Reaching Struggling Learners
Reaching Struggling Learners
#90: Revamping the Multi-Tiered System of Supports for Today's Students
Ever felt like the education system might be failing our kids in reading, writing, and arithmetic? That's exactly what we're tackling in this episode, where I shed light on the imperative for a revitalized Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) that can truly meet the needs of an unexpected majority of students demanding additional help. Through in-depth discussion, you'll gain insights into why a one-size-fits-all curriculum is a myth and how we, as a collective, can arm our educators with top-shelf resources, superior teaching techniques, and the kind of training that makes tailoring learning to each unique student a reality.
With over 70% of students now leaning on an MTSS framework initially designed for just a quarter of the population, the call for action has never been louder. Next week's promise of demystifying MTSS and its role in special education direction is just the beginning. But for now, let's focus on the here and now—identifying the cracks in the current system and laying down the roadmap for a more robust, effective MTSS that teachers can implement with confidence. So, pour yourself a strong cup of coffee and join me on this quest for serene students and thriving learners. Goodbye for now, but stay tuned for our next educational deep dive!
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Links Mentioned in the Show:
https://teachingstrugglinglearners.com
So last week I shared that we're going to be changing things, shifting things around, just changing my focus, when it comes down to it, of how I want to really try and help education. I have been for several years now talking about progress monitoring and I do truly believe that if we want to switch things around, we have to fill in those gaps that the kids don't have, and the biggest way that I think that we can do that is by fixing some things, some systems within the school system, so that we can fix the system, the school system as a whole. So the first one that I want to talk about today is related to the overwhelming number of students who need MTSS supports and the fact that the MTSS supports and the fact that the MTSS system was never designed to handle, you know, 70% of the school population. It was meant to, you know, support the 25% of students that, theoretically, the Tier 1 program was not supporting. Well, we've got a flipped system right now. So what we have to do is, first of all, we've got to work on the Tier 1. But aside from that, we have to fix the MTSS system and make it manageable so that schools can start using the system properly to get their students back on track. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 1:Hi, I'm Jessica Curtis of Teaching Struggling Learners. I'm a boy mom and a veteran teacher. You're listening to the Reaching Struggling Learners podcast, where we talk all about helping students succeed academically, socially and behaviorally. Thank you so much for tuning in, tuning in. So last week, if you listened in, we talked a little bit a lot of it about the current state of education, the state of schools, and, quite frankly, if you are involved in education as a teacher, an admin or a parent, you already know that schools are in the midst of a massive struggle right now. Obviously goes without saying, we have to have high quality tier one curriculum and we have to have good teachers. Right now, we are not supplying the good teachers that we have with high quality curriculum, and that's something that absolutely has to be addressed at the school board, the state, even the administrative level, but that's kind of beyond my purview.
Speaker 1:When it comes down to it, there are a lot of good quality tier one curriculums out there. There are a lot of good quality tier one curriculums out there and unfortunately, in my opinion, we have just stopped focusing on the things that really mattered. When it comes down to it, we have come up with all these flighty, amazing things that we want the kids to be able to do. When it comes down to it, all parents or teachers or, you know, businesses really want is they want students and their workers to be able to read, write and do math. That's it, and it's really not that hard, and there are a lot of tier one curriculums that can do that. We've got to work on that. Even the best curriculums that I have seen and there are some really good ones, there's some terrible ones, but there are some really good ones Even the best curriculums that are out there, they're not going to be able to meet every single student's needs, and I'm not even talking about special education, I'm talking about the vast majority of students.
Speaker 1:No curriculum that has or ever will be sold is ever going to meet every single student's needs, and that's really the fundamental reason that we have to have MTSS. It's not a bad thing, because our students, just like our society and our people, are not cookie cutter. No two people are exactly the same. No two children are exactly the same. No two children learn exactly the same way. That's why tier one curriculums need to have differentiation and different ways of learning material. But right now, right now, even if we magically pulled out an amazing, perfect curriculum that would reach 75, 80% of our population, there's still going to be the students who right now don't have all the prerequisite skills that they need. They have skill gaps. It is absolutely essential that we fix the MTSS system. We have to get it working properly, including training teachers, providing resources, you know, not just more work, not more work for teachers, actual resources that are going to make the MTSS process, the interventions, progress monitoring, the whole shebang easier, more streamlined, so that they can help their students. And then we also have to help the teachers track the information again, progress monitoring and collecting that data, reporting that data so that we can get kids doing basic skills again.
Speaker 1:When I talk to high school and middle school teachers, friends of mine, every single one of them have the exact same complaints the students don't have basic skills. Algebra teachers are unhappy, they're upset, they're frustrated because their students don't know the basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts Forget division. They don't even talk about division. They're irritated that the kids don't know basic addition and multiplication. That's just basics. That's not hard stuff, that's not complicated, that's not word problems. They're so frustrated because the kids can't do the basics English teachers, history teachers, science teachers they're frustrated because their students can't read. Not that the students are poor readers, no, they're frustrated because their students can't read. They're frustrated because their students who are in middle and high school they cannot give them an assignment to write a single paragraph on a topic that the students cannot complete. A one sentence, cannot write a single sentence with capitalization, punctuation and you know kind of correct spelling. It's the basics that the teachers at the upper grades and beyond are really frustrated that their students can't do. That's skill gaps right there which MTSS could help. We know this. Mtss was not built to handle 70% of kids being below what we consider to be grade level to be struggling in school, but it can help to bring the kids up to speed quickly. That system in general, a lot of the kids.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I have tutored and worked with a lot of kids over the years and the vast majority of those students the reason that they were struggling with reading, writing, math was because they were really never introduced to the topics and the topics were not reinforced. Do not think for a second that I am bashing teachers. I am not bashing teachers. If teachers had a high quality tier one curriculum, this wouldn't be a problem. We wouldn't be having this discussion at all.
Speaker 1:But the students that I've worked with many, many times, they weren't taught the basic phonics skills. They weren't taught how to decode words properly. So that makes it really really hard to, you know, read new words. The students, yeah, they learned addition. They learned that you know 5 plus 3 equals 8. But it was not practiced to the point that 5 plus 3 is 8 is an automatic skill. It's a fact that the student just knows. They have to figure it out every single time because they weren't allowed to practice it enough for it to become a stuck fact in their head.
Speaker 1:Those kinds of things, especially the ones where the kids just weren't introduced to something, a topic, and weren't given enough time, enough practice on it those are the kids that it's really easy. Get them into MTSS at tier two, maybe tier three also, and practice, practice, practice, practice, really intensive practice, and they're going to master those skills relatively quickly and they can then go back out into not needing the tier two and the tier three programs. So, while MTSS was never meant to handle the vast majority of our students. The concepts behind MTSS and fixing that system can and will really make a big difference in improving what our students are able to do, in filling in those foundational skill gaps that they're exhibiting. And I mean the fact is I have I've helped a lot of kids get on and maybe even a little bit above grade level because they weren't exposed and given enough practice.
Speaker 1:I have several students that I've worked with at the middle school level that while they were when they came to me, they were reading at a kindergarten or maybe first grade level and now they're reading at an end of elementary, if not middle school, level, and that's in one year. And that's in working 30 minutes three times a week. If I can do that with students who are that far behind, get them from reading basically being illiterate to being able to read, maybe a little bit below or on grade level, in a year with 30 minutes, it's absolutely doable. We can do this. These kids can read, they can write, they can do math on grade level if we fill in those skill gaps. Now it's harder the older the kids get, the further into school that they get, but they need it, they deserve it, they deserve a good, high-quality education where they can read, write and do math.
Speaker 1:And again, mtss, the concepts behind MTSS and that process of trying something, collecting data to see if it worked and then making decisions on whether we're going to continue with what we tried or try something different with what we tried or try something different. That's just. It's absolutely the best way to help kids get on grade level as quickly as possible, which, let's face it, that's what we need. Additionally, mtss can be a system of support for teachers. A lot of times right now, mtss is another thing, it's another piece of work, it's more, it's stress it doesn't have to be and it shouldn't be and resources and ideas to share the load.
Speaker 1:Because the fact is the load is heavy. The load is very, very heavy. My friends and the teachers are having to haul this big load of just stress and work and I mean 70% of the kids can't read, write or do math on grade level. Writing I'd say it's probably closer to 90%, let's be honest. But these teachers, especially at the middle and high school level, they are trying so hard to reach students who can't do the basics, they can't do the prerequisite skills, and that is a heavy, heavy, heavy load to bear, especially given that middle and high school teachers. They don't know how to teach kids how to read. That was not part of what they went to school for the chemistry teachers, the physics teachers, the American history teachers they didn't sit in classes and learn oh, this is how you take a child from illiterate to literate. They didn't learn that stuff and so they are having to try and work with these students in a way that they don't know. They don't know If we can get MTSS working the way it's supposed to.
Speaker 1:All of the teachers in a grade level or a subject area, however you want to look at it, they can work together to share this massive load and make it easier for them so that the wonderful teachers that we have, the ones that are persevering even in the rough state of education that we have going right now we can help them to get back to loving what they felt called to do in the beginning, that calling for them that need to go and help the future generation and teach them things, whether it's teaching them Shakespeare or teaching them about atoms, photosynthesis and the American Revolution, no matter what the topic is that these teachers are passionate about. Teaching just meant so much to them. Burnt out, they're tired, they're exhausted, they're frustrated we can use. If we change MTSS, if we fix MTSS, that system, we can help to bolster those teachers. We can help to make teaching wonderful again, to make teaching something that future generations look at and go. Yeah, I want to do that.
Speaker 1:I truly believe, when it comes down to it, that if we want to fix the education system, yes, we have to get high quality, tier one curriculum. We need that desperately. We have to have good, high quality teachers and we need more high quality teachers. We need more of them. But even if we did both of those things tomorrow, I'll be honest, I don't think that would fix education. I think that what we absolutely have to do is fix the MTSS system, make it doable, make it friendly, make it something that makes a difference.
Speaker 1:Next week, when we come together I've talked a lot about that I think we need to fix MTSS. Next week, when we come together I've talked a lot about that I think we need to fix MTSS. Next week, we're going to talk about what exactly is MTSS. If you're involved in it, a lot of my friends think of it in one way or another. They think of it as this is how we get kids into special education. Yada, yada, yada. We're going to talk about what actually is MTSS. Hopefully that'll start shedding some light on how we can fix this kind of disjointed, messed up system. Until next time, may your students be calm, your coffee strong and, of course, as always, your students progressing Bye.