Hi, I am Dr. Katie Novak and I am here to talk about the importance of every
school and district building a Multi-Tiered System of Support. Now, let's
zoom back a little bit to 2012 to try to answer the question "Why is it so
important for us to build a multi-tiered system of support?" and to do that we need
to start with the Race to the Top. The Race to the Top initiative in 2012
brought three key education changes that we're all probably very familiar with
today. The first was the Common Core standards which really focused on
getting all students college and career ready. The second was that all districts
needed to move away from Response to Intervention or an RTI system which was
very reactive and focus more on building a Multi-Tiered System of
Support or MTSS which is far more proactive in addressing the barriers
that may affect all students from being able to learn. And, the third which was a
real overhaul of educator evaluation which focused on four key domains:
curriculum and instruction and building lessons for all students; the
second domain was actually teaching all students which really got us to look at
the importance of inclusion; and, then, of course, collaborating with families and
communities; and, our professional responsibilities which was a renewed
sense of professional development. So, starting in 2012, we have this real focus
on how do we design standards-based lessons to allow all students to really
be college and career ready, or future ready, while eliminating the barriers in
a system that prevent all students from being really successful. To do that
we really need to transform the way that we're designing teaching and learning
which required a definite investment in professional development.
As we were moving away from a "one-size-fits-all" model of teaching and
learning to one that was based more on the principles of Universal Design for
Learning. So, in 2012 the State of Massachusetts had their first MTSS
Blueprint which started looking at all the systematic factors that are absolutely
necessary to ensure that all students can learn. So, let's really
unpack MTSS and how it's different from RTI because it builds on this
concept of how do we provide intervention when students are not
learning. Now, RTI or Response to Intervention actually started as an
alternative evaluation procedure for special education and it was very
focused on students had disabilities or students had learning disabilities and
we want to move away from that and realize that schools and districts
actually have disabilities which may prevent all students from learning. Now,
of course, we recognize that students sometimes face barriers that make
learning difficult. These barriers may be academic, they may be behavioral, or they
may be social emotional but the reality is there's significant research and
evidence that says that when systems are designed to meet the needs of all
learners, student achievement is very alterable. All student can grow despite
barriers and all students can be college and career-ready if we create a system
that allows for their success and prevents failure. And, to do this, we
really need to work on eliminating the barriers that prevent some schools and
districts from building these robust systems. So, in RTI, the idea was that all
students receive really rich Tier 1 inclusive instruction in the least
restrictive environment available to them. This concept that all students
were Tier 1 students first in some ways got a little cloudy because
even though the federal legislation said that all students must receive Tier 1
and then be supplemented with targeted or intensive support, if necessary, the
reality is is that some districts actually supplanted Tier 1 instruction.
Meaning that students became Tier 2 students or Tier 3 students and they
receive that small group instruction instead of Tier 1.
Now ,the original RTI actually showed us that it was "all" "some" and "few" and MTSS
still stands on that belief that all students are Tier 1 students first.
Again, going back to Race to the Top, all students deserve access to grade-level
standards which will allow them to be college and career-ready either through
really rich standards-based instruction or through those access and
entry points. The next [step] is that you need a culture of data whereas some
students are going to suggest through universal screening measures or
diagnostic assessments that those students need more and they absolutely
deserve more. That's one of the underlying principles of equity but to
do that a system has to be ready to give students more. And, if you ask educators
why can't your students get Tier 1 and Tier 2 support you start
hearing barriers like: "well, we don't have a schedule for that"; "we don't have the
staffing" or the resources or the curriculum to support students in that
way". Maybe teachers don't have the professional development in order to
meet the needs of all students and inclusive classrooms or there is no
environment of data or there's no shared responsibility or decision-making among
a school of stakeholders. And so, those are the barriers that are eliminated
through a multi-tiered system. And so, what you'll learn about through this
video series is that actually our systems can be disabling to students.
When we think about implementation science or what drivers and resources we
have to have in place so that all students can receive really rich Tier 1
instruction in the least restrictive environment available to them and then
Tier 2 and Tier 3 support if necessary, academically, behaviorally and
social emotionally, we need to look towards a multi-tiered system of support.
So, why is this so critical? All students deserve to be as successful as they can
possibly be and they deserve to do that with diverse peers. We believe in equity
and inclusion. We believe in dismantling the systems that prevented students from
learning together because environments were restrictive and, we believe that we
can intervene in addition to having a really first best instruction to allow
all students to make the most growth possible. We do that here in
Massachusetts, as well as throughout the nation, through building
a Multi-Tiered System of Support which is very evidence-based. Now, one last note
about why evidence-based is such a powerful statement is previous to the
Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA, which was adopted in December of 2015,
we focused on No Child Left Behind, which was focused on research-based. Now, how is
"research-based" different from "evidence-based"? So, for example, Universal
Design for Learning, or UDL, has 30 years of research behind it. There are
peer-reviewed studies dating back for three decades on neuroscience and how
UDL really allows more students to access and engage with rigorous
curriculum. Now, I could take that research-base and create a product and
sell it to you and say this is a great product it's research-based it's going
to meet the needs of all of your students. The reality is, is I have no
evidence that my research-based program is actually effective. To do that, I have
to make sure that I have peer-reviewed research studies that are gold standard
and have a treatment group and a control group and actually show a strong
evidence-base for the practice. And so, this allows you to know that it works.
And, what we know about districts and schools who build multi-tiered systems
it works. And, when these systems are built using programs and staffing
procedures and professional development that is also evidence-based, we know that
we can eliminate and alter some of the barriers that prevent all students from
learning. And so, take this journey, share in the responsibility for creating a
system that allows all educators and students to be effective, academically
behaviorally, and social emotionally by building the system from the outside in
and we will truly be nation's best across the board.