Multi-Tiered System of Support

MTSS District Team

Deleki Lee, Director of Curriculum and Instruction (MTSS Coordinator)

Katherine Burdette, Instructional Specialist (PBIS Coordinator)

Hannah Carmichael, School Psychologist

What is a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)?

We all need help from time to time and that is what MTSS is all about.  It is a General Education framework that supports ALL students.  The MTSS framework consist of three tiers:

MTSS Pyramid

Tier I:  Standards-based core instruction

  • Grade level classroom instruction

  • Standards based curriculum

  • Universal screening to identrigy academic strengths and needs

  • Ongoing monitoring of student growth in response to instruction

  • Differentiated instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners

  • A wide array of strategies to help students master content

Tier II:  Targeted skills-specific moderate intensity support

  • For students that need more than Tier 1 support to keep up with peers or close gaps in their learning

  • Provided in additon to Tier 1

  • Moderate-intensity support given 1-3 times per week

  • Includes ongoing systematic progress monitoring on the targeted skills to inform instructional decision-making

  • Includes small group instruction, typically 1-6 students

Tier III:  Intensive skill-specific support

  • For students that need more than Tier1 and Tier2 supports to keep up with peers or close gaps in their learning

  • Provided in addition to Tier 1

  • Intensive support given 3-5 times per week

  • Includes evidence and research-based interventions that target specific skills for growth

  • Includes ongoing systematic progress monitoring on the targeted skills to inform instructional decision-making

  • Utilizes individual and small group instruction, typically 1-3 students

  • For General Education students, Tier 3 intensity supports are reviewed during during Student Support Team (SST) meetings.  Parents are invited to Student Support Team meetings

What is PBIS?

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based, data-driven framework proven to reduce disciplinary incidents, increase a school’s sense of safety and support improved academic outcomes. More than 19,000 U.S. schools are implementing PBIS and saving countless instructional hours otherwise lost to discipline. The premise of PBIS is that continual teaching, combined with acknowledgement or feedback of positive student behavior will reduce unnecessary discipline and promote a climate of greater productivity, safety and learning. PBIS schools apply a multi-tiered approach to prevention, using disciplinary data and principles of behavior analysis to develop school-wide, targeted and individualized interventions and supports to improve school climate for all students. (OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports, 2009)