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Data-Driven Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)

by Jana Bennett

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Data-Driven Decision Making in Your Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)

For students to prosper within your school’s multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS), collaboration between different teams of educators is a necessity.

The response to intervention (RTI) framework that’s built into your MTSS is vital to your teams’ early detection and support of at-risk students. RTI tiers help educators collectively examine the work being done across tiers and determine:

  • Which students need additional support
  • If intervention is needed and to what extent
  • How differentiated instruction and intervention will be delivered
  • How progress will be monitored and assessed

When educators – from Curriculum and Assessment Directors to Math and Reading Directors to Student Support and Counseling Teams – dedicate time to discuss the performance and progress of the students they share, strategic decisions will help move each student forward.

Making Standards-Aligned Student Data Part of the MTSS Equation

Is your strategic decision-making process driven by data? If so, what measures and assessments are used to collect the data?

The RTI Action Network points out that MTSS are highly complex and require well-informed decision making.1 Good decisions, though, require more than strategic, daily discussions; they demand a data-centric approach that involves:

  • Measuring what matters
  • Collecting valid, reliable data
  • Accurately interpreting data
  • Making appropriate instructional changes for each student based on the data
  • Administering progressively intensive support within the tiers
  • Tracking intervention effectiveness to confirm a student’s plan is adventageous1

It’s important to note that not all student data is created equal, and it’s the use of valid, reliable standards-aligned, curriculum-based measures that help produce powerful student assessment data. When data meets this criteria, essential norming and statistical reports are generated that reveal your students’ achievement levels compared to students classroom-, district-, and nationwide.

Streamline Your Data-Driven MTSS

Identifying at-risk students early, or quickly adjusting a student’s intervention plan or IEP goals if a lack of expected progress is detected, relies on accurate, real-time data that can been seen and shared across teams.

aimswebTMPlus, an all-in-one seamless, web-based assessment and data management system, tailors to a wide array of multi-tiered instructional systems (MTSS and RTI) and helps educators make better, quicker decisions by connecting the dots between the classroom, assessments, and intervention.

Are you ready to maximize your MTSS? Discover a streamlined benchmarking and progress monitoring system that produces dynamic reports with intervention management to make differentiating instruction more effective and efficient.

References:

1 Metcalf, Terri, M.Ed. RTI Action Network. “What’s Your Plan? Accurate Decision Making within a Multi-Tier System of Supports: Critical Areas in Tier 1.” Accessed March 13, 2017. http://www.rtinetwork.org/essential/tieredinstruction/tier1/accurate-decision-making-within-a-multi-tier-system-of-supports-critical-areas-in-tier-1.