Multi-tiered Systems Of Support Research Articles

Comparing AimswebPlus to the Benchmark Assessment System for Universal Screening in Upper Elementary Grades

Early identification of students needing additional support is a foundational component of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). Due to the resource-intensive nature of implementing MTSS, it is critical that universal screening procedures are maximally accurate and efficient. The purpose of this study was to compare the classification accuracy of aimswebPlus reading scores to the Benchmark Assessment System scores. We used data from a mid-size city in Texas to retrospectively compare the classification accuracy between fall aimswebPlus reading composites to the Benchmark Assessment System scores when predicting student performance on the statewide reading test. When classification decisions were made based on the vendor-recommended cut-scores, both measures were insufficiently sensitive for screening in MTSS. Following aimswebPlus’ recommended method for establishing local-cut scores improved the sensitivity of decisions, but the specificity values were well below minimally acceptable levels. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for practice are discussed.

Early Childhood Educators: The Forgotten Tier

Early childhood educators are often overworked, underpaid, stressed, and at risk for burnout (Wells, 2015). In addition to teaching early academic skills, early childhood educators are also tasked with teaching and supporting students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom. Given the aforementioned limitations, it is imperative to examine how the social-emotional needs of early childhood educators are supported as they implement and sustain SEL. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) are often implemented to promote SEL and meet the social-emotional needs of young children; however, MTSS is only effective if all components are implemented with fidelity. In contrast to school-aged MTSS, where there are often several stakeholders involved, the implementation of MTSS often falls on early childhood educators, as mental health consultants are not readily available or affordable to early childhood centers. Given the heavy load placed upon early childhood educators, it is critical to shift the focus of MTSS to include the social-emotional needs of the teacher. We argue that teachers’ social-emotional needs should be considered and supported within MTSS to prevent burnout and promote the fidelity of SEL programs. Teacher focused interventions such as mindfulness (Chin et al., 2019) and the Circle of Security (Cooper et al., 2017; Gray, 2015) may increase teacher’s feelings of well-being, reduce teacher stress and burnout, increase positive teacher-child interactions, and, therefore increase the effectiveness of the MTSS process. Ultimately, by supporting the social-emotional growth of early childhood educators, we are building their capacity to effectively support the SEL of young children.

Capturing Multiple Sources of Change on Triannual Math Screeners in Elementary School

AbstractBayesian latent change score modeling (LCSM) was used to compare models of triannual (fall, winter, spring) change on elementary math computation and concepts/applications curriculum‐based measures. Data were collected from elementary students in Grades 2–5, approximately 700 to 850 students in each grade (47%–54% female; 78%–79% White, 10%–11% Black, 2%–4% Hispanic/Latino, 2%–4% Asian, 2–4% Native American or Pacific Islander; 13%–14% English learner; 10%–14% had special education individualized education plans). Results converged with common nonlinear growth patterns from the assessment norms and prior independent findings. However, Bayesian LCSMs captured practically relevant sources of change not observed in prior studies. Practical and methodological implications for screening and data‐based decision‐making in multitiered systems of support, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Effects of an MTSS-B Intervention on Student and Staff Perceptions of School Climate: Findings From Two Group Randomized Trials

This paper presents the findings from two school-level randomized controlled effectiveness trials of a multitiered systems of support for behavior (MTSS-B) framework on student and staff reported school climate outcomes in 98 secondary schools. Schools randomized to the intervention condition received training and coaching to support Tier 1 implementation and the use of data for selection and implementation of Tier 2 and 3 evidence-based programs. Multigroup, multilevel regression analyses were conducted in Mplus to assess intervention effects on change over time in student and school staff perceptions of engagement, environment, and safety. Main effects models indicated limited impacts on student perceptions of school climate and negative effects for middle school staff perceptions. Moderation models indicated greater negative impacts for school staff perceptions in middle schools that had higher preexisting MTSS-B fidelity. These results highlight the challenges of demonstrating change in school climate outcomes. Additional theoretical and measurement work is needed on the assessment of changes in perceptions of school climate, particularly for school staff. Impact Statement School climate has been associated with numerous student emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes, however little is known about how it can be improved through intervention and prevention programming. These findings suggest that it may be difficult to affect change in school climate. More theoretical and measurement work is needed to understand differences between perceptions of school climate of students and staff as well understanding the role of individual differences in perception of climate.

The Level of Teachers' Readiness to Implement the Multi-Tiered System of Support in Inclusive Schools

The aim of the study was to identify the extent of teachers’ readiness to implement the multi-tiered system of support in inclusive schools in Riyadh, and its relationship to gender, majors, years of teaching experience, and training workshops, and to identify whether the study variables can predict teachers’ readiness to implement multi-tiered system of support. A descriptive approach was used, and the researchers developed a survey which was distributed to a sample consisting of 167 male and female teachers. The results of the study indicated that most of the teachers were highly prepared to implement the multi-tiered system of support and that there were no statistically significant differences attributed to the study variables of gender, majors, and years of teaching experience. However, there were statistically significant differences among participants who had attended more than three training workshops. The results indicated the possibility of predicting the level of teachers’ readiness to implement the multi-tiered system of support in inclusive schools through the number of training programs they had taken, whereas it found that the variables of gender, majors, and years of teaching experience did not predict or explain the variation in the level of teachers' readiness. Keywords: Multi-tiered system of support, response to intervention, positive behavior support, inclusive education, teachers of students with disabilities.

Allocating Resources for Tier 2 and 3 Implementation Within Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Schools have a finite number of resources each year to allocate towards the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs). Therefore, school leadership teams must carefully consider how resources are being allocated and how to maximize those resources when implementing EBPs within the context of multi-tiered systems of support, such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). These considerations are particularly important for ensuring the sustained implementation of EBPs at the advanced tiers for students with or at-risk for disabilities who require more resource-intensive supports. Leadership teams can maximize resources most efficiently by evaluating how data systems, school personnel, materials, and space are being utilized to support implementation of EBPs across Tiers 2 and 3.

20.3 School-Community Collaborative Approaches to Bullying Prevention and Intervention

The goal of this presentation are to: 1) equip participants with information on best practices for approaching bullying prevention and intervention from a socio-ecological perspective; 2) discuss how to embed this work within the 3-tiered public health model of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) in schools; and 3) focus on the critical foundation of universal social-emotional learning (SEL) strategies and practices to establish behavioral expectations, teach social skills, and engage parents and educators in creating a school climate to prevent bullying and to equip children and adults with skills to identify when additional interventions need to be implemented.

Timing and frequency of screening in schools: A latent variable analysis of behavioral stability over time.

The growth of school-based initiatives incorporating multitiered systems of support (MTSS) for social, emotional, and behavioral domains has fueled interest in behavioral assessment. These assessments are foundational to determining risk for behavioral difficulties, yet research to date has been limited with regard to when and how often to administer them. The present study evaluated these questions within the framework of behavioral stability and examined the extent to which behavior is stable when measured by two school-based behavioral assessments: the Direct Behavior Rating-Single-Item Scales (DBR-SIS), and the Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS). Participants included 451 students rated three times per year across 4 years, with the primary teacher from each year providing the within-year ratings. Latent variable models were employed to measure the constructs underlying the observed assessment scores. Models demonstrated that the DBR-SIS best captured changes within the year, whereas the BESS scores remained stable across time points within a year. Across years, scores from both assessments captured changes. The unique contributions of each assessment in the data-based decision-making process are discussed, and recommendations are given for their combined use within and across school years. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Developing a web-based system for coordinating school-based care for students with social, emotional, and behavioral problems

Many students with social, emotional, and behavioral problems receive school-based services. Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is the one most frequently referenced systems for coordinating services. The goal of this framework is to effectively match assessment and services to the needs of individual students. In many schools this process is limited by a lack of an overall coordinating system. As a result, many students receive services for social, emotional and behavioral problems that are unlikely to be effective, are not guided by progress monitoring, and not adequately informed by current and historical data. The Beacon System is a web-based tool created to enhance the quality of service provision for students with social, emotional, and behavioral problems by supporting continuous progress monitoring, helping educators know what services are likely to be helpful for a particular student according to their age and presenting problems, and providing educators and school mental health professionals with information to help them implement both familiar and unfamiliar interventions. Additionally, the Beacon system will enhance educators’ abilities to coordinate with a student’s entire intervention team and allow for continuity as a child changes grades, teachers, or schools. Enhancing these parts of the overall process can improve educators’ efforts to achieve the goals of MTSS to provide effective interventions matched to the students’ needs. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the iterative development process used to create Beacon and highlight specific examples of some of the methods. In addition, we will describe how feedback from stakeholders (e.g., teachers, school mental health professionals) was used to inform decisions about design. Finally, we will describe the final development steps taken prior to pilot implementation studies and our plans for additional data collection to inform continued development of Beacon. This includes the strategies being used to measure outcomes at multiple levels including assessing a variety of behaviors of the professionals in the schools as well as student outcomes. These data will inform continuous development work that will keep us moving toward our goal of enhancing the outcomes of students with social, emotional and behavioral problems.

Multi-tiered systems of support for school attendance and its problems: An unlearning perspective for areas of high chronic absenteeism

School attendance problems (SAPs) are a vexing challenge for many educational districts given their complexity, heterogeneity, and opacity. One potential coordinated, integrated approach to ameliorate SAPs and boost school attendance is to leverage existing school-based systems already designed to address multiple individual domains of functioning in students. Multi-tiered systems of support frameworks for school attendance and its problems have been developed but remain in the nascent stage. The purpose of this perspective article is to begin a discussion as to how such frameworks for SAPs could be fundamentally reconfigured in areas with very high rates of chronic absenteeism. Recommendations are provided at each tier, with the understanding that original notions of how tiers are ostensibly constructed and aimed must be unlearned in these circumstances.

Promoting school safety through multi-tiered systems of support for student mental health

It is imperative that educators take a positive and preventive approach to support students and promote school safety. This article addresses the importance of identifying students who need additional mental health support and providing the highest quality support. These include best practices of emphasizing strength-based approaches, working with students and families as collaborators, integrating strategies into schools’ multi-tiered systems of support, using data for decision making, implementing and refining evidence-based practices, and conducting ongoing evaluation. This article reviews specific examples of positive approaches to promoting student mental health funded by the National Institute of Justice Comprehensive School Safety Initiative. These real-world research initiatives provide examples of how multi-tiered systems of support for student mental health can serve as a mechanism to promote school safety.

Development of a Brief Measure for Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Sustainability

This study focused on the development of the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support–Sustainability Scale (MTSS-SS). Review of the literature identified factors associated with sustainability for multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), and it indicated few sustainability measures currently exist for practitioners and researchers to incorporate into MTSS program evaluation. This study endeavored to create a brief measure of MTSS sustainability that could be used for evaluation in research and practice by school interventionists. Study participants included a national sample of 598 school counselors and school psychologists who worked as interventionists in schools using MTSS. This group completed the 10-item MTSS-SS. Outcomes from content validity ratings, principal axis factoring, internal consistency reliability analyses, and construct validity with known groups indicated the MTSS-SS possessed initial evidence of psychometric adequacy when used by interventionists from the disciplines of school counseling or school psychology. Discussion focuses on the use of the MTSS-SS, need for further development, and study limitations.

Early Childhood Teachers’ Inclusion in Their Elementary School’s Social-Emotional Multitiered System of Supports: A Mixed Methods Study

In this mixed methods study, we used a state-wide survey to explore the perceptions of 936 preschool through second-grade teachers about inclusion in their elementary school’s social-emotional multitiered system of supports (MTSS). Overall, early childhood teachers reported feeling included in their school’s social-emotional MTSS. Results of a one-way between-subjects analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that preschool teachers working in elementary schools reported general agreement about being included, but not as strongly as kindergarten, first-, and second-grade teachers. Qualitative analyses of teachers’ open-ended responses revealed similar grade-level patterns. When early childhood teachers did not feel included, they described feeling separate from the rest of the school, using a different social-emotional approach, or the school’s social-emotional MTSS approach not being appropriate for their students. Inclusion in school-wide activities and implementation issues, such as consistency across teachers, an efficient behavioral MTSS process, and training opportunities, affected teachers’ feelings of inclusion in the social-emotional MTSS.

Specially Designed Instruction of Early Numeracy in the Inclusive Elementary Classroom for Students With Extensive Support Needs

Abstract Inclusive opportunities for students with extensive support needs are a predictor of both in school and post-school outcomes; however, successful inclusion must consider how student learning needs and evidence-based practices are incorporated. Potential exists to align evidence-based instruction for students with extensive support needs utilizing the Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) framework for all students within the inclusive math classroom across tier 2 and tier 3. Findings of this single-case, multiple probe, across student research study suggest that embedded instruction is an effective and feasible instructional practice to support specially designed instruction in early numeracy within a tiered support model for students with extensive support needs in the inclusive math classroom. Based upon our findings, we sought to develop a model of practice for specially designed instruction (SDI) within tiered systems of support for students with extensive support needs that educational teams, school administrators, and policymakers can use to design math instruction within inclusive settings.

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support: A Pilot Study of Teacher Interpretation and Application of Graphed Behavioral Data

Students with or at-risk of High Incidence Disabilities (HID) experience negative short and long-term outcomes. To intervene, many schools have elected to implement evidence-based practices within Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), such as Response to Intervention (RTI). MTSS target the academic and behavioral progress of students deemed ‘at risk’ for HID with increasingly intensive interventions. School psychologists often lead the MTSS process by providing consultation and coaching teachers on the front lines who are responsible for collecting and interpreting behavioral data. However, limited research has explored teacher ability, confidence, and perceived usefulness to engage in this role. As such, the purpose of this study was to explore pre-service and in-service teachers’ ability, confidence, willingness, and perceived usefulness to interpret and apply behavioral data before and after a brief behavior analytic training and the factors that influenced each outcome. One hundred and one participants completed a survey, and 24 participants attended the training. Results indicated that, prior to training, teachers were somewhat able to find relevant information for decision making in the graphed data but were challenged to interpret the effects of intervention or make decisions based on the data. After training, teacher ability increased in all aspects related to using data for decision making with the exception of data application. In addition, teacher confidence and willingness to interpret and apply graphed behavioral data increased. These data suggest the benefits of a brief training that could be implemented by school psychologists to increase teacher data use and application.

Teachers’ Experiences with Occupational Therapy Multi-Tiered Systems Support: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT School-based occupational therapy practitioners participate in multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) for all students, including general education students who may be at risk for school failure. However, there is little information in the literature on how school-based therapists achieve this and the perceptions of teachers who engage with occupational therapy practitioners providing service within the MTSS framework. This study aimed to understand the experiences of elementary public-school teachers working with occupational therapy practitioners who provided services within an MTSS framework. A qualitative study with a quantitative component was employed to answer the research question. Teachers (n = 13) from four different regions of the United States participated. Data sources included verbatim transcribed interviews, surveys, and documents. Data analysis revealed several constructive themes, including teachers’ learning from occupational therapists, frequent and efficient utilization, students’ progress, and teachers’ positive feelings toward occupational therapy practitioners participating in MTSS. Teachers understood occupational therapists’ workloads, respected occupational therapy practitioners, and expressed a need for more occupational therapy services in MTSS. However, the teachers did not have documentation to verify the occupational therapists’ service within the MTSS framework, which could be a stumbling block for future school-based occupational therapy practitioners’ involvement in MTSS.

A randomized controlled trial on the interconnected systems framework for school mental health and PBIS: Focus on proximal variables and school discipline

This study reviews findings for the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF) for school mental health (SMH) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Since its development in the late 2000s, the ISF has been supported by federally funded centers for SMH and PBIS, and, guided by a national workgroup, is being implemented in >50 communities in the United States. This experimental evaluation of the ISF involved an RCT implemented in 24 schools in two southeastern states, with the ISF implemented in eight schools, PBIS alone implemented in eight schools, and typically co-located PBIS+SMH implemented in eight schools. Related to very poor implementation, documented by two sources of fidelity data, two ISF schools were dropped from major analyses; hence, the study used a treatment on the treated (ToT; Rubin, 1974) as compared to a more traditional Intent-to-Treat approach (ITT; Lachin, 2000). This is the first paper from this large study, with emphasis here on proximal variables and school discipline. Within schools' multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), ISF schools delivered more Tier 2 (early intervention) and Tier 3 (treatment) interventions to a greater proportion of students than the other two conditions by the second year of the intervention. There was also a dramatic difference in the provision of interventions by community mental health clinicians in ISF schools (almost half of interventions delivered) as compared to PBIS+SMH schools (around 3% of interventions delivered), underscoring the critical role of the ISF in integrating clinicians into MTSS teams and core school functions in SMH. As compared to the other two conditions, ISF schools also had reduced office discipline referrals (ODRs) and in-school suspensions, as well as reduced ODRs and out-of-school suspensions for African American students. Findings are discussed in relation to future directions of education-mental health system partnerships in improving the delivery and impact of SMH programs and services, demonstrated in the ISF.

Meeting the Language Needs of Emergent Multilingual Students at Risk for Learning Disabilities through Multitiered Systems of Support

AbstractThis review and case example describes the key components of elementary reading instruction and intervention within multitiered systems of supports (MTSS) and ways to enhance and scaffold reading instruction and intervention for language as a means of supporting the learning of students who are emergent multilingual (EM) learners. First, we provide an overview of elementary reading comprehension skills and describe culturally, linguistically, and ecologically situated learning principles and overview the essential elements of MTSS rooted in these principles. Next, we present research‐based practices that enhance reading instruction and intervention among elementary EM students. We then illustrate the PLUSS framework to highlight how educators can implement these practices across MTSS. Finally, we present considerations for reading instruction and intervention and provide resources that may be useful to educators and policymakers with respect to MTSS.

Supporting vocabulary development within a multitiered system of support: Evaluating the efficacy of supplementary kindergarten vocabulary intervention.

Supporting vocabulary development within a multitiered system of support: Evaluating the efficacy of supplementary kindergarten vocabulary intervention.

Tiered Supports for the Class of 2021 in Unprecedented Times: A High School Counseling Department's Journey.

The impact of COVID-19 and the racial awakening of the United States intensified the inequities already present in many K–12 schools. Authors report a practitioner-focused case study of a high school counseling department integrating multitiered systems of support (MTSS) into their comprehensive school counseling program during the 2020–2021 school year, in response to both a global pandemic and the racial justice movement. Authors describe school counselors’ passionate commitment to supporting the school and department goal of increased graduation rate for the graduating class of 2021 in the midst of navigating virtual learning, racial and ethnic disparities, and lack of resources.