Read description Week 4 Effective Interventions for Social-emotional Learning

3

MTSS Interview

Latoya Battiste

Alliant International University

Student Academic Development

01/17/2024

MTSS Interview

A Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a framework used by counselors to address the needs of the students, that is, emotionally, academically, socially, and behaviorally (Durrance, 2023). I interviewed a ninth-grade School Counselor named Mrs. Lopez. During that interview, we discussed the implementation of the MTSS. Mrs. Lopez offered insights on some significant aspects of implementing MTSS in a school. First, we started by addressing the significance of MTSS in schools, and the counselor noted that the framework plays a crucial role in supporting and intervening in the needs of the students. Mrs. Lopes explained that MTSS is a tiered approach that ensures all students receive the required level of support, either socially, emotionally, or academically. The second important insight was the nature of the MTSS practice in the school setting. She stated that the approach ensures that students with various needs receive comprehensive support tied to a data-driven and evidence-based approach. We also questioned the school counselor on the role in implementing MTSS, and she explained that they are involved in collaborating with the school administration, teachers, and support staff in identifying students who need emotional, social, or academic support. The primary function of a counselor in a school setting on MTSS implementation is ensuring the needs and well-being of the students are considered.

According to Bohanon et al. (2021), school improvement programs help educators in integrating practices that improve student performance. Therefore, when we asked the counselor about how to measure the success of MTSS in a school setting, they said that it can be measured using academic and non-academic parameters. Students’ progress in the MTSS program is measured continuously to understand how they respond and the nature of interventions the counselors need to adjust the required approaches. Lastly, I asked Mrs. Lopez about the challenges of implementing MTSS in the school setting, and they understood that effective and ongoing communication plays a crucial role, and if it fails, the program may stall. They also noted that MTSS requires adaptability and flexibility due to the evolving student needs, which may result in the need for some added components for success.

Reflection

The guiding principles of MTSS are the various frameworks integrated into the system that play a vital role in supporting the students academically and emotionally. The system offers counselors high-quality, data-driven interventions that ensure positive student outcomes. Through MTSS interaction at my school site, I have noted that four major guiding principles are essential in identifying students with learning or other specific disabilities. The principles include screening, which is mainly done three times annually and recognizes students who are likely to report poor outcomes in school and are in dire need of behavioral, academic, social, and emotional support. The second principle is a multi-level prevention system, which comprises tiers 1, 2, and 3. The program integrates behavioral, social, and emotional intervention. The third guiding principle is Monitoring progress, which uses reliable and valid tools to assess improvement, performance, and responsiveness to interventions. The last guiding principle identified is data-based decision making which uses data on important decisions such as prevention level, resource allocation, and identifying disability. These four principles play a significant role in creating a more inclusive and responsive education system and conducive environment for all students.

MTSS identifies problems and uses data-driven techniques to respond to the problem and continuously improves how school support teams focus on sorting students in need of support services (Carter, 2018). There are four-step problem-solving solutions that we identified in the school setting. The first step is goal identification which establishes the students in the school what they are expected to know and then compares the results with their current performance. Through this problem-solving model, the team can easily determine if the problem affects most of the students or a few. The second step in problem-solving is analyzing the problem to gain insights into why the problem is occurring in the school and come up with reasons why students are failing to meet expectations. The third step is intervening, counselors and other support systems develop an all-round intervention plan that includes how the interventions will be supported. The last problem-solving step is a response to the intervention plan, this step checks whether the intervention plan is working and what can be done in case it is not working.

Data-driven decision-making in MTSS is key in ensuring that there are reliable and valid sources of monitoring progress, screening, diagnosis, and outcome. Data-driven in MTSS happens within the confines of the problem-solving problem. The MTSS team uses the implementation data to evaluate the extent to which interventions and assessments have been implemented in the identified areas.

In the implementation of MTSS, the blueprint from the intervention is significant in building specific skills that help the counselors reach their goals. A good implementation plan in MTSS involves a timeline, which is the time required to implement the plan, followed by a goal which is the exact outcome the counselor is expecting, and an intervention strategy. Lastly, the intervention plan will develop a method to monitor progress throughout the timeline.

A healthy MTSS must consist of three important types of meetings that have different formats and functions. They include the school leadership meeting, the second one is the grade or content team community meeting, and lastly the individual student support meeting.

References

Bohanon, H. S., Wu, M. J., Kushki, A., LeVesseur, C., Harms, A., Vera, E., ... & Shriberg, D. (2021). The role of school improvement planning in the implementation of MTSS in secondary schools.  Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth,  65(3), 230-242. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1045988X.2021.1908215

Carter, N. (2018). Examining School Building-Level Implementation of an MTSS Problem-Solving Team. https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/958?utm_source=scholarworks.uvm.edu%2Fgraddis%2F958&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages

Durrance, S. (2023). Implementing MTSS in secondary schools: Challenges and strategies.  Comprehensive Center Network: Region,  6. https://region6cc.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ImplementingMTSSinSecondarySchools_2022_RC6_003.pdf