Defining MTSS an Interview with Stephanie Stollar

Mar 25

Written By Amie Burkholder

All About Dr. Stollar:

Former Vice President for Professional Learning at Acadience Learning Inc.
Part-time assistant professor in the online Reading Science Program at Mount St. Joseph University.
Founding member of a national alliance for supporting reading science in higher education.
Support educators to learn about and implement the science of reading.
Consults and helps other teacher programs to align programs to reading research.
Has an online membership community called The Reading Science Academy where she supports educators to learn about the science of reading and implement it in their various educational roles.

Tell us more about The Reading Science Academy

In our membership, we:

…explore various aspects of reading research as it is framed within MTSS.
…discuss reading improvement and what parts of the research can support reading improvement for all students.
…chat about how to get systems in place that can allow that to happen.
…ask questions like, What’s in the research? Where are there gaps in the research? Where can educators collect their own data so that they're making decisions based upon student performance?
…are a place where we can interact with other educators who are at the same place in their journey, or a step ahead and behind.
…have experts join our community who can share what’s worked for them.
…are a wonderful collaborative environment and are a great place for exchanging information and ideas.

What does MTSS stand for?

MTSS:

…stands for Multi-Tiered Systems of Support.
…is first and foremost a framework for putting into place things that we know about reading research.
…uses data to make decisions that allow schools to eliminate barriers to student reading success.

For example, we know that reading problems can be prevented for the vast majority of students primarily through the way we teach reading for the first time in the classroom. Research also tells us there are effective ways to intervene for the students who have difficulty with reading.

…is all about making decisions as a team at a variety of levels within schools (district, school, grade) that will allow the educational system to get all students reading. Everyone can become a reader, but they’re not going to do so with the same type or amount of instruction.
…is made up of three tiers: Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3. These are tiers of instruction and intervention.
…is set up to be a continuum of instructional supports that are available to every student from day one of kindergarten. It’s the school’s job to get the system of supports in place. Each school will have its own way of doing this - think of these tiers as customized to the needs of the school community, its students, and its resources.
…and the science of reading aren’t separate - they’re joined together. They are not separate initiatives. Let’s think about MTSS as the delivery system for what’s in the reading research.
..is a model where each and every student is considered (from accelerated to struggling).

Can you talk about each of the tiers?

The MTSS model comes from the idea that we can prevent reading failure for the vast majority of students. Let’s break each of the levels down.

Tier 1 - Primary prevention of reading failure

This is what we do for all students - every student is a Tier 1 student.
All students get Tier 1 instruction.
Comprehensive, universal instruction that is designed to fit the needs of the students in each grade level that will get the majority of students to grade-level reading expectations.
Tier 1 is aligned to the research and customized to what students need in that grade level.
The amount of minutes spent, the grouping format, instructional routines and materials all spent in Tier 1 are all chosen based upon the needs of students in that grade level.
The outcome should be the way you teach reading the first time in the regular classroom should cause the vast majority of students to reach grade-level expectations (generally this is 80% of students).
Tier 1 is the fist way we teach reading that has the most power of getting the most students to the expectations.
Tier 1 minimizes risk so that we don’t have to do extra intervention for very many students.

Tier 2 - “Extra doses” of support

Tier 2 and 3 are the extra doses of support that are needed for that small body of students who don’t meet those expectations the first time.
Tier 2 is not in lieu of Tier 1, it’s in addition to. The 3-tiered model is designed to give them more - that’s where the “extra dose” comes in. We need to stack up the minutes.
Tier 2 instruction is an extra dose of support at another time of day.
Designed to catch students up.
Tier 2 is delivered in small groups and also aligned to the research.
Progress of Tier 2 students are monitored.

Tier 3 - Intensification of Tier 2

If students are not making progress with Tier 1 and Tier 2, then we must individualize their intervention further.
At Tier 3, educators are problem-solving the students’ needs, the intervention is being intensified with more time, with a smaller group, and is more individualized to fit a student’s needs.
Tier 3 is not necessarily special education. Students who have IEPs are served in all three tiers.

Take Note:

It’s a common misconception that we should use universal screeners to see who is at risk and who needs intervention. Intervention is part of MTSS, but that’s not the first step.
Intervention happens only when Tier 1 (and sometimes Tier 2) doesn’t work for them. That’s why the MTSS model is shaped like a triangle - not everyone gets intervention.
Universal screening should be used to improve the effectiveness of Tier 1 classroom reading instruction. For example, if you find that more than 20% of students are at risk, you need to shrink that number through high-quality Tier 1 reading instruction.
We must work to build teachers up to feel equipped to support any student with solid, quality reading instruction.

What is the first step for successfully implementing MTSS? Let’s take first grade as an example

Step #1: Assemble a team & look at data

Find all people who support first grade. These would be teachers, special educators who support first grade, counselors, ELL teachers, coaches, building leaders, etc. In a meeting, everyone sits down and looks at the universal screening data.
In the meeting, everyone looks at the percentage of students who are on track on the key indicators of early literacy (in first grade, this would be being able to work with sounds, name letters, match sounds to letters, etc.)
Use the proportion of students who are on track as a metric of what you may need to design in that classroom reading instruction to meet student needs. If many of the students are on track, you can proceed with beginning where most first graders start.
If you find many of the students do not have those prerequisites, look at the match between the scope and sequence of the curriculum and the needs of the students.
Have a chat as a team about how you will meet those needs, which skills will be taught in whole group vs. small group, literacy block time, etc. Talk about how to group students so that each first grader is in a group with an adult during a literacy block.
Chat about how you would monitor progress. When you meet again, review and see where you’d need to make changes to that Tier 1 instruction.
Then, take a look at those students who are the lowest performing. You’d then make decisions about who you could give Tier 2 interventions to, who will provide it, when it will be provided, and what others will be doing during this time.
This entire meeting and along the way, be talking about what everyone on the team needs in order to meet the needs of the students - professional learning, coaching, new routines, materials, support for managing behavior, communication with families.

Can you list some common mistakes that happen with implementing MTSS?

It’s a mistake to think that MTSS is a beautiful package with a step-by-step model. It will look different at each school and it should be flexible. However, the stable and consistent aspects of the framework should be in place, such as the data-based decision making. We need collaborative problem solving because it is the backbone of MTSS.
People tend to make mistakes in two parts with MTSS:

Part 1 - Data mistakes: Let’s talk about universal screening tools. With early literacy, these universal screening tools need to be quick, reliable, valid, and indicative of essential skills. They need relevant diagnostic assessments (skill inventories that help you know where students are at with their skills) as well as progress monitoring. You can’t implement the MTSS model without these tests for these purposes. Sometimes, schools make poor choices in these tests.
Part 2 - Decisions related to Tier 1: We cannot take students out of Tier 1 intervention. Many people are under the impression that Tier 1 is only whole group instruction with everyone learning at the same time. Many also believe that Tier 1 is only grade-level content and skills. Another belief people have is that Tier 1 is only for the classroom teacher. As stated before, everyone involved in a grade level can participate. Another huge mistake is to believe that because a reading program has been chosen, you must implement it with fidelity - even if the program doesn’t meet the needs of the students!
Putting the two together: The biggest and most common mistake you can make with MTSS is giving students a universal screener, identifying who needs help, and sending them straight off to intervention without any participation in Tier 1. This has detrimental outcomes for students. If you flood limited resource intervention systems, everyone gets burnt out and they’re not effective. What happens each day in Tier 1 classroom reading instruction is so important. When we send students straight off to intervention after a universal screening, it disregards the entire instructional system about what we know about primary prevention of reading failure.

What’s your hope and goal for MTSS?

There’s a difference between the way the MTSS model is designed vs the way that it’s currently being implemented in schools.
The hope and goal of MTSS would be to implement it in the way it was always designed to be implemented so that schools can experience better results for students!

Check Out Dr. Stollar: