at us and taking the time to realign is what’s helpful.”

MTSS is often visualized in a triangle format divided into three tiers categorizing the levels of services and supports that focus on the more intense specialties or interventions students receive in their progress monitoring. At each school site, the goal is to help 80% of students meet academic instruction criteria at the universal, or tier one, level.

Targeted group supports are provided to 10 percent to 15 percent of the student body at the tier two level, providing kids who are experiencing gaps in learning or need a focus in specific skills sets.

It is expected that 3 percent to 5 percent of students will receive more specific interventions at the tier three level and require greater help if they’re deficient in English, math or have social, emotional or mental health needs. The interventions might help address chronic absenteeism or other disciplinary behaviors.

Keating said establishing relationships with students and families first is the most important part of the academic path. Then, it becomes about forming a team of teachers, support professionals and administrators best suited to provide students the help they need. Sites offer interventionists, instructional coaches, school social workers and other positions.

“Maybe when we move up to tier two or tier three, and we’re getting more specialized, that’s where our social workers, counselors, school psychologists and maybe special ed representatives branching into those teams to help guide this situation, to say these are the needs and how can we best support that?” Keating said. “Do we need to look at special education testing? Are there other things we can do at that level first and getting the experts at the table and everybody knowing what their role is and what they contribute to that team?”

Keating said she has tried to make it as simple as possible for everyone with the expression, “Clear is kind.”

“The more we can make it clear for everybody, the more we know what they need, it goes easier and everybody feels like we’re working systematically and we’re not just responding to little fires,” Keating said.

Much of the work for the MTSS framework is grant funded, Keating said, but its team is constantly wanting to ensure the system lasts in the long term and keeps student achievement as its priority. All Carson City schools have engaged in the framework, most within their tier one or tier two implementation this year.

“We always try to remind schools, ‘Your system is only as good as everybody knows it,’” Keating said. “If it’s kept by one person and they leave, then your system’s going to leave, too. It should be able to be sustained.”

Keating said while it often takes time for a school to move up to the next tier, it will yield better results in the long run.

“We are actually servicing kids more efficiently,” Keating said. “It’s setting up a system for needs to be met in an efficient timeframe and we’re operating in a preventive timeframe and again, it’s ‘clear is kind,’ clear expectations for entering tier two and these types of interventions.

“They know exactly what is expected and how they get those supports.”