How MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Supports) Can Help Educators Reach Every Child

An interview with Amy Jo Clemens, Ed.D., NIU Assistant Vice President of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development and Director of the Center for P-20 Engagement

In the fall of 2022, the Illinois MTSS Network (IL MTSS-N) moved to NIU. In fact, it’s housed right here with us in the P-20 Center in the NIU Division of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development.

NIU STEAM has a lot in common with the IL MTSS Network! We share a commitment to addressing the whole child and supporting students equitable and effectively. We’re excited to explore that common ground with educators at our 2024 STEAMing It Up Conference: Using MTSS to Support Students in Literacy and STEAM.

To find out more about how MTSS can help all of us be more effective educators, we returned to this interview with Amy Jo Clemens, NIU assistant vice president for Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development and director of the NIU Center for P-20 Engagement. As a former high school science teacher, principal and superintendent, Amy Jo has seen MTSS in action and is a passionate advocate for using MTSS to improve learning outcomes and equity. 

We sat down with Amy Jo to ask her a little bit about why she’s excited about using MTSS in schools.

Why do you love MTSS?
It’s the most powerful way for schools to take all their resources and align them to support students equitably, efficiently and effectively. It’s proactive and preventative, so we aren’t waiting until students fall way behind – we’re looking at data to anticipate students’ needs and support them to success. MTSS helps schools work smarter, not harder, by building systems that monitor and intervene early with interventions tailored to the student’s particular problem. 

How does MTSS use a systems approach to equitably address the needs of every student?
With MTSS, you create a system that monitors the performance of individual students and then intervenes early. System-level strategies ensure that all students are monitored and all students have access to interventions that they need. In MTSS we identify a student falling behind and go through a problem-solving process to address the issue. Is it poor attendance, missing instruction due to frequent moves, additional time needed to master new skills, or that they haven’t mastered foundational skills they need to move forward? MTSS helps schools build a system that finds students just starting to fall behind so staff can intervene early with supports tailored to the students’ needs. This is key in an equity-based system.

Can you give an example of how that works in practice? 

I can give you an example from my own life! When I was in first grade, I was in speech classes “down the hall” and ended up missing the class time when my teacher taught subtraction. I was very confused and ashamed that I couldn’t subtract when the rest of my class seemed to act like it was easy! My dad realized I hadn’t learned it, and over Thanksgiving break – I remember this vividly – he sat me down, laid out table knives on the dining room table at my grandmother’s house, and taught me subtraction. That was the little bit of support I needed to get back on track. Without that “intervention” (i.e. increased time and smaller group instruction) I might have gone on to greater math deficiencies! MTSS helps schools build systems that do this for all students.  

MTSS is a three-tiered system. Can you say more about how the three tiers work? 

The goal is that schools create a system where 80 percent of the students should be getting all they need from their classroom (tier one). In tier one, you have social emotional learning, trauma informed classrooms, as well as academic content and interventions provided to students by their general education teacher in their classroom. The school goal is to then have about 15-17 percent of the students on tier two, where they get a little extra help, maybe an hour a day, in an area where they’re struggling. Only about 3-5 percent of the students can be on tier three, getting regular individualized interventions tailored for their needs. In a well-designed system of supports, every student gets what they need, which is what makes it equitable for all.

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MTSS Evidence-Based Practices

MTSS is evidence-based. Proven interventions work to provide real solutions that you can implement at a system level. We encourage you to explore the IL MTSS-N website to learn more about many different evidence-based practices!

At the core of MTSS is data-based decision making.

We use multiple measures of data to:

• Maximize student academic, behavioral and social emotional outcomes.
• Identify gaps between expected outcomes and current student performance.
• Anticipate patterns of student performance across diverse groups.
• Make informed decisions that support continuous improvement.

Here are a few of our favorite data-based decision making resources available on the Illinois MTSS website.

• Critical Data Systems to Have in Place
  As an assessment system is developed, data must be collected that informs teams about the whole child. This includes data sources related to behavior, social emotional learning and academics. Check out this resource to learn more about assessments required within an MTSS framework.
• Problem-Solving Using the ICEL/RIOT Matrix
  One tool that can assist schools in their quest to sample information from a broad range of sources and to investigate all likely explanations for academic or behavioral problems is the ICEL/RIOT matrix. This matrix helps schools to work efficiently to decide what relevant information to collect on academic performance and behavior—and how to best organize that information. Check out this resource to learn more about the ICEL/RIOT Matrix.

Don’t forget! Sign up for our 2024 STEAMing It Up Conference: Using MTSS to Support Students in Literacy and STEAM to learn more!