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MTSS

MULTI-TIERED SYSTEMS OF SUPPORT (MTSS)

Peninsula School District believes that all students are capable of success and that students require differentiated supports and enrichment opportunities in order to reach their potential. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) is a model of prevention, intervention, and enrichment. MTSS is designed to address students' academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs using a continuum of instructional supports and enrichment opportunities.

The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has identified essential components of a MTSS. The five components of the Washington MTSS, as identified by OSPI, are pictured in the graphic below. Visit the OSPI Multi-Tiered System of Support website for more information.

MTSS is a framework designed to provide equitable access to education and meet the needs of all students by ensuring that schools optimize data-driven decision making, progress monitoring, and evidence-based practices and strategies with increasing intensity to sustain student growth. MTSS helps ensure that students benefit from nurturing environments and equitable access to universally designed instruction and supports. MTSS is not just about tiered interventions, but rather how all of the systems fit together to ensure a high quality education for all students.

A diagram of the Washington Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS).

In a Multi-tiered system, all students receive access to grade level content, curriculum, instruction and assessment in Tier I (core instruction). Tier I is designed to provide options for differentiated instruction and extension activities.  

Effective core instruction reduces the number of students who require additional, Tier II support. Tier II is designed for a small number of students who require additional instruction with the goal of remediating skill deficits so that students can be successful in Tier I.

When Tier II supports are effectively designed and implemented, fewer students require Tier III intervention which is more explicit, focused on remediation of skills, is provided for a longer duration and occurs in smaller groups.

A chart showing three tiers of support for students.

MULTI-TIERED SYSTEMS OF SUPPORT IN PSD

  • During the 19-20 school year, educator professional learning focused on developing school-wide social, emotional and behavioral supports. Since that time, PSD schools have developed school-wide behavior expectations, classroom expectations, positive behavior supports, and K-2 elementary educators received early literacy training aligned with legislation related to screening, instruction, and MTSS For early literacy.  PSD invested in Tier I resources to address OSPI Social Emotional Learning Standards and implemented collection of student survey data and behavior screening in order to identify student needs and develop systems of support and enrichment.  

    MTSS Implementation, timeline for the Peninsula School District, listing years 1 through 5​​​​​​​

  • Social Emotional Learning is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

    Social Emotional Learning and Behavior, elementary. A table with three columns. The first column is titled "Overview", the second column is titled "Programs/Strategies", and the third column is titled "Data".

  • In 2020-2021, Elementary principals, K-2 teachers, Learning Assistance Program teachers, para educators and other support staff participated in ongoing professional learning focusing on Foundational Reading Skills Instruction. Feedback from the K-2 Early Literacy sessions indicated building leaders and teachers requested additional strategies to deliver explicit, systematic reading instruction. 

    Based on professional learning and in response to Washington State Dyslexia Legislation, PSD invested in instructional supports and additional professional learning opportunities for teachers. Enhanced Core Reading Instruction (ECRI) is an evidence based instructional model that meets the following components:

    • Systematic, explicit instruction
    • Evidence based strategies
    • Multi-modal instruction
    • Mutli-tiered interventions

    During the 90 minutes of daily core instruction time for reading, ECRI materials support teachers in delivering systematic, explicit foundational skills instruction. 

    What is Enhanced Core Reading Instruction (ECRI)?

    • ECRI instruction is focused on the foundations of reading:  phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluently reading text. 
      • Phonological and phonemic awareness is about the sounds in spoken words and a child's understanding that spoken words are made up of sounds.
      • The goal of phonics instruction is to help children learn that letters represent the sounds of spoken language — and that there is an organized, logical, and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds.
      • When kids can read fluently, it's easier for them to understand what they're reading. And they read aloud easily and with expression — this makes reading a lot more enjoyable!

    How do I know that ECRI will help my child learn to read? 

    • ECRI is a set of evidence-based reading strategies.
    • Research shows its effectiveness for teaching kindergarten, first and second grade students to read.
    • From this research, we know that ECRI is a good way to deliver reading instruction in the classroom (called Tier I instruction), and in additional small group instruction (called Tier II intervention). 

    Elementary Process (K-2)

    • Conduct Screening
    • Teachers and Student Support Teams review data to identify students who are at risk and design instruction and interventions
    • Implement multi-tiered supports
    • Progress monitor

     

    DYSLEXIA BACKGROUND

    In 2018 the Washington State Legislature passed E2SSB 6162 establishing a state definition of dyslexia and directing schools to develop and implement a plan for addressing the needs of students with dyslexia or reading deficits that could be associated with dyslexia.

    Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that is neurological in origin and that is characterized by unexpected difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities that are not consistent with the person's intelligence, motivation, and sensory capabilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological components of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge. (E2SSB 6162)

    This definition of dyslexia is adopted by the 65th WA State Legislature, 2018 Regular Session.

    Dyslexia is: (from the OSPI Implementation Guide: Early Screening of Dyslexia)

    • A difference that makes processing speech sounds difficult, specifically the ability to hear, substitute, and change individual sounds in words.
    • Characterized by challenges with reading and spelling, particularly with the connections between letters and sounds.
    • Likely to lead to problems learning and remembering vocabulary, understanding what is read, getting thoughts on paper.
    • Not related to overall intelligence.
    • Not a visual problem or caused by a lack of motivation, interest, or exposure to rich literature, or ineffective classroom instruction.

    This page provides a reference, resources for teachers and families and updates on our planning and alignment of ongoing work to meet the needs of students who  show at-risk indicators for specific academic difficulties that could be associated with dyslexia.

     

    INFORMATION ABOUT LITERACY SCREENING AND DYSLEXIA

    PSD conducts a Literacy Screening tool, called DIBELS, for all K-5 Students. A Literacy Screener is a brief, reliable, and valid assessment administered to all students to identify at-risk indicators for specific reading difficulties. To learn more about our literacy screener please see here. DIBELS is a state approved screening assessment in compliance with E2SSB 6126. For information from the state of Washington (OSPI) on literacy screening please see the following Educational Information for Parents and Families, available in multiple languages here. 

    Additional information is available through OSPI in a Dyslexia Fact Sheet and their dyslexia web page.  Following screening, the district provides multi-tiered systems of support to provide interventions for identified students.  The purpose of screening is to identify at-risk indicators for specific reading difficulties that could be characteristics of dyslexia, but does not diagnose dyslexia.