What Practices Make Up Tier 2 and Tier 3?

INTRODUCTION

Multitiered system of supports (MTSS) is about using the knowledge, skills, and attributes of all members of a learning organization to positively impact the life chances of all students. It is common sense in action. Citing Felipe Mercado (2018), Matt Navo and Amy Williams (2023) suggest, “fundamentally, MTSS involves designing learning opportunities that maximize inclusivity and access for all students while minimizing barriers and structures that marginalize individual students or groups, and it provides a framework supporting educators’ efforts to address disparities between student groups” (p. 4). This framework involves an exciting and dramatic redesign of general and special education for continuously improved student outcomes (Buffum, Mattos, & Weber, 2012; Hierck, Coleman, & Weber, 2011).

We also often see that MTSS and response to intervention (RTI) get used interchangeably. While they share some common thinking, they are fundamentally different in some key ways. RTI is generally approached as a model for identifying and addressing the specific academic needs of struggling students. MTSS is defined as having a much broader scope to the degree that, while academic needs are addressed, so are nonacademic social and emotional areas, including behavior. MTSS in schools and districts may also include school culture, the role of family and community in supporting the initiatives, and structuring teacher professional development to support the outcomes. It is a school- or districtwide construct that ensures high-quality instruction and research-based systematic interventions for all student needs—behavioral (including social-emotional) and academic.

We believe that school administrators and their staffs want to do MTSS and know they need to do MTSS. This belief is based on our more than sixty years of combined experience as educators at all grade levels working with students across the behavioral and academic spectrum. Between us, we have worked with United